Emerging from silence

I've said little here as of late. Most of that is due to disdain over my thesis and the total lack of progress concerning it. I need to hear from only one person now and he doesn't reply to my e-mails. It sucks.

Part of my silence is that I've had little I've felt I had to say here. Nothing to say = nothing to post.

Finally, we come to the other factor--PS2. It's nice having one (yes, I actually have a console; my Mom bought it for me), but it can be time consuming if one let's it. At current, I have four games for it: Final Fantasy X, Soul Calibur II, Rygar, and Zone of the Enders. There is some hypocrasy in what I'll say next-->Video games and TV could quicken the downfall of our civilization.

Still, the fire of creativity burns on. As evidence, here are some updates on my projects:

The Silent Covenant. I've gotten some interesting "character research" done on the female lead, Corrine, thanks to Katie's willingness to answer questions. Also, I've figured out tha main character's name as well, Alex. I've been asking myself several questions to figure out the character arc these two will be going through, making up the emotional drive of the story. From a certain point of view, this is going to be just as much about the torrents of their relationship, as much as it's about freaky monsters, holes in reality, or insane Brill'Que.

Ashes of War. Yes, I've been thinking about it again for the first real extent since the very beginning of the year. A lot of my thoughts have been about the current Kinpatsu of the Irujiru family. Wha? Kinpatsu--literally the only blonde person, at least in the current generation; this girl is always the arranged bride of the ruler of one of the supernations. The Irujiru family is the most powerful family in the country, being the only ones capable of practicing blood magic.

My thoughts on this girl. Basically, she's going to be educated, have tons of servants, be fairly haughty, and drawn to Hokairu Itobe so they can "be greater together." It's going to be a crime punishable by death to cut her hair, so there will be lots of it. As such, she's going to have to have a staff to keep her hair in proper condition--it's the key physical feature that shapes the political climate of their nation. As with any national treasure, her hair will have to be essentially decorated before she can be seen in public.

"Dwindling Time." I wrote this short story in about half an hour. It deals with chain letter e-mails and the sinister threats they make. It also deals with urban legends and superstitious nature just as much. Just a fun, quick story. I'll edit it in a few days.

Naming conventions. I think that I'm going to use subtle similarities in naming series of stories. Everything in Blood Tithe is going to include the word "blood" in the title. Stories involving the Brill'Que may start using the word "covenant." Since Ashes of War is actually the third part in a long history of a single world I've built, I think there might be a word or two transitioning from one part to the next. The second part might include the word "war," but the first might also have the word "ashes" in its title; the opposite is also possible.

Any and all thoughts are welcome, especially since I haven't said much for the better part of a month.