Many things have happened since my last blog entry. I'm going home on Wednesday, starting up some new projects, and deciding on a new college.

So, I have deduced that what I thought was carpal tunnel was actually simply a sprained wrist, and that I overreacted somewhat. Oh well, such is life.

Starting a ton of new projects, to celebrate basically being over with school. Tomorrow are two of my finals, and the day after that are the other two. And then, the next day I fly home. So happy for that. Hawaii is nice and everything, but I do miss my family. And good food. Dining hall here is less than desirable.

As far as projects go, I have A Feast of Specters, the companion piece to An Iron Sea, an untitled sequel to An Iron Sea, finishing up my NaNo in a month or so, and a Halo fanfiction. Yes, I am going to write fanfiction. But, it is Halo, and it is a part of Halo that I would like to explore, a time after the main trilogy of games is over. I'm writing it with someone else, meaning that they get so much creative input that they are essentially a co-author. It'll be fun.

A Short Update

Got the web serial, titled Hooves, started. Also keeping up with Mercy of the Void still. All in all, writing is going well for me.

Got so many projects floating around it's not even funny. I'm holding off on A Feast of Specters for a while. The plot isn't fully formed in my mind like I would want it to be, so I'm going to let it stew for a bit.

Feeling good about Hooves already. There was a side character that someone help me think up yesterday, and today that person came up and asked, "Hey, can I totally write a story about her origin and stuff?" And so I was all, "Sure, why not?" I feel flattered when someone chooses to add to something that I'm creating like that. Provided that what they're adding meshes well, of course. I'm not too much of a stickler about that sort of thing, but I still like for things to be all non-conflicting and stuff.

Anyways, I went ahead and wrote out what will be the second update for Hooves this evening. I'm going to stick to my schedule though and not post it until next week. If I work ahead like this for a day or so, I figure that I'll have something to fall back on if come finals I am really too busy to do anything regarding it. Which could very well happen. I'm not going to make a bet that I'll just cruise through studying, not by a long shot.

So, again, writing is going well.

NaNo Completion, Web Serial, and Feast

Well, I got to 50k yesterday. I feel very accomplished now. Though, of course, the story is very much far from over. I think I'm just over the halfway mark, hopefully. Sometimes the plot feels a bit dynamic still, and I wonder if I will end up adding a few more scenes than I planned. Hopefully everything will stay as it is and it won't get any longer. But, you never know.

Got an urge to do a web serial. For this, I would open up a new blog thing, and I would post a chapter of a story every week. It wouldn't be very long at all, maybe 1k or so. For the average writer with a goal of 1k per day, that's not too bad at all. I have a couple of ideas that I'll be stewing over, and I'll give you guys an update when I decide what the definite one is.

Going to also try to work away at A Feast of Specters, which is the name I have decided upon for the companion story to An Iron Sea. I wish I could work the word "an" in as the title for this one too though. It's an aesthetic choice, really. I like the way "an" sounds at the beginning of a title like that. I may tinker with the title a little to get that desired effect, just so that it will be a bit more like An Iron Sea.

The New An Iron Sea

I'm thinking of 'rewriting' An Iron Sea.

But when I say 'rewriting' it in this context, I do not mean completely scrapping the draft that I have and starting over. That draft still stands and I think of it as almost a separate story now.

What I am considering is writing a similar story of sorts. Whereas the first story called An Iron Sea is about Dr. Linus Claireborne, a doctor at the research station in McMurdo Sound, this next story would about Dr. Linus Claireborne, ship's doctor aboard the whaling ship Dragonfly. It would be a new story, but with similar characters, and the same setting, the bleak desolation of Antarctica. The Dragonfly would have been driven down to Antarctica by an unnatural storm, and all of it's crew would be dead save for Dr. Claireborne and a boy named Jericho that would have been picked up adrift in warmer waters. Dr. Claireborne would be haunted by spirits, some of dead people he knew, some of living people who left him, and others of supernatural forces that are beyond his comprehension.

I know that it would be fairly easy to change up the names and stuff so that it would be a completely new story. But, this is Dr. Linus Claireborne too. He's not some ancestor of the one from the first An Iron Sea, or that first one thrown back in time or something. He's Dr. Linus Claireborne, only in a different time and situation than the first time we saw him. He's different, yet the same, if that makes any sense. He's still a learned man with only his logic and knowledge to help him in the face of forces that he does not understand. Other characters from the first An Iron Sea are sure to pop up as well. I don't know quite how yet, but I do know that they will be there. It's a different play, but with the same actors playing similar parts to the first one.

I'll probably get to work on this right after my NaNo. It's fresh in my mind, but not so fresh as to be fully formed and demanding to be written, and I think that by the time Mercy of the Void is done I'll be very ready to write it.

Paper, Shark, and NaNo

So, I got that stinking rough draft and works cited paper done. I turn it in tomorrow and then sweat until I get it back. Literally, not figuratively.

Got my wallet and keys stolen last Friday while I was snorkeling with a class. We had to leave our stuff on the beach, and some guy ran off with my backpack. It's all good though. The wallet and keys were the only valuables in there. And, I saw a shark while snorkeling. Yes, you heard that right. There was a shark in the water while I was snorkeling. It was awesome. I can now say that I have swam with a shark.

Now that the paper is done, I may return to my NaNo. I have neglected it these past two days while I slaved over the horrid non-fiction. But, now all that horribleness has gone away, and I may return to the story of Keith Huge. The words are already flowing along like they did before.

Lately I have had lots of ideas for stories. I'm just going to vomit some of them out to you.

-a story with a girl, who is wearing a white dress, and a boy, who is wearing dark shorts, by a stream in some ruins in a jungle
-the literary equivalent of a spaghetti western, except with centaurs
-a one-shot story featuring Keith Huge and some malevolent unicorns
-a one-shot story about Keith Huge going through a cave of spirits and being guided by Sherlock Holmes
-a one-shot story about Keith Huge (yes, he's a favorite of mine) meeting Jesus in the desert before the latter is tempted by the devil
-a story about the death of Cunningham, that one character from a previous blog post

Also, I'm thinking the Varia story may be scrapped until much later. I have other things that I've had kicking around in my head for longer that I need to write first. It'll be a later project.

Trilby

So I passed 30k in my NaNo yesterday. Yay for me! :)

So, anyways, I am going to try to knuckle down on my paper. Note the word try in that last sentence. Basically, at this moment, I don't want to do it at all, because I dislike being made to rethink my paper. But, I suppose I'll get to it at some point.

My trilby, a kind of hat, is sitting uselessly on my desk, along with a ton of other random papers and books. Basically, my half of that desk looks horrid. But I don't care. It's one less thing I have to worry about, and the guy with the other half doesn't care so long as it doesn't cross the half way mark. And it hasn't. So, he doesn't care.

Anyways, the trilby. It really was a dumb investment. For thirty bucks, I could have gotten some books down at the bookstore. What did I end up getting? A hat that I never wear, cause I have nothing that it goes with, really. I'll probably wear it with my nice clothes on the way home, just to get some use out of it. Oh well. Live and learn. Hopefully I'll get ahold of some stuff to wear it with, someday.

The word 'trilby' is kind of cool though, not gonna lie. It's part of the pseudonym that I want to adopt when I start publishing. Harold Saxon Trilby. Rather unique and slightly Anglican sounding. Which is what I'm aiming for.

Also, reading "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" again as I'm writing my NaNo. It's still just as good as always. And, no, I'm not any closer to memorizing it, haha. No time for that at the moment.

Hands are hurting while I type. I worry about this. I've heard about how a couple of people from YWS have carpal tunnel syndrome. Needless to say I don't think I want that. So, I'll be shopping for handwraps tomorrow, to see if I can't wrap up my hands and stop this before it becomes carpal tunnel.

Need to cash my birthday money tomorrow as well. Gonna go over to the bank and check on that. There's a First Hawaiian not too far from campus, only a couple of blocks or so. That'll be where I see how to do this.

Kind of looking forward to going home and relaxing a bit. And, yes, I will consider having a job for all of three or four weeks to be relaxing. I have one waiting for me, hopefully, if the manager that was there when I left still is there. Which reminds me, I need to get a postcard and send it to them. I already sent one, but I figure sending another one won't hurt one bit.

Trying not to think too much about what lies ahead for me. If I do that, I start to worry and not function properly. Living in the moment is really the best thing you can do for your personal well-being, I'm finding out. Because if you worry about something that's far off, it'll bite you. I'm seeing it happen in a few people I know. I'm not advocating being lazy, oh no. But what I am doing is not worrying about the paper being due in two weeks, and instead just seeing what I can get done on it today. If I think about the time constraint too much, I'll freeze up.

NaNo is progressing well. I had to step up when certain events happen, like make the "huge destroying army" that wasn't supposed to show up for a day after Keith arrives in Sea Heaven in the story's narrative show up a few hours after the MC arrives. How convenient. And he remarks on it! For a simple Oklahoma boy, he's a rather perceptive person in that regard. But yeah, I think I'll be able to bounce forward now. Though, in the final draft, I will add a day there. Because, it seems stupid for the world destroying army to conveniently arrive then. I need to set it back by at least a day.

Guh, need sleep, rest, whatever. Tomorrow ought to be fairly easy, minus getting the money. But even that will be pretty painless. It will be somewhat time consuming, but relatively painless.

Things Abounding in Abundance

So, my birthday is in a couple of days. Yay!

Trying to take a small break from my NaNo today, since I hit the halfway mark yesterday. It's kind of at a slow point anyway, so I'm alternating between picking at it, picking at an outline for Varia, obsessing over maybe wanting to write Creep again, and trying to pick at my writing homework.

I am really starting to get irked by this stuff. I do not understand the purpose of going to all this trouble beforehand, lining out your warrants and stuff. I do that as I go, making sure all that stuff sounds right to me and making sure I have good sources. And this isn't even for a factual paper. This is to alert people to a specific cause. Do they even write papers for that anymore? They write short articles in newspapers, or pass out pamphlets. I have never heard of them writing ten page papers to try to convince people of a particular note-worthy cause.

