Cosmic Troublemaker

Today, I learned that Commander's purpose in life is to destroy destiny and change the nature of fate.

I'm still writing stuff for the Library. Today, I blasted through what will end up being 5 or 6 pages. In those pages, Commander found out his connection to the Golden Hollow--it turned a pair of newly formed twins into a single zygote. All the rules of his world, for the first time, are now meant to be broken.

I also realized that one of the volumes from the Library has been missing for years. Der Former now has said missing volume.

I know a while back, I promised that I would put some illustrations of Der Former up here. I haven't done that yet. Sorry. I have discovered an odd method to making color drawings. I start with a typical line/sketch drawing, like the ones I've posted in the past. Once I finish that, I put another page on top of the finished one and copy the lines using a pencil of the appropriate color. I worked on some pictures of Sandra Bright earlier, so I used a red pencil to copy the lines of her dress, which is red.

Sandra Bright would love to take over my book. Or she'd at least like to dominate as much of it as she possibly can. I've mentioned recently how she's gone from a character in one sequence of one book to being an essential character in this series. I'm going to end up restructuring an entire subplot of the series just to accomidate this character's long-term motivations. Work in progress, as they say.

Next time will be post 200. By the time that happens, I hope to have a few images to show. Bright (and possibly her inspiration) will be part of that. Der Former may come along for the ride. I might just have Commander or Kathryn make an appearance as well.

Library Tales

In the first Commander novel, which I originally wrote from Fall of 1997 to Summer 1998, Commander found himself in Vancouver. While there, he wound up in a musty old bookstore filled with gargantuan books, that when he looked through them, were revealed as a chronicle of his life from start to finish.

I still like that idea. As I was working to change that plot into Mind & Machine, I found myself searching for some way to give these books a greater impact. My first thought was to make where they're kept be a bigger place--multiple levels, thousands of books, very scenic and impressive. Along with that, I knew that this place couldn't be musty and dark, but needed to be clear and bright (more on that in a moment).

I had a sequence prior to Commander's arrival in Vancouver where he briefly traveled with an old man named Albert, who was something of a fortune teller. The two ended up discussing Commander's back history, citing several of the simple reason why Commander became who he was. The sequence was a thin excuse to show off some benign parts of Commander's history, but Albert still holds, to me, a place of importance.

So I decide to put Albert in this library in Mind & Machine. He'd have to take on a different form, one of sage and advisor. But every myth has the old man who serves as sage an advisor. As much as I like Albert, I just couldn't make him fit, at least not alone.

I let the idea of what to do about Albert--or his replacement--sit for a while so I could figure out what this library was going to look like. I'd decided by this point that the books in the library couldn't be seen except by a specific group of people. However, if I wanted it to actually be this big, spacious library that I envisioned, I'd have to actually put it in a library. I started looking around for images of buildings in Vancouver, because I wanted the place to look distinct. I knew once I found a suitable location, I would have to find a reason why there was a library in this place, unless I put it in a public library.

Seriously, I knew an actual library wouldn't work. Libraries are too mundane for what I had in mind, especially when I decided that mine would have to store other things than just books. So I found this lovely building in Vancouver. As soon as I saw this picture, I knew it would be a great locale for the story, especially given the battle that has to take place on top of the library. Then I asked myself, "What is this place?"

It's the Vancouver Public Library. That's what I call serendipity.

With that detail firmly in place, I went back to Albert, and promptly dismissed him. He just wasn't going to fit. If I was still using the musty style from the old version, but I wasn't. I needed someting more distinct and someone still had to show Commander what was going on. Seeing some unique visual influences, I came up with a new character to serve as Commander's liason in the library.

Sandra Bright possesses an ageless beauty, has long dark blonde hair, and wears a very formal red sleeveless gown. She matches the elegance of the real library, but it a sharp contrast to what's going on around her. As I started to write out Bright's character I found her to be a gentle beacon for those fighting against the dark forces hidden away from society. Those aware of her would likely come to her in the hope of being led toward a direction; Bright doesn't point everything out, she helps people discover the truth, if at all possible.

As a side effect, along the way, I decided Bright was a telekinetic. I also decided that she had far too great a presence to have her appear only once. Soon, I'd decided that Bright and the Library would appear again in no less than two other books I have planned. As I wrote how Bright used her mind and no gesture to perform simple tasks telekinetically, I realized that Bright had become a baseline to examine the setting of The Golden Hollow. Bright niether overplays nor underplays the nature of the world or the powers at work in it. She is alwys clear and decisive in thought. And while many will think she's a villain, they might be surprised to find that she's effectively the supreme allied commander for telepaths around the world.

Notes from Stacey's Wedding

My cousin Stacey got married this evening. It was a very nice ceremony, even though it was one of those long weddings--the ones that have a row of bridesmaids and groomsmen, along with three songs, a pillow boy (he doesn't have any rings), and a mess maker (the really little girl who dumps flower petals around for no good reason). I discovered several things that I feel I should point out.

