Vice 2 Title Reveal... and More Flash Fics

ARE YOU READY ?

After coming off HMLIS this title felt a little one-wordy, but I kept coming back to it so...ta da ! However, I still like the idea of shorthanding it as V2.

I really enjoyed the HMLIS world, but coming back to the Vice world always feels right. I've been living in this story for a while and I'm excited to share it. I think a lot of what I liked about writing HMLIS like different POVs, mystery elements and of course family drama (and how) will all come back in Vice 2.

I think I'm usurping LiLe as the giant hype machine.... 

Vice 2 Updates
So, I now have 53 songs on my playlist, I have no idea when that happened ! I'm still a little apprehensive about how to start posting this story, I think this is something we will have to figure out together.

And I don't mean to hype, but just about every chapter in Vice (after the first few introductory ones) I wonder if I've gone too far...

Novella Time ! 
So, these two novellas tell the story of the two mothers of the Vice Universe. I didn't do it this way on purpose, it just happened.

The Answer is Yes
This one is a little bit... weird, I'm not even sure how I got the idea, the first words  just kind of came to me. This story is about Alan's mother and I kind of had to be creative with her not calling him by his name because  I'm not sure I even know his name and I like it not being canon...yet. So just to clear it up; she calls him some names, but none of those are his name.

Also I do a minor retcon

The Answer is Yes
Playlist Here
- Tunglio- by Olfaur Arnalds




Last Regrets (Originally titled We All Fall Down, which explains the link name.)
This story is all the backstory I couldn't put into Vice. It was a lot of fun to work with ! 

Last Regrets
Playlist Here
-1- I Lose Myself by Core Gray Madilyn Bailey
-2- We Are Young by Boyce Avenue

Let's Just Talk About Vice 2

So, a little bird (so,Erik) told me you all have been made some wishlists for Vice 2. I thought I'd give my 10 cents:

15 Qs and Some As

1. Some undercover scheme that involves Sara having to pretend to be a stripper.
I haven't written it, but I imagine something like this does actually happen.But not with Sara.

2. On the serious side I would seriously love for Maxwell to show up again, maybe get a little mini origin story with him. I would also want Hayley to show up. . . but I'm rooting hard for him.
This is what I get for TDOSHing Sundays instead of leaving the door closed isn't it ?

3. Also I think Dakota would be am interesting advisary
He does show up in an adversarial way

4. Alan's real last name. Or at least a tiny inkling
I don't know what it is to be honest and I kind of like it better that way. Juggling not saying his real name does come up and I had to find an...interesting way to get around it. More on this later.

5. Finding out that Tempus made a live evil twin version of Alan and then he can have a side series
This does not happen. Sorry !

6. A love interest for Sara because she has a sad backstory
Hmm...

7. A love interest for Luce because that clashing with Sara would be funny ! LOL
As far as I know this does not happen, but I can only imagine the crack.  Although Luce has a HUGE crush on Minnow if it isn't obvious by how mean he is to her.
 
8. MORE MINNIE. That is all
In Vice 2 Minnie steps up a lot and I'd like to think takes a level in badass

9.  I also think Dakota would be a cool antagonist along with Bell
Some of this conflict is in there...

10. More new characters
And how. Please send ideas for cool / futuristic names.

11.  A fun side story with Mrs. Washington and Sara from the past
Kind of... I mean minus the fun.   

12. A cameo as a super-cool hacker, black market doctor or maybe a high class hooker. I'm flexible 
Sure. done ! Internal monologue: ....what the hell am I writing ?

13. Imagine Dragons !
Well, there is lots of  Coldplay, Hozier and Sam Smith

14. CHAPTER ONE. If I could just see that . . .
If I could just figure out which one is going to be Chapter 1...

15. Perhaps some more literary quotes ! In Veritas we had Twilight and in Vice we of course had Slaughterhouse Five.
I don't have any of these right now. HMLIS kind of literary quoted me out.  
 

HMLIS Goodies

I have two HMLIS bonuses to share. One is a flash fic (and I mean flash) at the link below and the other is about 500 words of  chapter 1 with a third person POV. Also, I've done some small updates to the site.

The Truth About Bridges
Playlist: - Photograph- by Ed Sheerhan (My new ES Fave!)

HMLIS Chapter 1 in 3rd person.

Bellum Gif Post and...things

It's a Bellum GIF Post !!!!

So, can we talk Bellum  for a sec ?

My general  reaction to Ariel

My General Reaction to Helios

When Seraphina showed her allegiance to the Demons

 

When Pariphina Happened

"She finally looks into my eyes.