And the way my teacher just goes on about it. She's so dead set in this. Not that I mind that. It's just she's so incredibly hostile to any perceived threat to it. The other day, during my conference with her, I made a comment about me having a hard time with this initial stuff. She took it as me insulting her teaching style. I was saying that I had a failing there that I needed to correct and she instantly took it as me saying her teaching doesn't work.

Whatever. I only need to do the old stuff if I want a better grade. My plan is to make sure that I do the stuff I got the worst grades on first. That way I can bring up those weak points and whatnot. Hopefully that will work.

I also need to do math. Guh. That one is more my failing. I will probably read up on how to do it this afternoon, then do it tonight for a bit, then read again on tomorrow afternoon, do some more, then finish up whatever's left on Monday. I just have to stick to that schedule. It shouldn't be too hard, and I am confident that it will get me where I need to be. So, yay on that account.

Trying to hammer out some stuff for Varia, the gender bender story. It's kind of difficult, seeing as how I want to deviate from a perverted way of looking at a story like this. I want the protagonist to be in a girl's body fully, with a guy's mind, but with that mind rapidly becoming a girl's mind. The protagonist would be too freaked out to do anything with a girl's body that a guy would want to do, and by the time there has been adjustment the girl mindset is already taking over. So, yeah. Not many girls are willing to give me a lot of tips on this. But, I shall persevere.

NaNo is going well, quite well. Halfway towards winning, and not really halfway through the story's plot. This is very good for me. Very good indeed.

Got $45 dollars from both sets of grandparents for my birthday. There is a used bookstore just off of campus. I think you know what I am going to be doing with that money. I hope they have a better selection of science fiction and fantasy by the time I get there on Monday. But, if they don't, oh well.

That's all for me for now. Good luck.

Writing, Hating Writing, and Turning Older

So, I have reached 20k on my NaNo! Yay!

I have lined out a list of my long projects for the future. These will be the novel-length stories that I write. I'm not going to try to plan out what short stories I do though. I plan on just doing those sporadically, during the longer projects, when I need a short break. My list so far:

Mercy of the Void: Current NaNo, first story in my epic
Varia: A story about a thief who wakes up to find he's become a girl
Sound of Drums: Next story in my epic
Sea-Song: A story about the sudden sentience of whales and dolphins
The Long Road: Last story in my epic
Creep: Old story I'll be ready to finish by that time
Dark Town: A supernatural story set in a small town
Canter: A fantasy romance of sorts

I need to get this list laid out and set pretty clear in my head though. If I don't, I might not get anything written. And, I can't do that. I've got to get this stuff all written out. So, getting a schedule of sorts prioritized in my head is the proper thing to do.

Had a talk with my writing teacher yesterday. Found out I have to both change the topic of my paper and, as a consequence of that, I have to redo half of the homework I have already turned in if I want a better grade. I do, so I'll go ahead and redo everything. Part of this is my own fault, for not understanding and not trying to clarify that misunderstanding.

I just wish that there wasn't so much of an emphasis on non-fiction writing in college. I hate non-fiction writing. It's horrible and boring. All I'm doing is looking up facts that other people have already found out and copying them down again, with the proper citations of course. There's no imagination in that, no fun at all. I don't see much of a draw to it, and I can't understand why people are all so crazy about writing these things. You should be out discovering new things for yourself, not simply retreading all this old stuff.

I also need to type out a waka poem and a paper explaining it for my World Literature class. That's due next Monday, but I figure getting it done today would be better than doing it over the weekend. This weekend is reserved for math, NaNo, and redoing writing homework, in that order.

On another note, Monday is my birthday! Yay! I won't be celebrating it though. Mom is sending a care package to me, but that's about it. I don't have the money to celebrate it, really. Besides, it's just a birthday. I'll go to class and stuff just like any other day.

Well that's about it for me this time. I've got to go to writing class next. Joy and wonder, undoubtedly.

NaNo, Characters, Haikus

So, already 16k into my NaNo. This number pleases me. It's not as far along as some are. I know of one person who finished already. But, I don't begrudge them that. I am satisfied with where I am at with my NaNo. It still means that I will get done early, and that makes me very happy.

Brainstormed over a potential new story idea. I'm going to talk about some of the characters that might be involved, since they're about all that I've got at the moment.

Cunningham is a teenage genius. He got this way via reading voraciously at every opportunity he got, and applying the knowledge that he acquired. He likes to play with people by manipulating them along to see what they will do. He likes to dress in nice clothes, and almost always in the color green. To see him in any other color is a rare thing. His nice appearance hides the fact that he does not have a great many of the same morals that most people do. He has only two real rules: Never harm a child or the innocence of a child, and deal violently with the perverts of the world.

Erica Patterson is also a teenage genius. She got that way due to her parents home-schooling her and focusing her attention on learning. She believes in rules and patterns, and tries to manipulate people to follow them, since she does not believe that people are inherently good. She does not care to dress up very well, but is a very moral person. She is also a black belt in Muay Thai.

Cunningham and Erica come into conflict because Cunningham dislikes Erica's obsession with following predictable patterns, and Erica dislike's Cunningham's seeming lack of morals. They often match wits and try to outdo each other. However, while they maintain an adversarial relationship, they do not go to the extremes with it, merely using the intellect of the other as an opportunity to test and strengthen their own.

So, those are the two main characters. There are supporting casts for the both of them, each one unique in itself. But, I can't really think of any story ideas to go with these characters. I came up with a kind of throwaway one about Cunningham coming into possession of a locket that changes his gender, and I was told by one of my two main editors that I should go with that. And, I will try it, I think. Only after my NaNo is done though. I'm not going to drop out of that anytime soon.

My writing teacher wants to meet with me tomorrow at one o'clock. I don't know about that. I've never had a teacher be all, "I would like to speak with you," to me and have it be good. Someone said that they probably just want to do what teachers usually do when they talk to parents in high school. Somehow that just doesn't make me feel any better about the whole thing. Oh well. I will go and do it and then it will be over and I will be done.

for the orca knows truth
strips meat and color from bone
he is the winter

Yay for me and haiku! I like to write some every now and then. I don't consider myself very good at it, but that one right there is one of my better ones. I'm quite proud of it.

And, on that note. farewell!

Abide With Me

I really like the Japanese poetry we learned about in World Literature. Trying my hand at some waka was quite interesting, and I like the result. Hopefully my teacher will as well.

I would like a chance to blog about something personal for a moment, if that is all right with you all.

There are a great many things that I would like to not lose in this world. These are things that make my heart ache at just the thought of a world without them. And, sometimes, when that possibility becomes very real, I find that my heart aches greatly. But I do not know what to do. I pray to God, but I have a hard time believing that he will preserve that which I love dearly. I know he can, and I want to give this up to him, but I find it very hard to let go of this particular cross. I don't even know if it should be my cross, and yet its burden is one I am very loath to relinquish.

There, that's all I wanted to say on the personal front. Thank you for letting me say it.

NaNo is going well. I'm not as far ahead as some people, but I am a good distance ahead, and will do my best to increase that distance tomorrow. I also need to do some algebra, and some writing though, so it may be that I only get to work on it later in the evening. I will work on it though, and get at least 2k churned out. I rather like being ahead of the bare minimum. I'll also probably look forward to the weekends this November, so that I can really get ahead.

My editor, yes, I have an editor now, sent me back an edited version of an early story of mine called Terror Train. She pointed out some places where it could be improved, and I patched those up. She's sending it off to Science Fiction and Fantasy at some point, and will look at another one later. I need to find a way to pay her back, really. She's doing all of this for free, and is being very resistant when I suggest paying her back. Anyone out there have any suggestions?

Revisited a bit of my childhood this weekend. Found an old clip of the opening to Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. I loved that show back in the day. For those of you who are not familiar with it, it featured Kevin Sorbo as Hercules as he wandered the earth battling the minions of his wicked stepmother Hera, the all powerful queen of the gods. And where ever there was evil, where ever an innocent would suffer, there would be Hercules. It was quite an awesome show, and I always enjoyed watching it when I was a little kid. Seeing the opening sequence again made me feel really good and nostalgic.

Now, I must sleep.

NaNo

The Engine Driver by The Decemberists is pretty good. It mentions writers and things, so of course it has a good point to it. :)

Going to do NaNo. I'm going to try to write the first book in my epic, if for no other reason than I need a very good reason in order to get it out. NaNo tends to make people move along very quickly in their writing, and this is something that I need just so that I can get started. :P

It is fun to try to plan it all out, and to help others plan it out. I'm doing that right now. Someone's trying to make an alternate history where America got it's independence much later, and I suggested that there should be a massive war between Mexico and Britain that resulted in the dropping of an alchemaic atomic bomb. He likes that idea. Haha.

Madeleine L'Engle

So, I don't really know if I can do this right. I mean, this woman and her writing have shaped the way I write, and to some extent the way I think, a great deal. And I don't know if I can really do that justice. But, I will try.

I enjoy everything about Madeleine L'Engle's books. They always engage me. She fills them to the brim with interesting topics. We're talking things like quantum physics and organ regeneration. And she mixes them in with very engaging narrative and characters. And then throws a bit of fantasy in for good measure. I love that.

I can honestly care about the characters in her books. In fact, her books were the first ones I read where the characters within actually seemed like real people. It was awesome for me at the time. And even now after I've read tons of other books with engaging characters, it's still pretty awesome.

The way in which she weaves that sense of the beyond is also wonderful. Even in her more mundane plots, such as in Meet The Austins, there is always a sense of something greater behind everything, some force out there that is watching out for all that is good. It's a marvelous thing.

I honestly can't imagine that I would have even started writing were it not for her. After I read "A Ring of Endless Light," I immediately wanted to write something. And not in that, "I know I can write something better than that." Not at all. It was because I hope that one day, I will write something that is just as good as that book. I still haven't quite gotten to that point yet, of course. But it's a goal I can keep my eyes on.

