In Written Worlds

This is one of the hardest times of the year for me. This year has been especially difficult emotionally and mentally. There have been many distractions, disruptions, and a lot of internal conflict.

I believe that I’ve learned a lot about myself through the summer. There are new boundaries, realizations, and new levels of tolerance.

I learned that Sunshine does not liking the pet carrier and is very vocal about it. She does like her new vet. She passed her annual exam with flying fur. And even indoor kitties need to have their rabies shots just incase. The good news is that the vet says not to worry too much about the lump on her chest. If it was cancer it would have shown itself by now. They will remove it when Sunshine is fixed. Five months to go.

The sad news is with Nieca. I love her dearly, she is a great cat. Unfortunately, I cannot keep her. Cat devotees may chastise me for this - believe me this was no easy decision. It was going to be either her or Athena. As painful as it has been to choose and will be to say good-bye it has to be done.

I chose Nieca because she is the more ‘socially open’ cat. She loves humans and likes being silly around them. She is a unique cat boisterous, precocious, and adorable. Nieca will be the easiest to place. She does have her quirks and oddities like not drinking milk yet loving small curd cottage cheese and cinnamon apple sauce. She won’t understand but eventually she will adjust. I will miss her.

On the Writing front I’ve passed 10,000 words. It should be 12,000 though. After editing, revising, and the like however my current ‘official’ count is just over 10,000 words.

Status on the Fan-Fiction:

‘Her Journey’ I think that I’ve fleshed out chapter one as much as I can. I did make some edits to include details that would nudge chapter two out of the corner.

‘Boundaries’ Chapter two is developing I just need to actually type it out. After all it isn’t every day when you meet your dead daughter from an alternate universe.

‘A Tale of Two Houses’ has been officially scrapped. It seems that people just weren’t interested in seeing this one happen. I may work on this one as a solo-writer one of these days. For now though, it’s sitting in my slush pile. This can be the fate of a multi-writer story. It either sinks or swims.

‘This New Day’ is the most new story for Psionics. I made the first post on July 30. I started it off with no plan, no plot, and no problems. So far 3 others have said they would post.

‘Shock Jocks’ is a one chapter story. It’s an interview or conversation between Captain Power and 2 radio personalities. The discussion focuses on the comparison of the Bio-Dread Empire to those of history.

‘The Ark’ comes at me in bits and pieces. I have a lot of ‘behind the scenes’ stuff for it just not a lot of story written. I’ve placed older stories ahead of it on the priority list.

Status on the Zodiac Chronicles

‘Aries’ will be a shocker to most of everyone. I don’t know where it came from but, and this is a big one, I got the first 700 plus words written. It surprised me too. So far, only a handful of people have seen it and their responses were varied. Most were good. I think I even managed to get back at Kisha for her carnivorous horses.

‘Prelude to Destiny’ is the one people want to know about. I’m still working on the most recent edits of the first section of chapter one. I know that it’s taking a long time.

Status on other novels:

‘Centurion Trilogy Blood & Loyalty’ a few people have asked me about this one. It was my project for NaNoWriMo 2007. This is another that comes at me in bits and pieces. It’s a slow process and moving along. I do need to research (buy books on subject material) some of the aspects in this one.

My initial goal for this year was 50,000 words by November 1. This gives me about two more months. At this moment I’m sitting at 10,130 words. This means that I have 60 days to write 40,000 words. Having learned my limitations of sanity from NaNo ’07, I’m not going to push myself. I will do the best I can, write as I can, and if I don’t make it, then I don’t make it. The world will not explode if I don’t hit that word mark.

OMG... ROFL

This is just too funny. I'm watching the newest version of Supernova on the sci-fi channel. They're at a scene that totally rips an idea right out of my own imagination.

They call it project Phoenix; I have been calling mine ‘Project Noah / The Ark’. I think this is hysterical. Just like with my plans, this movie depicts structures underground that are store houses of genetic samples from plant seeds to animals and humans.

They out did my plans in size though. I have just the one facility. They have multiple locations across the planet that can house up to 10,000 living humans for 15 years. I didn’t catch the number of samples each of the Phoenix locations in the movie are able to hold.

The idea, notion, fact that two writers, who know nothing of each other, came up with identical plans for their fiction worlds is just too funny.

Here's another article about the future of writing. This one, by Lorin Stein focuses on fiction.

The Atlantic: article

Thanks go to my friend and fellow writer Kisha Spletzer for tweeting this link. I say self-publishing / publish on demand is here to stay.

article by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg - WSJ.com

Lately I've been pondering my serious lack of a social life. I have several friends who say that they miss me but they don't stop by and visit me. Since I don’t have and can’t afford to get a vehicle, my social life suffers drastically. This morning I realized that I could handle and view this in two very different ways.

The first way is the ‘Pity Party’. I could choose to be bitter, resentful, and conflicted about the issue. I could hold on to the road block of ‘I can’t go unless some one picks me up.’ I call this a road block because most people are reluctant to do this unless there’s something in it for them even when it’s not out of their way.

The second way could be an adventure. The answers are out there, solutions to the situation; the question is how to find them. Thinking about it in this positive light may give a chance for a book in the future.

No Car Socializing or A Social Life without a Car sound like good titles or subtitles. The prospect is intriguing. Who knows, there may be a book in the future.

The first choice is weighted, depressing, and heavy with negative thinking. The second holds a tone of hope and positive thinking. Plus, there’s the prospect of a non-fiction book in result.

I do know some one who seems to have a solution that works for her. So, the question is whether or not I can recruit her to help.