Wielding a Red Sword - reading

Finished "Wielding a Red Sword" by Piers Anthony. To sum it up: "Mars Needs Women." I thought the final standoff against Satan wasn't quite as inventive as other incarnations experienced, but the series continues along.

Blade Runner - reading

Finished "Blade Runner" - the novelization of the movie based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K. Dick. It was weird. I'm going to have to watch the movie again (and I hope to this weekend - I have the director's cut at home) and see how it compares. After that, I'm going to have to find the original Electric Sheep and compare them all.

With a Tangled Skein - reading

Finished "With a Tangled Skein" by Piers Anthony. The third book in the series restores my opinion of the series as a whole. Very well written. Maybe a little misogynistic, but for good reason.

After the story is an author's note in which he mentioned the impact of "fate" on his life and on the writing of the novel.

When I got to work today, I parked my truck in the remote parking lot. The shuttle driver was there and watched me park. Rather than wait for me to get out of the truck, he looked at me as he pulled away, so I walked. While I was walking, I had the inspiration for a scene in one of the stories I have had on the back burner for a couple years, and got the inspiration to work on that story again. I opened the file that contains the notes for that story and printed them out. I have made a few comments on it today, and started to come up with storyboard Post-Its that I will use to organize the story into some semblance of cohesion so that the writing part can begin in earnest. I'm not sure, but I think had I caught the shuttle this morning, I would not have thought of that scene and would not have pursued working on that story today.

I'm not deluding myself. I know that I have some energy I want to put into the story right now. I just don't know how far it's going to carry me since I have several other things competing for my attention right now. Wish me luck!

Results of Script Frenzy 2010

Script Frenzy was not kind to me this year. The project I took on - creating a web site (get it? each web page = a page for Script Frenzy?) - ended up having a bunch of very distracting technical issues that got in the way of making good progress. I got a lot done regardless, but was basically shut down a little over half-way through the month.

This is a web site I would like to get done and out of the way, though, so I'd like to return to it soon.

Santa Story first draft complete

The Santa story I wrote about is finished, at least as a first draft. I finished it on April 1 and sent it to my writing group partner for critique. It ended up being 2,165 words (short stories are 1,000-7,500 words, so it's a short story). I need to decide what I am going to write about next. However, there's a monkey wrench: Script Frenzy. Script Frenzy is a month-long event like NaNoWriMo in which you write a 100-page script. I am doing a variation of it, in which I try to create 100 PHP pages, making up a web site. I'm currently behind, and expect I will remain that way until the weekend. Hopefully I will be able to limp along during the week so that I'm not completely behind on Saturday.

Darkest Fear - reading

Finished "Darkest Fear" by Harlan Coben. To be honest, I just didn't get many of the analogies the author used. I just don't have the same cultural references. That's odd considering it was written in 2000. It also doesn't help that this is like the 7th book in a series with this character, but the first one I read. Overall, I didn't feel like I really connected with the story. It was only so-so, in part being too predictable and in part because it tried to throw in plot twists for the sake of plot twists.

Celduin begins

I play Everquest II, and for it, I wrote up a very short intro (not quite a story) about Celduin, one of my characters. This is very short (269 words), and only a first draft or less, but may end up expanding over time. I was prompted by a writing contest for the guild.

The morning sun rose above the horizon and I was at the top of a tall tree, waiting to meet it. The chill of both the night and the cold morning wind melted away as the rays sank into my bare skin. I closed my eyes and focused on the memory of the dark forest spread out before me to the horizon, a sight I had been staring at for hours leading up to this moment. Until now, nothing had comforted me in my time of loss. The calls of my kin below did not stir me from my perch. The cold and hunger I felt were only at the edge of my consciousness and easily ignored. I had to know the sun would rise again, even though my parents would not, slain as they were by murdurous orcs in the attack late the previous day. The last words I heard, spoken of my family and of many families around me were, "They cannot be raised. We do not know why." Those words echoed incessantly through my head as I ran to the forest and as I climbed and they remained with me as a shroud of anger and doubt throughout the night. Upon seeing the brightening of the pre-dawn sky, the words finally faded from my thoughts, replaced with the knowledge that I would dedicate myself not to revenge, for revenge can lead to greater evil, but to continuing the fight against evil in memory of my parents. It was a momentous time for me. It lasted no longer than a day, but would carry me into adulthood.