I just wish that I had thought enough to write her a letter before she died. I wanted to tell her just how much her books meant to me, how much I loved them. But I never thought to write a letter. That's the one thing I regret, actually, that I never wrote a letter to Madeleine L'Engle to tell her thank you for writing and for sharing her works with the world.

One of the things on my bucket list is to go to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan, where she is interred, and place a copy of "A Ring of Endless Light" at her grave. On the inside cover, I will write out that letter that I never did, thanking her for everything. It's the least that I can do to pay my respects to an amazing writer, and an inspiring woman.

On Writing That Is Not My Own

I think I'm going to talk about works of literature that I enjoy, this time. Because I can.

Off the top of my head, there are a few poems that really stand out. The first one is a little one called "The Yes and the No, Redondo," by Greg Pape. It's about this kid jumping off of a fishing pier so that his girlfriend will have sex with him, but there's a bit more to it than that, and I think that it's in the description. It's been a long time since I've read it though. I can't seem to find it anywhere. If one of you silent readers out there manages to find it, become vocal and let me know. You'll win the prize of my eternal gratitude.

"The Hollow Men" by T.S. Elliot is also a good poem. I've turned to it for inspiration time and again, even directly basing one story off of it. I like not only the description of it, but how it lets the reader examine the downsides of modern life. It was one of the first poems that I actually understood what it was about in that respect. That's a big thing for me, since usually I have to be told what a poem is about.

"Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" is another poem that really sticks out in my mind. I came across it due to another work of literature which I will be naming later. Though at first I liked it due to its placement in the other work of literature, I have come to appreciate it on its own terms. I think being able to memorize the entire thing would be pro, so I have gotten an audio version to try to do just that.

"The Cremation of Sam McGee" is another poem I would love to be able to memorize and recite. It would be a tad easier than "Childe Roland," that's for sure. But I also like it on its own merits. For one, I can follow the story in it well. And it's a very well presented story as well. The Great White North that Robert Service loved to write about is a part of the world that also intrigues me, and he has put a very interesting story in it. With bits of the psychological and the supernatural, this poem is definitely one of my all-time favorites.

"Jabberwocky" I do have memorized. I know that it's a bit of nonsense verse and as such is often regarded as children's literature. But, if you recite it right, this poem sounds downright epic. I've got a version of it in song form by someone called Donovan. They have a simple acoustic guitar and drum accompaniment, with a bit of synth in one certain point, and it makes that poem sound really awesome.

And, I'll also say that I like one fragment of a poem. The first stanza of "The World," by Henry Vaughan is very awesome.

I saw Eternity the other night
Like a great ring of pure and endless light
all calm as it was bright
And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years
Driven by the spheres
Like a vast shadow moved; in which the world
And all her train were hurled

Now, on to prose fiction. I'll come right out and say that my all time favorite book in the world is "A Ring of Endless Light" by Madeleine L'Engle. Anything by her is good, super good, but that one book just takes the cake across the board.

And, before I go on and talk about "A Ring of Endless Light," let me say that the next blog entry I do will be devoted to Madeleine L'Engle, because my writing demands to show how she has affected it.

Anyways, what makes "A Ring of Endless Light" so good is a combination of many factors. It is a teenage romance, where the main character, Vicky Austin, must choose between three boys that want her heart. Figuratively, not literally. But, it is also a speculative fiction novel, because she has a gift of being able to "empathize" with dolphins, able to share feelings on such a strong level it is deeper than most fictional forms of telepathy. And, it also deals with the subject of death, since Vicky's grandfather is dying of cancer. So, in a sense, it is also a spiritual novel, forcing the main character and others in the story to come to grasp with the concept of something beyond. It is incredibly touching. There's a movie version of it, but that sucks, as it's only a made for Disney Channel adaptation, nothing even close to the original novel. Go out and read "A Ring of Endless Light." You won't regret it.

Anything by Stephen King I tend to like, not only because I feel that he is a very good storyteller, but because he ties his stories together in little ways. He does this by feeling free to put in tidbits in one book that are the same as the tidbits in another. No where is this more prevalent than in his works "The Stand" and the entire Dark Tower series. "The Stand" starts off as a sci-fi novel about a superflu that wipes out most of the Earth's population, but turns into a fantasy novel as the survivors become embroiled in a battle of good and evil. Though it is an extremely long novel, I feel that it is well worth however long it takes to read it.

The Dark Tower series is the work of literature that lead me to the Browning poem I mentioned earlier. It tells the story of Roland of Gilead, the last gunslinger, a kind of cross between a romantic knight and a cowboy. He is searching for the Dark Tower, the linchpin in all reality, the thing that holds all the alternate universes together. This series is where the cross-over stuff really shows up, especially in the last three books. King even goes to the trouble of writing himself into the story, which is done fairly well. The author is viewed as not a god, able to create with the stroke of a pen, but merely one who hears the voice of God speak, and must write what he hears. And he doesn't just imply this for himself, but for all writers. So, that kind of endears me to it quite a bit. I could go on and on about why I love the Dark Tower series. It's one of the few "modern fantasy" series I have completely finished.

I like Louis L'Amour stories as well. They're the only westerns I will read, simply because they portray real people in a harsh environment who aren't total monsters. As a counterpoint, "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy, while a good work, makes you think of the West as a place full of completely awful people. In Louis L'Amour's books, the people are still very real with very real flaws, but you aren't treated to a shockfest of horrifying acts in order to bring that across. And, the man does his homework. He was an itinerant worker during the Depression, and would read about a hundred or so books with about a thousand pages each over things that would bore most people every year. That alone is enough reason for me to respect him. If you ever get the opportunity, at least check out his autobiography, "Education of a Wandering Man."

Neil Gaiman, of course, is also splendid. The man is able to take the wonderfully fanciful and add just that little bit of "wrongness" to make it so sinister and enjoyable. I own both "Smoke and Mirrors" and "Fragile Things," his short story collections, as well as "American Gods," one of his novels. I have to give my main shout-out, though, to his comic series, The Sandman. This is the comic book for English Majors. Seventy or so issues filled with awesome stories in their own right and shout-outs to great works of literature. You grow to get attached to everyone in this, even most of the villains. This is mostly because there are only a handful of explicitly evil characters. Most of the guys who do bad things, no matter how horrible they might be, are simply misguided. It's got a lot of depth to it, and I recommend it to just about anyone.

That's about it, really. There are other works by other authors, to be sure. But these ones that I have mentioned are the ones that really stand out to me.

Snorkeling and Creep

So, I went snorkeling today. Saw many scorpion fish, about 3 or so. Also saw some rock-boring sea urchins, some brittle stars, some Moorish Idols, those triggerfish with the really long Hawaiian name, a hermit crab with sea anemones, and a bristle worm. It was all very fun and I can't wait to go out and do it again next week. Really awesome time. :)

Still poking at Hearts in the Sea. It's coming along all right, so far. All I'm really doing is poking at sentences here and there, though I've managed to make it about a thousand words longer just by doing that. There are a handful of scenes that I want to add as well, but I can't really seem to get them put in. Oh well, I will get it at some point, haha.

I've also been told I should finish Creep. For those of you who don't know what Creep is, it's a story about this kid who is thrown into a 1920s style city full of fantasy creatures. Some of these creatures have killed his sister pretty horribly, so he's there to kill quite a few of them. He wears black bandages wrapped around his head and calls himself Creep. Basically, the entire story is a study in vengeance, showing what happens when someone decides that someone has done something worthy of dying.

I posted about ten chapters of it on YWS, but stopped after that. People didn't really like it because it was written in a very pulp style. There was too much action, and not enough talking and getting to know Creep. Which I thought was hilarious, kind of. There's nothing to get to know about Creep. He's a bad guy, consumed in his vengeance. And, I argue that being unsure about a character is good. If you know too much, then there are no surprises.

But, someone has been telling me I need to finish Creep. And I would really like to. His story really interests me and I would enjoy writing it. It's just, I am afraid of people deconstructing it and down-talking it because it is written in the pulp style. I like my pulp. It's a lot more fun to read than a lot of the legitimate stuff that's out there, I can say that much. So, I may try again, or I may just hold off. If I do choose to hold off, it's all right. I've got a million other projects to work on, including my epic. So, it would be no great loss to postpone finishing Creep for a while longer.

Editing! and Sending Off! Yay!

So.

There are peeps out there who are all "Conrad, send things off so they can get published." And I was all, "No, I suck forever," for the longest time.

But, I had a talk with someone the other night. The talk was about other things, but the gist of it was that I need to stop degrading myself and my abilities, since it gets me absolutely nowhere, and to stand up and actually be a man. And, that person was right.

So, I will start sending out my good stories to good magazines so they can try to get published. I'm going to edit up quite a few of them and get them into good working order. I have a great many stories that could be publishable. I've just got to devote some good ol' time and effort into them.

Can't wait for this Friday. My Marine Sciences class is going out into this flats area, where it doesn't get more than waist deep. There is a possibility that there might be some octopi there. This will be very cool, seeing as how an octopus is one of the coolest animals ever, in my opinion. And I've never seen one in real life. I will try to get ahold of a waterproof camera, and get a picture for you guys if we do see one. So, if I see one, you will see that I have seen one :P

Good Things Are Happening

So, I got a 90 on my Intermediate Algebra Mid-Term. This is an exciting thing for me, mostly because I was expecting, at the most, a low B. But bumping that up by this much is really a positive thing for me. I mean, I've never really considered myself to be all that great at math, so seeing that my efforts are worth of this is quite good for my self-esteem. I'll probably try to find some way to celebrate this. Maybe by doing more math? Ha. Not likely. But, I feel like rewarding myself for this. I'm very happy about it.

