11.16I will be back…soon!
A pocket of time is in the works for the end of the year to finish some of the stories. Looking for a minimum of 100 pages to qualify for lulu’s special book binding.
Recently I posted on facebook for friends to come up with random words that I could string along somehow into a plot idea for a story. Here are the ones that I am considering to use for short story inspiration :
1. Bacchus the god of wine teaches his secret art of transubstantiation to a young wine maker named Louie. Louie is
attempting to carry on the family legacy of winemaking while fending off creditors.
2. A failed playwrite must entertain a group of “pissed-off” vampires who “don’t get” the 21st century after years of slumber. By
making the present so alien and mundane, he hopes they will go back to sleep for another hundred years.
3. A family of “gate patrollers” of our world and the underworld suddenly are caught smuggling supernaturals into our world in exchange
for power. Conflict ensues as the family is torn apart and betrayed by this careless use of power.
4. In the Middle Ages a commoner is having dreams relating to the 21st century. He becomes inspired to invent several historic
inventions with the materials available to him in his time period. However this is viewed as science and anything stopping him will risk
off-setting the future…and his dreams.
5. Space travel based on rocket missions of the 1960s is still available today. We’ve colonized the moon but what is going
on with Mars? After a cutoff in communications with the red planet, the protagonist of the story searches for clues and finds out that
we’ve been to Mars once before, over a 100 years earlier through the use of steam.
There’s something magical about shore towns before, during and after tourist season. The residents who aren’t business owners tend to appear annoyed by all of the traffic these new faces create. Some even label them “bennies” as a way to shun these northern neighbors. What about a town which is on the brink of something supernatural, involving old gateways, discarded magical artifacts and most of all…the ultimate surf? A mix of Fae, “John from Cincinatti” and anything “off the beaten path” thrown in.
I find that these rpg projects keep the ideas flowing and sharpen the writing. Better to write something than not at all.
05.28Idea : Bunker
After visiting the hall of records, George carried with him his birth certificate and found out exactly when he was born.
“10:30 AM”, he whispered to himself, “On a Tuesday.”
The building was bunker-like in appearance with this concrete walls, rectangular opening to serve as windows and rounded corners to give it a special kind of modern look. For a Thursday afternoon there were mostly deliveries of supplies and a gardener or two roaming the grounds. The stillness of the parking lot is what gave him the sense that if something did happen of a crisis-scale, this place would be well protected. Perhaps to keep the records intact for future generations who’d want to find out what their relatives were like. Or perhaps they would trash the place and use the records as a source to make a fire with. The building itself would still be around after several generations of outlaws and survivors using it as a modern day castle.
Back in his car, George folded the document in half and neatly placed it in a provided manilla envelope. Just as he was about to drive away, one of the gardeners near the entrace ran over to him with a document in hand.
“You dropped this on your way out,” he said, smiling as if his good deed for the day was accomplished before noon.
“Oh no that’s not mine. I have my paper here,” George replied and held the manilla envelope in his hand.
“You’re welcomed,” said the gardener. He pushed the document through the opening in the window. George shook his head. He took the second envelope and opened it. Inside was 3 papers, each with small font type-set and contained an inventory list of what appeared to be names of chemicals and compounds. Next to each one was a percentage followed by a serial number. The other papers had the same thing. The last document out of the three also included a picture of a bar code with the words “ML020175-413″.
A child’s drawing influences a scientific breakthu 100 years from now. What is the nature of the drawing? Who was this child?
I’m a big fan of the show “Breaking Bad”, Sunday nights on the AMC network at 10:00 PM. Every week I get to watch how a person, Walt, is put into extraordinary situations and manages to come out intact….or perhaps not? Walt is dying of lung cancer. For the first time in his life he sees an opportunity to break through all self-inflicted restrictions and inhibitions to find a purpose. He turns to making meth with Jesse, a former student of his. Together they form an uneasy but otherwise mutual respected bond as the two of them make and distribute the drug. Since Walt is a chemistry teacher who’s knowledge goes far beyond the high school level, his skills make the drug the best on the street.
Cut to the purpose of this blog entry : The lead character Walt (portrayed by Bryan Cranston) and the mythical hero Odysseus . Throughout the series Walt becomes his alter-ego, Heisenberg, the name which the drug community knows as the one baking the powerful meth. In last week’s episode, “Over” , Walt learns that his cancer is in remission for now. This good news doesn’t fit with Walt so well because he now sees that everything up until now with the meth, murder, double life, is not needed anymore. The whole point of getting into meth making was to make as much money possible for his family when eventually he would pass on. He tells Jesse that he plans on selling off the remaining amount they made in a 4 day marathon previously but afterwards he is finished.
Throughout the episode we see that Walt does not do well with the back-to-suburban-existentialism that he once was in. Like a restless Odysseus who yearns to get back “into the throws of adventure” Walt eventually allows his Heisenberg side to warn a potential rival to “stay out of my territory” to the sound of a great song by TV on the Radio, “DLZ.”