The text on the back of the book is essential. I may be sci-fi oriented, but, just by using the back of the book, I might be able to draw interest for Vitamin F where I couldn't if it was slipped away in the science fiction section of a bookstore.

There's nothing wrong in telling others that I've written a novel. I realized this after I noted that I'd told my fifth grade teacher and a distant relative, even though I haven't told my own mom. I fixed that, but I didn't go into much detail because...

I'm not really proud of writing Vitamin F at this point. It's the whole issue of homosexuality combined with where my family lives. It's just not a good mix if you examine the book on a basic level. And if you're just joining us, I'm not gay.

I'm still jumping at shadows of my past. I've told the tale about the girl I like in high school before. Tonight, I saw someone on the staff at the reception that looked a lot like that girl. There was enough similarity that I asked my old classmates that were there to tell me if I was right or wrong.

"Oh, but you'll find the right girl someday." There was a sincerety with most of the people that said those words this evening, that I didn't feel like I was being slapped in the face by fate. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not, but I'm started to mellow on that topic. Maybe.

I may have more to tell later. For now, feel free to discuss.

Setting Up For Round Two

I've been trying to find a few resources on agents, now that I've got an entire draft of Vitamin F finished. Of course, to be able to contact an agent, I'm going to need one other element in place, the synopsis. I already have an outline, but it works more like a road map for me to see what files make up the story; now that a full draft is finished, that file is getting closer and closer to being outdated.

In looking at my road map, I also notice that there's a nice trio of chapters dealing with a Fertility festival that really, really need to be reworked. So, needing something to fix my creative energies upon, I start trying to fix one of those chapters. To be brief, the rituals of Fertility are simple and have a very open way to interpret them.

The bad news came shortly after I finished repairing Chapter 33. I was thinking about putting it into proper format when I accidentally clicked on another editing module that made Word crash on me. So I had to bring the file back up. I could only get a read only copy, and that was the unedited text, which was useless to me. I needed to find what I fixed. Eventually I gave up and called no joy on it. I shut down Word and shut down the computer as well. When I took out my jump drive, I got an error message saying that there was a file still open on the jump drive. One restart later and I was looking at about 90% of the work I'd done today. I quickly saved and went about the rest of the day. I'd barely dodged the worst of a bullet there.

I've also been trying to write a little on Mind & Machine every day. I made something of a road map file for it, but, as I work on it, I've realized I need something a bit more complete. Since it's on a later draft than Vitamin F, I'm going to try to put together a synopsis of it some time in the near future. Right after I get the new details of the Commander mythos straightened out.

It's Done (for now)

Around 5:45PM today, I finsihed the first draft of Vitamin F. The details of how I finished it can be summed up in saying that I continued to choose the small moments to tell the story. There's only one real, earth-shaking shift in the status quo, so I felt it would be totally unfair to change the rules at the very end. As things currently stand, all the major questions are answered, but there is still enough left open for the reader's interpretation.

If, by chance, I've left it too open-ended, I already know how I can fix it. I'll just steal a mechanic that I'm going to use at the beginning of Mind & Machine. As far as I'm concerned, most everything is wrapped up with the current draft. All that remains is fine-tuning and refinement, two things that will come in time.

But for now, I'm going to leave Bridgett, Penelope, and Oriane alone. They're probably tired of me messing with their lives.

One final note: The first piece of text I wrote for Vitamin F was dated 2-1-2007.

Did I Just Finish?

I was just trudging through the end of Chapter 52, when I thought of a great way to end the sequence. Without giving much anything away, Oriane finds Penelope and Bridgett after the climax. Oriane has all the proper responses, given everything--and I mean everything--that's happened up to that moment. Literally, the chapter ends with Oriane closing a door. Yet, there is so much built in to closing that door.

There was a dark note in that sequence. That's not a spoiler since I think I've been fairly clear from day one that this was going to be a fairly dark story. Once I hit save on that chapter, I had a jolting thought: "Did I just finish Vitamin F?"

The more I think about it, I'm saying no. There are a small handful of unanswered questions as far as the plot goes, what happened to Oriane's sister being a big one. There's also something to deal with that I call main character identification. If Bridgett is the main character of this book, then I don't think it's fair to the readers to have her be largely absent from the last four chapters of a 52-chapter book. But if she's absent for four chapters only to have chapter 53 be only about her, then have chapter 54 be predominantly about her, then I think there's a better chance of readers being satisfied with the entire book.

Thinking about it again, Chapter 52 is about answering all the side questions. It's where I make the Brotherhood of Life seem like real bastards. It's one of those occasions where two characters I didn't think I was going to use more than once decide to show back up again.

Besides, I can't see there being about thirty pages after the last major scene with Bridgett. Like I said before, I think doing that would leave readers dissatisfied with the book as a whole if I did that.