Also, I'm sitting down and editing my NaNo today. Hearts in the Sea, the epic story of a normal girl cast adrift in a strange aquatic world, forced to cope with both the odd society of a race of dolphin merfolk and the machinations of a dark being from between universes. It'll really be quite something. Last night I really took a look at it, for the first time in a while. It's not as horrible as I thought it was. There are quite a few parts throughout where it really shines. The dialogue from Koyos, prince of the Delphini, and Soulmore Enigam, the dark villain, is very good. Koyos is witty and forward, while Soulmore is fiendishly evil, and has a lot of fun at it. They're both delightful characters, the ones I am especially proud of.

Alaine, the main character, I still have to tweak. Her reactions to being in this strange new world are often contradictory, or seemingly misplaced. So I need to go through and edit her dialogue and mannerisms a bit.

I also need to add some extra intrigue, such as building on why the Delphini are the way they are, and a potential rape scene. That last one I'm going to have problems with, mostly because such things creep me out a lot. When I read the novel of that other YWSer, there were quite a few mentions of rape and whatnot, and it kind of chilled me. I tend to stay away from a lot of that stuff as it is.

But, it would be something decent to add as far as the story structure goes. It would showcase the Delphini culture a bit, and provide some much needed conflict in the early part of the story, since Soulmore doesn't really appear until halfway in. At the very least, it would get some people to read simply for shock value, since there are people who read just for that.

But yeah, Hearts in the Sea is going to get major attention from me. Though, I won't be neglecting An Iron Sea either. Dr. Claireborne, the main character in that novella, is starting to actually become a bit more solid as a character. I'm not going to abandon him when he's starting to show this much promise. It wouldn't be fair to him at all, reclusive doctor that he is.

I'm also starting to get into my research paper. My topic is the sentience of cetaceans, dolphins and whales, and how we as humans can work to improve the way we treat them. I'm finding that there are more scholarly sources out there for this topic than I previously thought, and this is really buoying my spirits up for the paper as a whole. I think that, for my introduction, I will tell the story of Tillikum, a particularly notorious orca from SeaWorld. By doing this, I should draw some people in by tugging on a few heart strings, securing their attention before I get into the science and the sociology of it all. I like the way this gameplan is feeling solid in my head. It's giving me a lot of confidence.

That's all for now. Talk to you all later, whoever you all may be.

You know what I realized yesterday? I really miss the Pacific Northwest. Like, when I was up there a couple of summers ago, and then again over the spring break ski trip, I just fell in love everything about it. Like, I have a romantic affair with that entire region. Strange, I know, but it's just so, "mystical", we'll say.

May start some kind of infrequent story here on my blog. Don't know anything more than that, other than there are random happenings that I need to get out of my head.

Also, I have read the novel of another YWSer, and after doing so, I am filled with a desire and passion to get some things written out that have just floated around, as well as edit some things that need editing. Hearts in the Sea, my NaNo, will get that treatment, as well as An Iron Sea. I've really been inspired by just seeing something complete like that from someone that I look up to and admire a great deal, and I want to make something that will hopefully inspire someone else in a similar manner.

The funny thing is, this person frustrates me a lot. Sometimes it seems like they ignore me and stuff, and they don't really seem to care how I feel. However, this can also be good. They are very willing to call me out on stuff, and recently, I have needed that to happen when I get a bit too wrapped up in my own problems to see the other side. What's more, they help me a great deal with my math by simply throwing math problems at me occasionally, keeping me on my toes and thinking about math when I usually don't. So, in the end, it's a fun frustration, if that makes any sense. It's helping me to be a more mature person and be able to deal with stuff like that. I may not see it at that moment, but after a bit I will be able to look at it and say, "They are right," and things will be a lot better. I find myself looking up to them and trying to emulate their better qualities. It's interesting.

But, I have decided that I must write out my epic. It's a long, long story. Originally I had like, seven books planned out, but over the past year or so the story itself has changed and the length has shortened to three. Still, it'll be a long story. And even so, there is a large portion of the MC's life left out between the second and third book, if I stick to the outline that I have now. I plan on filling that in with the odd short story here and there that just details a little snippet of that character's wanderings. But, I've been thinking about what might happen if I don't ever get around to writing it. I don't want to regret not finishing it, or indeed, not even starting it at all.

So, I will try to write it. I don't know how long it will take, or if it will ever be enjoyed by anyone, but I'm going to write it. I have to get it out, you see. If not for anyone else, for myself, so that I can say that I did it. Because, I feel I owe something to this MC. He's changed so much since I first got him in my head, and in all his different mental incarnations he's always suffered a great deal. I have to make his suffering mean something, even if that something is just putting his story on paper where someone can read it. He deserves the chance to have his story told. As we all do, I suppose. And we all tell our stories in our own way. It's just, some of us have a responsibility to tell the stories of others.

You could argue that characters are just fiction, that such things don't matter. But, think of how many characters have transcended their fictional nature. Santa Claus is the first example that jumps to my mind. He's not just a fictional character to a lot of people. He's become a symbol for something, for an idea. So have many other heroes throughout the history of world literature. And, even on a smaller level, haven't you read a book and had a character that just really spoke out to you? I mean, one that you just identified with and that really left you thinking? That's what's driving me to write this. This character speaks to me. He overcomes great adversity, having to fight and wander for so long to come back to the emotional and mental point that he was at when the first book starts. I have to let that effort on his part be validated.

Lol, that was long. My personal soapbox on the meta-nature of fictional characters, if you will.

In other news, reading Louis L'Amour's "Lonely on the Mountain." It's a short western novel that I got for a dollar at a used bookstore. I've read it before, but don't remember much of it, so I'm going to read it again. I do remember that I enjoyed it, so we will see if that happens again.

That's all for now. Take care.

Return to the Annual Random Sunday Post

Good night, I must update this thing better. Lol. Less school work, plzkthx?

Really, I have been getting into my schoolwork. This is good though. Usually I tend to procrastinate and stuff. But this time, I'm actually reading ahead with stuff and whatnot. Hopefully this sticks, and I don't become some kind of horrible person by the end of the semester anyway, slacking off and stuff. Haha.

Many new story ideas floating around. Am editing/writing more on An Iron Sea, would be editing more on Hearts in the Sea if I hadn't left the flash drive it's on all the way back in Oklahoma. I shall persevere through that. Perhaps rewrite it? Haha. Am also revising/adding to an older story called The Deep, that was about a selkie. I've neglected that one for maybe over a year, and so now I am trying to see if it can go anywhere.

Math is hard. And, I've gotten to the point where I'm so frustrated with it that I'm checking in with a psychologist later this week, to try to determine if I could possibly have a learning disorder. This first meeting though, will be an interview. So, I will be asked all these lovely questions and things. What joy. And, it means I will have to go out amongst people. This is hard for me, mostly because I've worked behind a checkout counter and know how ugly people can be. No offense to any people out there, it just happens like that.

But, I shall persevere, as always, haha.

Till next time.

Short Saturday Blurb

Working on multiple stories at the same time, again. Some are strange, and some are even stranger. But I am down with that. That's what makes my writing unique. I could write normal stories if I wanted to, but as far as I'm concerned, that is no fun at all. For me, truly enjoying my writing means utilizing off the wall concepts and weaving them together into an interesting narrative.

I've only got four classes this semester. The anthropology one turned out to be less than desirable, so I dropped it the day after the first class. I have enough coursework anyway, so I will be good.

So here I am come around again. Hawaii is still as good as ever. Right now I'm taking care of my laundry. You wouldn't believe just how odd it is for me to be taking care of my own stuff like that now. I'm doing rather well. My first goof up was today, when I left my keys in my dorm room and had to wait for about an hour for my suite mate to come around and let me in through the bathroom. Lol. Well, now I'll make a point not to do that, haha.

It never fails. The first instant I start liking one thing about Kanye West's music, he goes and does something stupid. I hope he's happy with himself.

I'm doing well in my writing class. I know that should come as a surprise, since I am kind of a writer and everything. But this is not a fiction writing class, but a non fiction one. But already the teacher likes me, because I happened to get a bit of contact from a certain author about a certain book of his I was reading. She and I talked about that over lunch, and I explained that even though I was dissatisfied with the book, I had learned something from this, about the value of civil discourse, the willingness to keep an open mind and admit that someone has valid points even when they oppose you, and on carefully wording things so that they mean what you mean to say. She liked this, because she said that these things show up even in essay writing and whatnot, so they would be useful.

Also, she hooked me up with the email of someone who's putting together a writing group on Oahu. This is very good. I sent them an email, but I have not heard a response yet. *crosses fingers*

Word of the day: Trock. Trock is short for Time Lord Rock. This is similar to something called Wizard Rock that has sprung up in recent years, where bands make songs about Harry Potter. Time Lord Rock, on the other hand, is where bands make songs about Doctor Who. Yes, I know, I am a nerd for knowing this. Some of it isn't half bad. "Exterminate Regenerate" by Chameleon Circuit is really catchy, and could have been really popular if it wasn't so nerdy. "The Sound of Drums" by Quantum Locked is all right, kind of weak in the middle, but I like it.

Tomorrow will hopefully be quiet, and I shall write many things. Until then, good night.

-Conrad Rice

Hawaii Randomness

So classes have started and that means work. I just finished scrambling at the last minute to get something done, though that's probably not the last time it's going to happen, given my track record, haha.

Had a bug bite turn infected on my leg. Went to the doctor about it and he gave me some prescriptions that will take care of it. He said to be sure to take it when it's prescribed, since infections are somewhat violent in the tropics. So I'll be sure to do that. It's got me worried enough that I don't think I'll forget.

Working on some story ideas. One involves the end of the universe. The other involves the Mormon idea of Kolob, a place(usually a planet) closest to God's throne, a huge spaceship from nowhere, and a secret shuttle mission to it. Hopefully, awesomeness will come from both of these ideas. And that would make me very happy.