One of the fascinating things about the show is how Walt transforms from a meek individual to having a Mr. Hyde / Heisenberg side which is not as easy to suppress as in previous episodes. Will Walt be taken over by this alter ego or will he manage to get out of it?
Song lyrics :
Congratulations on the mess you made of things;
On trying to reconstruct the air and all that brings.
And oxidation is the compromise you own
But this is beginning to feel like the dog wants her bones
saved
You force your fire then you falsify your deeds
Your methods dot the disconnect from all your creeds
And fortune strives to fill the vacuum that it feeds
But this is beginning to feel like the dog’s lost her lead
This is beginning to feel like the long
winded blues of the never
This is beginning to feel like it’s curling up slowly
and finding a throat to choke
This is beginning to feel like the long
winded blues of the never
Barely controlled locomotive consuming the picture
and blowing the crows, the smoke
This is beginning to feel like the long
winded blues of the never
Static eplosion devoted to crushing the broken
and shoving their souls to ghost
Eternalised. Objectified.
You set your sights so high.
But this is beginning to feel like
the bolt busted loose from the lever
Never you mind
Death professor
Your structure’s fine
My dust is better
Your victim flies so high
All to catch a bird’s eye view of who’s next
Never you mind
Death professor.
Love is life,
My love is better.
Eyes could be the diamonds
Confused with who’s next
Never you mind
Death professor.
Your shocks are fine,
My struts are better.
Your fiction flies so high,
Y’all could use a doctor
Who’s sick, who’s next?
Never you mind
Death professor.
Electrified, my love is better
It’s crystallized, so’m I.
All could be the diamond
Fused with who’s next
This is beginning to feel
like the dawn of the luz of forever.
This is beginning to feel
like the dawn of the luz of forever.
This is beginning to feel
like the dawn of the luz of forever.
05.08Soundtrack
I love listening to music. Who doesn’t? When it comes to writing, I can enter the story as if I am watching it as a movie when music is playing in the background. I found the following on another website and decided to give it a try.
What would be the soundtrack to your life? Choose a song you find fitting to each event :
Opening credits: “Star Sail” The Verve
Waking up: “Lost in the K-Hole” Chemical Brothers
Average day: “Colder” Throwing Muses
Fight scene: “A Punchup at a Wedding” Radiohead
Life’s okay: “Everyday Sunshine” Fishbone
Mental breakdown: “Rave Down” Swervedriver
Driving: “Son of Mustang Ford” Swervedriver
Learning a lesson: “Jupiter and Teardrop” Grant Lee Buffalo
Deep thought: “Three Days” Janes Addiction
Flashback: “Wrong Treats” Swervedriver
Regreting: “Lonely Soul” Unkle
Long night alone: “Everloving” Moby
Death scene: ”Blow Out” Radiohead
Closing credits: ”Static” Jawbox
Protagonist is visited by future self regarding a big life changing event. Been done before so I will need to make it worth reading. Perhaps future self is not who be seems to be? Maybe the protagonist’s grest great great grandson?
A few months ago I found an online PDF copy of a vehicle manual for a street sweeper truck. You know, the ones with the brushes underneath which clean up the streets and parking lots? I was doing research for an upcoming short story about a street sweeper driver who becomes the center of an other-wordly crisis involving a dying god who wishes to be reborn as a human but at the same time give up his estates (powers) to someone other than his enemies who wish to take over. So the driver who I’ll call Manuel, goes on a cross country trip to the place where this god will be reborn as a newborn child. The problem is that this god is giving up its purpose in the cosmos which I haven’t figured out yet, but by doing so it must have someone to “step up” and take over its former responsibilities. The problem is that this god-like entity has enemies who want to take over these estates which would be a bad thing. Since Manuel is a human being, putting him in the center of this conflict will result in normal human responses to something this cosmic. Will he be able to fend off these mauraders from stealing these estates before the god chooses to be reborn as a mortal?
What influenced me on this idea is the game Nobilis, where players take on an aspect of reality. The idea of putting a normal everyday person in the middle of something this big is a concept that I find potential with a short story. In other words, you don’t have to be a secret super agent full time to step into an environment and survive (although it would help but for me I wouldn’t be able to make it interesting enough). What better concept than to make it cosmic for a normal person to encounter?
Overview
Based on an actual relative, minus the were-changing abilities, it is a story of Uncle Bruce who was a B-Movie star in the 1960s with a special ability to become a werewolf. When his niece and her family dropped him off at a horror convention, Uncle Bruce’s last words before exiting the car was, “Don’t wait up.” It seems that Uncle Bruce wants to settle a score with an acting rival who has a knack for blood. Look for the category “Uncle Bruce vs Vampires” on this site.