An Iron Sea is on temporary hiatus, while I settle into school. No, I didn't finish it before I got here, sad to say. But it will get finished. It's too near the end to just call it quits now. I will get it wrapped up. Maybe in a couple of weeks or so, when I've gotten adjusted to my schedule a bit more.

On Friday, I have a class that ends around 5:30. That same day, at that same time, they're showing Blade Runner, with a science fiction pop quiz before they show it. This excites me, since I am a nerd. But, at the same time as that, there is also an activities carnival. There is supposedly a Marine Mammal Club on campus, as well as some other popular culture clubs and things. This also makes me very happy. So, decisions. I will probably end up going to the carnival first to sign up for things, then arrive late at the Blade Runner showing. I'll probably miss the quiz, but catch the movie. Which is fine. True, I would like to do the quiz, but, I haven't seen Blade Runner at all anyway, so there's still something to be had from that.

Random fact: When you look at a map of Oahu, the nearest town to my college appears to be in walking distance. This is a form of trickery. It is too far to walk, or, too far for sane people to walk. Also, I discovered that I am insane today. Weird, huh? :P

:P

Sorry I haven't made a new blog post in like, forever. I've totally been running around the wonderful island of Oahu, doing many interesting and wonderful things. None of them are writing related, unless you count me buying a collection of 16th century poets and a collection of Robert Browning's poetry. *loves 'Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came'*

All in all, I am settling into college very well. Ordered my books today, first thing after I woke up. Going to go about and see where my classes take place so that I will not be wandering about like a chicken with its head cut off on that first Tuesday. Yes, I start class next Tuesday. *is somewhat terrified* I'm also rather hopeful though, seeing as how all my classes appear to be somewhat interesting. Except for the algebra, of course, but that's just because I'm horrible at it.

The land here is amazing. There are misty green mountains that are bathed in sunlight first thing in the morning. There is a rugged coastline where the water slams into great jagged rocks with sound and fury. There are many strange and new birds singing every morning, a wonderful wake-up call. I can understand why they call Hawaii paradise now. It really does fit. You might think you understand just how wonderful a place like this is, but you really can't until you are standing here and looking at it all. It's a marvelous locale.

More later. Things to do now. :)

-Conrad Rice

Unforgiven II

Because I had that song stuck in my head upon waking up, but the last time I listened to it was just under a week ago. Really random. :P

Today is my last full day at home before setting off for college. Tomorrow, I drive down to Dallas so that I can catch the nonstop flight on Tuesday morning.

It's going to be so scary, but so completely awesome at the same time.

*crosses fingers*

-Conrad Rice

Thoughts and Thanks

Music of the Moment: Illusion and Dream by Poets of the Fall

The days are getting even shorter. Five days until I go to Hawaii.

Trying to work out a short story. I'll get to An Iron Sea at some point this evening, but for now I want to start a short story, since those are my bread and butter. Part of me wants to try steampunk, part of me wants to try some post apocalyptic punk, part of me wants to try a mixture of those two, part of me wants to go with a story about a boy who has an orca merman friend and who wants to become one so he can be with his friend better, and part of me wants to do that and have steampunk in it. So you see, I've got so many ideas churning around, that it's kind of paralyzing me. Further brainstorming will iron out most of my problems, I think. I just need something to work on during the eight hour plane flight to Honolulu. I've got some e-books, but I'm not sure how I'll be able to take take reading things like that from a computer screen.

Had Johanna Harness, one of the people I follow on Twitter, look at some of my writing. I'd been putting together something about an adolescent mutant-type creature, and had been updating the #amwriting group about it. She expressed an interest in it, so I sent her the manuscript. She pointed out some things she found that didn't really work and suggested that I keep it around as a character sketch. And, in the end, that's an assessment I agree with. But, she did offer quite a bit of useful advice, so I'm very grateful to her. Check her out at @johannaharness on Twitter. Tell her I sent you. :P

Faster Day By Day

A week from now, I will be on a plane and heading for Honolulu. Very happy about that.

Still pounding out more on An Iron Sea. Got 1k or so out around 11 o'clock last night, and will probably try to do the same again today, only just not as late. Staying up till odd hours of the night trying to get words wrung out onto paper can't do good things for my creative juices. I may still do it though, seeing as how I'm so close to the ending of the first draft and a few more hours of work couldn't hurt.

I've got a few ideas bumping around for my next story. At this point, I haven't really decided which one I will go with. One I'm holding off on because it's inspired by something that I'm a big fanboy of at the moment, and I'm going to work on it when I've mellowed out from that. Another is just a loose connection of characters and ideas with no true plot that I'll try to develop more. And, there is always the epic that hangs around in the back of my mind, begging to be written. I will get to it before long. The first book in it I'll probably work on during the plane flight, just so I can pound out a beginning of sorts. Though, I may end up writing something else entirely. I have so many ideas flying around even I don't know what I'll begin to work on next.

The days are counting down. One week, and I will be in Hawaii. Fingers crossed for luck. :)

-Conrad Rice

College Creeping Close

In one week, I head down to Dallas so that I can catch a nonstop flight to Honolulu the next week. Just so that peeps are aware of things, don't expect me to be on in much of any capacity for a while after that point. How long is a while? Probably going to be close to two weeks or so, while I get settled in. But, if all goes well, I ought to be back just like before. :)

Been saying goodbye to people and preparing myself for my journey. Hawaii is very far from where I am now, and it's really starting to sink in for me just how much I will be on my own out there. It's exciting and terrifying all at once. But I wouldn't change it at all. This is an opportunity to get out into something much bigger and grander than anything else I've experienced so far. To me, this is the biggest make it or break it that has ever come my way, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

An Iron Sea is coming along well. I think I've got about 5k left in it, maybe a little more. I hope to get it done before I leave, that way it's not weighing me down. But if I don't, I do have an eight hour plane ride to finish it up on.

I just have to wait now. I think that's the hardest part. When I get there, everything will be clear and I'll be able to start making plans. But here and now, I don't know enough to be able to do that. Oh, sure, I could read up on things and ask people how they did things in college. But, it's the feelings I don't know. I don't know the feeling of being in college or the feel of being in Hawaii. Once I know that, once I manage to integrate myself more fully, things will be just fine and I'll be able to plan out what I need to do with near-impunity. But, for now, I'm still shaking in my boots a little.

North Korean Mega Monsters

Random Link of the Moment: An overview of a centaur race for a role-playing game. Because I happen to think centaurs are the coolest race ever.

Took a small break from An Iron Sea today. Getting close to a climax/conclusion though, which makes me very happy. This is only the first draft, but I'm still anxious to get it done. It will represent the second long term project I've managed to stick with, and as such will be a big accomplishment.

My next project will probably be some kind of YA book, the first in a series, most likely. Not going to say too much about it, only that it's heavily inspired by a certain franchise and that I have to tone down my fandom if I don't want to get sued. :P

Diesel, my sister's cat, is currently running about and looking very silly. No doubt it's all very important stuff that a stupid boy such as myself can't understand, but that is perfectly clear to a little girl kitten. :P

Hawaii is now less than two weeks away. I've been spending quality time with the family, enjoying what time I have left with them before I am thrown out into the great big world to fend for myself. I know that I'll miss them all by my lonesome self. I'm also going around saying goodbye to people I know. I go back to Alco on Tuesday to say goodbye to everyone there, and on Friday I go to the old high school and say goodbye to everyone there. The way I'm running it, you'd think I was going off to a war and I wasn't coming back. But, lots of people know what I'm up to, and they know what a big deal this is for me and a lot of other people. The fact that I'm going around and personally saying goodbye to them is a good thing, I think. :P

Truth is, there are probably some things that I will miss about Oklahoma. Snow is always fun when it comes, even though we never got out of school for it and it doesn't stay around long. I always like being with family for holidays. This year, Christmas and New Years are all I get with them. Believe me that I'm going to be enjoying those times as much as possible.

Random factoid: The leader of North Korea once kidnapped a movie director and made him direct a movie about a Godzilla-type monster. The director and his wife ended up escaping by utilizing a plan that somehow involved a taxicab chase in Vienna. :P

Upon the 50th Anniversary of...

Music of the Moment: Exterminate Regenerate by Chameleon Circuit. Because, yes, as most of you are probably already aware, I am a Doctor Who fanboy. :P

I'm working to finish An Iron Sea before I head off to college. It's quite doable. I just need to actually do it. For those of you who may not know quite what An Iron Sea is, it is a novella I am working on. The basic idea behind it is that Antarctica is beginning to build itself a mythology and system of magic, and is affecting the scientists and other people who live there as a result. The main character is a doctor at McMurdo Station with a very scientific mindset who is forced to confront these new occurrences. So far I'm at 23k, and am probably a little over half-way done, which makes me very happy.

I'm following the #amwriting chat on Twitter still, and I have to say that it's probably going to become a staple in my writing life. The overall exchanges there are quite heartening.

I read the book "Education of a Wandering Man" by Louis L'Amour yesterday. It's his memoirs. For those of you not familiar with his name, L'Amour wrote quite a few western novels, probably somewhere over a hundred, though the exact number escapes me. Most people write him off as a writer of cheap stories, but his memoir is very interesting. He was an itinerant worker from his late teenage years until WWII, going all over the world on ships and traveling across the United States doing odd jobs. But, every year he read just over 100 books. And these weren't little things either. We're talking the works of Shakespeare, Bacon, Darwin, Marlowe, Twain, Nietzsche, George Bernard Shaw, Steinbeck, and even religious works like the Koran and the Vedas. The amount and the quality of what L'Amour read a year astounds me. But his memoir is quite interesting and, in my opinion, well worth the read. Check it out.

I'll be reading "Deep Secret" by Diana Wynne Jones next. Someone asked me what I might want as a gift off of Amazon a few months ago. I chose this book because it had a picture of a centaur on the front, and I happen to think that centaurs are the coolest thing since sliced bread. I've leafed through it before, enough to get an idea of what it's about, but I've not sat down and actually read it. So, that's what's next for me.

I'll be planning a possible YA series with a good friend later today. She's a really good person. I often use her as a weirdness filter, running strange story ideas past her to see what might work and what probably won't. She likes my stories, but she can still look at them with a critical eye and tell me that I'm a loonie for attempting certain things. It's really nice to have someone like that who can help you with your stories.

Oh, and as far as the title, today is the 50th anniversary of Hawaii's statehood. My cousin/high school computer teacher told me this when I stopped in this morning to bug him. It's like he expected me to know it since I'm going to college there and everything :P

A Quick Ghost Story

The Journeyman’s Jewel

Once there was a journeyman who wandered the roads near Halifax, doing the odd work of the wives whose husbands were at sea. He was a lean sort, yet had enough muscle on him to do most jobs, and so when he was seen coming down the road the sight was much welcome.

In his pack, the journeyman had a jewel that he let no one else see. It was not a very big jewel. It was green, only about the size of a big man’s thumb, and the journeyman kept it wrapped in a white cloth in the bottom of his bag. It had been a gift from the captain of a schooner to Africa, as grateful payment for when the journeyman had saved his wife from a rowdy bunch intent on harm. He had taken the jewel from the captain and now held it as a treasured possession.

One day, as the journeyman walked down the road, he met another man. This man was a thinner man than he, reminiscent of a young sapling in a grove of great oaks. Being an amiable person, the journeyman walked with him. They chatted for a while. The journeyman found that the other man’s name was Jonathan Falcon, and that he had come from south of the border, originally from New York. He was wandering about, seeking what he might be able to see in the wide world.

When they came to an inn, the journeyman offered to pay for Falcon to spend the night there with him. Falcon at first refused, saying that he could not take the money of one who so needed it himself. But the journeyman insisted, and at last Falcon did accept the offer, and they entered the inn together.

The room did not cost much, and the food and drink were good. Soon the bellies of the journeyman and Falcon were both full, and they sat by the fire as the air began to chill with the coming of the night. A few other travelers were there as well as those for whom the inn was the accustomed gathering place. Soon all there were engaged in telling tales that either they had seen themselves, or that had been relayed to them by a friend as a friend had relayed it to them.

For the most part these were tales of the ocean, of ships that had gone to far distant ports in Indo-China or the South Seas or had vanished without a trace in the dark corners of the earth. While all had been heard before by most of those assembled, the tellers were able to add their own unique spices to them, and so the tales seemed to be rather new.

After one old codger had told a particularly chilling tale, the attention seemed to shift slightly to Falcon. He had lit a pipe, and the smoke had begun to curl up around his face, giving him an odd mystique in the firelight.

“I heard something while I was passing through Providence,” he said in a matter-of-fact way. “Some first mate with blood half full of salt told it to me, though he was a bit drunk when he said it.”

A few of the others leaned in a little, readying themselves for the beginning of a new tale. Falcon saw that his audience was at least mildly interested, so he drew in on his pipe and blew out one more time, adding to the atmosphere before he went on.

“He said that he knew a captain once, who sailed out from the Ivory Coast on a couple of voyages. The last time, his crew happened upon an old witch doctor who had a leopard skull with a green jewel set in it. Well, the crew happened to like that jewel, and wondered why the witch doctor had need of it. So they went on over and broke the skull to get the jewel, and when he put up a fuss, they buried a knife in his neck.

“Now when the captain heard of this, he had the jewel recovered from the crew. They sailed on home without anything more happening, and the captain kept the jewel for himself. His next voyage out, down to Brazil and those regions, he had a new crew. This first mate was one of that crew, or so he said.

“As he told it to me, the voyage was strange from the start. There was always this dry feeling, not the drying out that the salt of the sea brings, but rather the dry of a grassland without rain. And he told me that there is a difference.”

Several of the older men of the sea nodded at this knowingly, as if to confirm that which Falcon said. The man from New York smiled, happy that his story had a bit of vindication from those learned in the lore of the sea.

“There were also strange noises that could be heard over the waves,” he continued. “It seemed as though one could hear grass rustling, or the soft growl of a distant animal, on the nights when the moon shone bright in the sky. A few of the mulattos were having bad feelings all around. The man told me that he had a negro beneath him called Neetch who hailed from Florida that said it felt like the air around a voodoo shaman’s dwelling, though he didn’t say anything more about that.

“The captain also seemed to be different, so I was told. He had a worn and haggard look upon his face that he had not had before. At all times he strove to be in the company of others, and the mate said he saw him sweat if he thought that he might be alone. When the mate asked him about it, he told me the captain simply said it was a strange bout of seasickness that had come over him and that he would recover from it soon.

“Well, one night when they were just off the coast, drawing close to Rio de Janeiro, the air grew very still and dry. The ship drifted in the current, and most of the hands were worried that it might drift onto a shoal or hidden bar. But the men who came from shadowed lands held their various charms and mumbled strange prayers.

“Suddenly, there was a loud roar from within the ship, and the cry of a dying man. All were instantly filled with fear, and did not know what had happened. Then someone noticed that the captain was missing.

“So the mates went to his quarters straightaway. When the first mate, the man who told me this story, laid his hand upon the door to knock, he said he felt the presence of something just beyond the wood. He asked the other mates to feel the door, to make sure that he was not alone in what he was feeling. The others felt the same thing.

“When the captain did not answer to their calls, they opened the door. Almost immediately they shut it, for within they had glimpsed two green orbs glowing in the darkness, and the sight moved them to fright. They waited for a few moments, trying to recover their courage. When they were sufficiently ready, they opened the door again. The green orbs were gone, and what they were the mate did not care to guess at. They struck a light in the darkness, and found the captain strewn upon the cabin floor, his throat torn out as though a wild animal had attacked him.

“The first mate said that he and the others covered the body, and told the rest of the crew that the captain had succumbed to some sudden sickness. They gave him a burial at sea the next morning, taking great care to not let the men see what had happened to him, for fear that they would take it as some evil portent and demand to turn back home.

“The rest of the voyage went well enough, and they returned without anything else ill happening. But that first mate said he heard of stories in the intervening years about men from that second African voyage who met fates similar to the captains. Those who told the stories, either men who had sailed with them or men who had known men who sailed with them, always spoke about the occurrences in hushed tones. The last thing he told me was that the last he heard, not one man from that second voyage was still alive. Though he was drunk when he told me it.”

Falcon finished and took another draw from his pipe. One of the old codgers spoke up and said that he had also heard whispers of something similar, though he had heard that the captain’s final voyage was to Cathay. Someone else spoke up and asked what had become of the jewel.

“I do not know,” Falcon said. “The man who told me the story didn’t know either. He only heard the story about it after the captain met his fate. He did tell me that there was no evidence of it in the captain’s effects aboard ship. He thought that perhaps the captain had left it at home. Felt sorry for the poor chap that would get it next.”

The journeyman listened to the story with the other travelers, and something tugged at the back of his mind. He remembered the wife of the captain that had given him his particular jewel, and how when he had come around next, she was moving out to Calgary, where her brother lived. She had said her husband had died at sea from a sudden illness, and that there was no longer any reason to stay here at Halifax. The journeyman had helped her load a wagon with her possessions, wished her luck in Calgary, and thought nothing of it. But now, he wondered about where the jewel had come from, and it formed a blister of sorts in his mind.

The tales went on for a little longer, as the fire died down and the cold crept in a little more. At last, the innkeeper came and said that it was time for the travelers to seek their beds, and for the others to find their ways home. So all parted ways. The locals bundled up and trundled off to their own familiar dwelling places. The travelers, the journeyman and Falcon included, retired to their rooms.

Falcon went to sleep without problem, turning over and breathing lightly in the soothing grip of rest. But the journeyman lay awake for a time. He would either look up at the ceiling, straining to see the grain of the wooden beams in the darkness, or would look over at his pack and think of what lay wrapped in white cloth in the bottom. Over and over again he told himself that it was some strange coincidence, that the captain had simply succumbed to some sickness and that there was no latent evil upon the jewel. Yet there was still doubt in his mind.

At the early hours of the morning, when most men are safe in slumber, the journeyman was still awake. He tried to fall asleep, at long last. But he became aware of a sudden thirst upon him. As he got to his feet to find a bit of water, he realized that the room was dry. A chill passed over him, and he turned his gaze to his pack.

There was a rustling outside the window, as though a great body was moving through blades of grass. A soft growling noise soon became evident. The journeyman stood motionless in the middle of the room, between the window and his pack, his eyes locked on the wall ahead of him. His mind raced and he prayed to God that he was simply imagining things.

But the growling was still there. And the journeyman swallowed what little bit of spittle remained in his mouth as he listened to it. Cold fear gripped him. The growling continued, and as it did it slowly grew louder and louder, as though whatever great beast made it was slowly drawing nearer to the window. The journeyman tried to hold himself together and fight the fear he was feeling grip his heart. But the growling grew louder and louder still, until it seemed as though it was right beneath the window. Then the journeyman could take it no longer. He rushed across the room, took hold of his pack, and rushed back across the room to the window. He threw it open and hurled it out into the darkness, throwing himself back after he had done it. The growling died away, and the grass stopped rustling, and the dry feeling of the air was gone. At that, the journeyman passed out from sheer shock.

When he awoke next, Falcon was kneeling over him, gently shaking his shoulder. The journeyman cried out in fright and drew away from him. The man from New York asked him what had happened to him. The journeyman composed himself as best he could, then told Falcon what had occurred over the night. Falcon was skeptical, and bade the journeyman come with him to the window and look outside. The other man was somewhat fearful, but his companion’s gentle prodding soon encouraged him and they both looked out the window.

But when they did so, they were met with a surprise. The journeyman’s pack was all torn to pieces and scattered hither and yon. But very plain to see, right in front of the window, was the white cloth spread wide open and the jewel nowhere in sight.

Falcon was at a loss for words. He suggested that perhaps thieves had looted the journeyman’s belongings. But the other man shook his head and stuck to what he said he had heard the night before. The man from New York accepted this, and said that he would help the journeyman gather his belongings together. The journeyman was grateful for his help, and they went out together to retrieve everything. But when they got out there, they saw that there were great tracks in the dirt all around the journeyman’s belongings. They appeared to belong to a cat, though the size of the cat would have had to be extremely immense.

When Falcon saw this, his face grew a shade whiter and he was silent for a small time, as he helped the journeyman gather everything as best they could. When they were done, he asked the journeyman why this would have happened. So he told Falcon about the jewel he had kept. When Falcon heard this, he declared that heaven seemed to be watching out for the journeyman. The journeyman agreed, and that same day set out for Halifax. When he arrived, he found a chapel and there prayed for two hours straight. When he was through, the journeyman gave to the preacher most of his money, and said to spend it on poor sailors before setting back out on the road.

*This story, and all sections thereof, are created by and are the property of Conrad Rice.

General Craziness

Wow, I really need to keep up with this. :P

I don't know what's worse, the fact that I haven't updated this since the first of August, or the fact that An Iron Sea has only gone from 17k to 23k in that amount of time. I'll get it done though. I would like to finish it before I head off to college on the first of September. That way I'll have the entire eight hour plane flight to start something new. :P

Started following the #amwriting chat on Twitter yesterday. It's really great. Not only am I getting more great links to awesome writers' stuff, but I'm starting to use Twitter for actual social networking, it's original function. I know, crazy, right? But yeah, it's been something worthwhile. I even had one of the more prominent twittering writers, @johannaharness, give me a compliment on an article I wrote for Triond. So, if anyone actually reads this, go give her some much needed love. She also sticks around and is generally helpful with the #amwriting chat, so give her the props she deserves.

I am generally excited for the return of John Simms as the Master on Doctor Who. I loved the three episode arc he was in during the third season, and can't wait to see him again.

Later.

-Conrad RIce

Back :P

Wow, long time no update. :P

Had heat stroke these past few weeks. Had to quit working. I don't really know when I'll go back, since this doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. I think I may have made it worse by working for an extra week while still feeling dizzy and about to pass out.

I'm working on a novella at the moment, An Iron Sea. It's at about 17k through already, with a good 10 to 15k left to go. I'm really excited about it. The only problem is finding a market for it once I'm done. Not many novellas sell well, from what I've heard.

Sunday Morning Post- June 7th

So, the people who are usually here are not. But I still am.

This week has been really good. Our manager is going to be leaving us. We've all been wanting that for a long while. She's not much in the way of a manager. No clue who we're getting, but almost anyone would be better than her.

I've been called in four times this past week and worked longer than I should have. So this next week I'm going to say I'm unavailable if it happens again. Four out of seven days, and they seriously couldn't find anyone else. I don't care if I end up getting paid more when I'm called in. Most of the time I'm called in just to run the checkout line. But one of my supervisors, Missy, has been working to ensure that I no longer have to do that. I'm grateful for that, and have told her as much. She's really awesome.

I had a girl give me her number at work yesterday. While at first I was all, "Um, I have a girlfriend," she said, "Oh, I have a boyfriend. I'm just looking for someone to hang out with." So I told my girlfriend about it and she said, "Oh, that's cool. Have fun." She's awesome like that. So, now I have a friend who is a girl.

Another Sunday Morning Post

That contest for YWS is finished up. I'm now just eagerly awaiting the results. The person who runs it is kind of busy, so I'm not expecting a result this week. But I'm still very excited.

Hereis a resource that a couple of friends recommended to me. It's a really helpful database that you can use to find a market for your work. Check it out. It's awesome.

Gotten my story-writing groove back on. I've set up an alternate universe called the Nightwatchmanverse, It's a future set in the aftermath of a nuclear war, with humanity evolving into another form of life and being watched over by an old weather AI. I've got two stories in this setting so far, and am working on a third. Also have a story about a man who wakes up in a different universe every morning. And one about a kid who hunts the servants of animal spirits, basically. There's a lot more to that last one, but you'll have to read it to get that.

Work Stuff and Collab

Work is the pits. Especially since it interferes with my writing life so much. I try to write at work, on my breaks and whatnot. But in doing so I have discovered that my car is the one place I cannot actually write very well at. Who knew. And when I get home, I'm usually too tired to think about writing, unless I already said I would do something for someone. So yeah, fun times. But maybe with the loss of school I'll have more time to write during the day. That will be good.

I'm finally getting the opportunity to do a collaboration with that one guy from Oregon. What we'll do is sit down and create a situation, two people in conflict, and then write two separate stories from the point of view of each person. It will allow us to still work together while keeping our own individual styles apart. This is good for him because he doesn't think his last collaboration turned out all that well. I want him to be good with this as much as I am.

Tidbits From My Writing Life

A good morning's run is essential for my writing, I think. Usually, when I run, I take my iTouch, and play things like Disturbed and Korn and Blind Guardian really loud. I work out these violent fantasy things in my head as a run, brought to life by the music. This helps clear my mind, so that when I get back, I can write in peace without my own meandering thoughts interrupting me. It's almost ironic, needing to make sure my thoughts don't interrupt me while I write, but with me it is a particular problem.

When I do write, I listen to Brit Rock mostly, things like Oasis and Muse and whatnot. Unless I'm writing fantasy, then Blind Guardian takes a rare foray from my morning run into my writing. But the Brit Rock is good. It's energetic and bouncy, yet not too all over the place, giving me a nice stable listening foundation. That's because it's not really about what they're saying. It's just giving my subconscious mind something to be tuned to, to help me stay on course.

Usually I don't do my first drafts on the computer, not unless I happen to have a good idea right then and there. When I start a story, it's with a mechanical pencil in a notebook with college ruled paper. It sounds specific, but in reality you can pop in at your nearest retail store and find those cheap and easy. I fancy myself a common man, someone that my readers can actually relate to as oppose to some secluded hermit in a cabin in the woods writing on specially cured redwood paper with a squid ink pen. I hope this may inspire some people to try to write on their own, since I make it seem so easy. They might be worse than me, they might be better than me. Either one is infinitely possible.

When I'm finished with a piece, there are several people I like to seek out to find their opinions on what I have created. There's a kid from Oregon who writes slightly avant garde stuff that I follow, who in turn follows me. I've had to learn to raise my thinking level when I read and critique his works, and I've tried to get him to drop down a level and enjoy the common things. Another person is my girlfriend. She writes poetry most of the time, though is very good at critiquing fiction works. There are also a few more girls who are a bit more accomplished than me that I ask for critiques from. Their advice is usually quite helpful, and if two of them go over a piece of my work for me then I don't need any other help.

A Resource

I've been reading a lot of fantasy rants by this person that calls herself Limyaael. They're really helpful for people who are trying to write fantasy, in the sense that they point out a lot of the overused tropes of fantasy literature and suggest more interesting alternatives. I've already bookmarked it on my Mac. It's definitely on my "websites I visit daily" list.

Frozen Coffee

Dark and white chocolate frozen coffee is really good. I get this drink called a Black and White at a Davinci's on Sunday morning. It's really good. This morning, I'm wearing a nice shirt and slacks and a tie, and sitting drinking it, and feeling really sophisticated. The thing is, when I feel sophisticated, I start feeling like James Bond. Now I have an urge to drive an Aston Martin and carry a Walther P99.

Graduate on Tuesday. That will be rather interesting. Have an easy schedule this week. That will also be interesting. I told my manager I'm no longer in school after Tuesday, but she still scheduled me on Thursday and Friday like I was, from 4 to 12 in the afternoon. I'm not complaining, I'm just wondering why she went ahead and did it like that. Oh well.

Been working out the logistics of going up to New York for August, to see my girlfriend. And, in doing so, I discovered something. Plane tickets are freaking expensive. It's probably going to suck up all the money that I make over the summer just to get a roundtrip one. But I it will be worth it. I have faith in it, in her.

Ironing out more stories. This will be an editing week, minus finishing the last story I have to write for a contest on Young Writer's Society, and adding a bit more to a collaboration that I'm doing. I need to tweak a lot of things in some stories, to get them ready to throw out into the wide world of e-zine publishing. Also, I'll have an opportunity to think up a ton of new ideas. I'm starting to assemble lots of just little snippets and things in one of my notebooks, and it's approaching the status of a bible to me. It's crazy.

Centaurs and Collaborations

So, centaurs are still on the brain. However, I think I've found a couple of fantasy worlds where I can place them comfortably. One is set in a time period similar to the pre Civil War United States. The other one is a somewhat stock fantasy world, where there is a centaur warlord who acts as a messianic figure for them.

Working on a collaborative romance novel set in that first world, about a rich daughter of a Judge of a nation called The Affiliation that falls in love with her centaur servant. It's coming along rather nicely, though slowly. That's good though. I'm writing it with my girlfriend, see, and we both want to pour our best into it and make it something we will want to publish.

I seem to want to do a lot of collaborative works lately. I think it stems from me having so many ideas all running around in my head, and wanting to churn all of them out at once. Having an extra person there to help take some of the weight off allows me to do that.

Pretentiousness Rant

I hate pretentiousness in literature.

It seems anymore as though people have to add so much vocabulary into a piece of writing that you have to use a dictionary to read along, and they explore concepts that the common person will not easily understand. I'm not against either of these, I think they both have their uses. But don't do them both at the same time, for pete's sake. You have to do one or the other, or people won't get it.

I can already hear noses turning up and writers saying, "Well, then people just don't get it." You don't get it, you snobbish people with pencils up your asses. You are not writing for yourself. If that was true, then you wouldn't be attempting to get published. You are writing for an audience. You have an obligation to at least attempt to please people. It's part of your job. If you claim that your book isn't for most people, then why get so offended whenever they don't like it? It makes no sense at all.

I just wish people would stop thinking they have to use a multi-syllable adjective every other word and have all their works get into super-deep philosophical stuff that even the Dali Lama might get lost in. Simple sentences are your friends, and it's okay to just write about how happy you are that your girlfriend kissed you. Seriously. You aren't Cormac McCarthy, you're Struggling McGenericWriter, and no amount of imitation is going to change that. Read classics and find your own style. That's what writing is all about.

Been really sick. Had to call into work for the first time yesterday. I just hope there are no negative repercussions for that. I really was sick. But our manager, the person I didn't talk to, might not really understand that. :P

Graduation is in one week. I'm looking forward to it. :)

Graduation and Girlfriend

So graduation is creeping ever closer. It's hard to believe that it's only in a week or two. Then I'll be out of high school and ready to go to college. It's going to be an experience, that's for sure.

The plan to go to New York this August is moving along rather well. All that we need now is permission from my girlfriend's father. Then the wheels will really start to turn. It will be amazing, finally getting to go out and see her. :)

Audio, Movie, and College

Might be releasing an audio version of my NaNo for the folks at YWS. It would be fairly interesting to do.

Saw Quantum of Solace. It was a pretty nice movie. I'm going to be watching Casino Royale next. After that I think it will be the Harry Potter films. I can't get ahold of the books very quickly, and I've heard the movies are somewhat close to them, so I figure it ought to be good enough. :P Though audiobooks might also be the way to go in that respect.

College is stressful. I'll be glad when I'm actually there, rather than having to deal with all this planning and registering stuff.

Wall-E, Work, Girlfriend, and New Shorts

Stories are going well so far. Same old, same old on that part.

Saw Wall-E about three times at work. Really love it. It's unseated The Dark Knight in the position of my favorite movie ever. It's just a really stellar movie overall. Wall-E himself is really great, quite possibly the greatest protagonist I've ever seen. He doesn't have an overbearing personality and he's not out for any big thing. He's cute and curious, and all he wants is to be with EVE, and he tries so hard to do that. When he got [spoiler alert] crushed and then lost his memory of EVE and all his knicknacks, I seriously shed a tear. He's such a lovable guy, it's impossible not to love him.

I don't have to go back to work until Thursday, thank goodness. Our manager comes back on Monday, and I don't want to be around while she's getting the store back to how she wants it to run. I can only hope that Alco higher-ups decide to have pity on us and have Charlie come back. He was nice and cool, and we actually got tons of stuff done. Oh well, I suppose that pigs also might fly. That would be cool.

Today my girlfriend will hopefully ask her dad if I can come up during August. I really hope he says yes. Though I'm not exactly enthusiastic about the East Coast, having previously vowed never to cross the Mississippi going east, I'm willing to ignore that for her. She's worth it. It'll really be an adventure going out and doing things with her like a regular couple. I'm looking forward to it.

Working on creating a fantasy world to set short stories in. It seems that anytime anyone creates a fantasy world, they feel the need to write long, epic, multi-part novels in it. Why has no one really written short stories in a obviously fantasy world? Maybe it's because they go to all that trouble to create the world and want to exploit it as best they can. That's all fine and good. But I want to experiment with short fantasy that doesn't sound like Neil Gaiman. He's a fabulous author, don't get me wrong, and that's why I want to experiment with that, because I don't think you can get much better than him. He's pretty much got a monopoly on writing short modern fantasy stories that are set somewhat in our world. So, I'm going to branch off and see what I can do with my ideas. :P

Shorts, Work Woes, and Possible Relatives

So, I'm doing five little shorts for a contest on the Young Writers Society. I've already gotten two of them done, and am working on the other three.

Work is going well. One of the managers says that I'm probably going to stick around as long as I need to, which will be sometime in August. Hopefully then I'll get to go see my girlfriend. She lives in New York, so this job is paying for a lot of that.

Work is also taking a lot of time out of my writing/internet time. I've been writing during school, so I've not been out of that too much. But it's been detracting from my activities on the Young Writers Society. Thankfully, next week I'll have more time off, so I'll be able to focus more. But for now, I feel rather useless.

I told my girlfriend that a friend of mine from Young Writers Society shares the same last name as me. She asked, "Well, are you two actually related?" I don't think we are. My dad says he doesn't think we have any family in Oregon, where my friend lives. I do intend to ask my grandma though. She's more knowledgeable about that sort of thing, since she's done the family genealogy twice. It would be interesting. I still don't think we're actually related, but if we were, it would be one of those mind-bending things. Being related to this guy would be fairly awesome, since he's a stellar writer and has better taste than me in many things,

New Work and Flash

So, I have to work today, when I previously did not. I'm really freaking bummed about that. I was looking forward to just going home and goofing off tonight. Not so much now.

I'm working on some shorts for a contest that someone on the Young Writers Society is doing. We need to write five stories influenced by random songs. One of mine is Under the Lighthouse by Big Wreck. That's the only one I've gotten so far. I'll get to the others at some point. :P

Moneyz and Laptop

So, new job's been going well. The manager that hired me is rather hard assed, but she'll be gone for all of this week on vacation, so that's good for me. The job pays 7.25 an hour, so I really can't complain, since I need that kind of money. And I get an employee discount, which is nice too. I'm going to use it to buy Resident Evil 5. I played the demo with my sister, and she really likes it, so I'm going to get the whole game and we'll play it together.

And, I'm currently typing this from my new Macbook. It's a pretty sweet little setup. I'm pumped that I finally have a laptop, and one as awesome as this. :) Perhaps now I can hang out with the family instead of being cooped up in my room all day, haha.

Job

I got hired at Alco. I start work today, right after school. I don't really know what time I'll get home. Since today will probably be training and whatnot, it may be somewhat late, perhaps until closing time. I'll take my iTouch, so that I have something to listen to on the way there and on the way home. :P

This does mean I won't have as much time to write my stories and be on the Young Writers Society in the evenings, though I will make an effort to be on as much as I can. I really need the money. Though Worldcon isn't happening anymore, college still is, and every bit of money will help with that. :P

Movie Scenes, Rejection, and Vignettes

So, I think I have two additions for the list of "Coolest scenes in movies ever." The first one is from the Two Towers, and it's the scene where the Ents, big tree people, march on a wizard's fortress to rip it apart. It's awesome because, not only is it basically a huge forest going to war, but it's the last battle this race will ever fight, since there haven't been any baby Ents for ages. So it's all the Ents period, showing up to kick some serious ass.

The other one is from Return of the King. It's when Frodo and Sam are trying to climb Mt. Doom, to finally get rid of the Ring. They've already come across most of Mordor, and if that isn't bad enough, the Ring is weighing down on Frodo. They make it to the base of the volcano and fall down. Frodo says he can't go on anymore, because the Ring is so heavy on him. Then Sam says "Then let us be rid of it, once and for all. I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you." And then he picks up Frodo and carries him on his shoulders all the way up the freaking huge volcano. It's awesome.

Another rejection notice came in for one of my stories. I've still got three or four out there though, so I'm still not terribly worried.

I finally turned in my research paper for English IV, my high school class. I've decided to forgo writing a new essay for my college class and simply turn this one in for that class too. These papers are all too much work for me. I hate nonfiction. Fiction is so much better.

Speaking of fiction, I've decided to put together a bunch of the little monologue vignettes I've been writing into a little chapbook or something. Of course, I'll need a few more before I can do that. I have some ideas though, so we'll see how that goes.

Job Interview and Prom

I'm going to a job interview at Alco today. Hopefully I'll get the job. I need money in order to pay for going to Worldcon in August.

Prom and After-Prom were all right. I had a lot of fun seeing people getting hypnotized and stuff, and I got a 125 dollar gift certificate to Wal-Mart, so it was a win for me.

The Completed Renga

Here is the renga that I did with the folks from the Young Writers Society. We didn't quite follow all of the rules, and we goofed up with the syllables a couple of times, but overall I'm pleased with the result. :)

slow embrace, plunging:
tentacles and flotsam lull --
we collect the shells.
fish tails under broken hulls
fell voices in the currents
coral dances with
the movements of the sea waves;
fishes swim blindly.
tight-mouthed shells, settled, scuttled
on the beach like hulled warships
and we are the deep
beautiful; wild
since the sea was born
we hide treasures that
no man's eyes have ever touched
secluded in peace.
lantern skinned, studded
gills flapping like skirts; we sleep –
boneless, deep folktales
what god can match our splendour,
our revelry in the waters?
secretive meetings
held within the depths of seas
plighting a plot unheard.
friendless silence, plucked eardrums
sockets in the fogged slumber
we will not breathe air
our lungs fill with the cold water
Dark sea shapes we take
shut-mouthed, fastened down
like selfish little lockets,
we hoard our drowned tunes
the choir of transfigured souls
sweet voices among fins and scales
bodies once belonged
to land, now claimed by the sea,
brainwashed, lost and dead.
the sick girls, the yellow boys,
belly-up, they speak nonsense
but the sea takes them
it takes us and remakes us
we are its children
sculpting, remodeling us,
like clay, into something new
made to live our life
by rules foreign to our hearts;
confused, outraged we.
seek the comforts of the water
writhing in our new wonder
pollinate their dreams,
fat and ugly, like rough tongues,
stealing their rhymes, notes
succumbing to the soft touch
of waves and rolling currents
and purge them with oil, black salt –
monacled with sucker wounds
a drawling timepiece,
needled, trolled machinery,
like insect mouthparts
draining them of sanity,
replacing with misery
no longer human
skin changed for scales now
emotions far and gone
dolphins suckle at us
but it does not concern us
we are the new gods
we'll rule in our ignorance,
as if we own the untouched.
nothing holds us back
no man nor deity is our lord
we are beyond them
we are free, to wreck and ruin
who will punish for actions?
apocalypse here
from the depths of the blue sea
we have come to rule
to terrorize, overtake
the sea-lands we inhabit
let the sea rise up
trade in your legs for fish tails
become as we are
indifferent to those who
lived here centuries before
who stole, unrighteous
and died ignorant, with weight
of sins upon their hands.