Oh, she wasn’t done with me yet."

 When Paris Said He Loved Seraphina

But Then Sera didn't say she loved Paris

Then I was like:

Seriously, Lile

As for you Parisobel Shippers

Now, Listen Up Lile

About Bellum II

So, about Vice 2. Some days I feel all:

But mostly I'm

Oh, one more thing guys.....

Everybody Calm Down

 First things first this is a novella. And not just any novella, but an AU-crackfic-noncannonical-vault-worthy novella. 

21 Love 

See that little heart in the corner ? That's the logo for 21 Love a romance imprint from my friend Olivia Jeffrey. She publishes love stories for the 21st century.

What does that mean about UL ? Nothing much

 I have however agreed to let her include any other UL related novellas I may/may not write into her anthologies with the expectation  that I own the online rights to the stories. To help cross promote 21Love I'm going to put this on her blog. She's not doing much with the blog, but if the right idea comes along, I could make a serial for that blog.

More ?

You probably want to know if there is more UL novellas planned. As of right now, I'm deep in Vice 2 so I don't have any UL things planned, but one day in the future I will finish and do something with the mess that was OHG. I have the perfect concept, but I need to figure out the execution.

Meet Olivia

Ready for UL Promises ? Check it out on Olivia's blog !

If you want to comment, OJ and I will both be checking them on my blog since hers is still in development !

Wrap it Up !

I have a TON of wrap up  I could do on HMLIS and really get to the nitty gritty of my inspys, but I'll keep it to the basics and things I really,  really, really want to share. Also, no updates or new stuff in this post JSYK.

There were about 100 songs on the HMLIS playlist and I didn't use them all (some of them are being moved to Vice 2) so I made a mini playlist for the wrap up of the ones I didn't get to use.

The first song will display that I  too copy and paste lyrics from boy bands to make my serenades too... (This 1D song is so,so,so cheesy...and I kind of love it)

The Story of The Story

The plot of this novel came together summer 2013  when I came across the documentary The

Bridge, which is about the clandestine number of suicides on the Golden Gate Bridge. After seeing some of the documentary (it's a toughie), I read the New Yorker article that inspired it, Jumpers.
 
Basically, hundreds of people  jump off the Golden Gate each year and it's true they do require the media not to report on the suicides so they aren't glamorized. It actually happens so often, they've stopped counting them all together. In fact, to make the documentary the filmmakers left a camera nearby and waited for a month and caught a number of  people jump and focused on three. Suicides are so common on Golden Gate that construction crews near the bridge say they see atleast one or two a week and make bets.

It's really awful, but also fascinating in a way. Some people travel miles or go out of their way just to jump of Golden Gate. Some walk across one bridge just to go to the Golden Gate. I was originally going to set this in San Fransciso and use the Golden Gate, but I wasn't super comfortable with that and moved it across the country and invited a bridge.

Bonus: The Golden Gate was build by John Strauss, which is why the bridge in HMLIS is called Strauss Bridge

Bonus Bonus: Yes, the answer to Abigail's disapearance was on the cover image.

The Morrow Family

Jonah's family on  based on this New York Times article about Stephen Kings family. This article is really nice and shows they are a close family, but King's wife has a line about how she told him she was going to leave him and take the kids if he kept doing drugs and that kind of stuck with me.

I decided I was going to make Jonah's Dad's book an expy of another book to make it easier. So, HMLIS (the book within the serial) is an expy of The Emperor of Maladies, which is a biography/history cancer. And yes, the title HMLIS based on the poem by John Milton "When I Consider How My Light Is Spent". And yes, John Milton was a blind poet....SYMBOLISM.

And I think I mentioned that Matty as an idea is based on the blind film critic, Tommy Edison. I really had to read and watch some his videos about his daily life to get a sense of how to make a blind character "work".

The Poetry

So, the poerty came because I sometimes read writing blogs and I needed to learn more about character development because this book isn't really plot-y. A lot of advice says your characters need to have hobbies and passions, especially younger ones. For some reason I went with poetry for Abigail and let me tell you...I really struggled with this. I'm not a poerty person but I learned a lot.

I saw the quote from Anne Sexton: "I am a collection of dismantled almosts." and I liked it (but I couldn't find a place for it) so, a lot of the poem came from her and her contemporaries. Also, she's from Boston. She and Plath have some amazing poems, and it's kind of awful they are mostly memorized for their death.

Thanks for all your help poets.org

 

The Name Game

I struggled with these names, Corinne didn't have one up until I posted chapter 1. I just left it blank.

However, I had a lot of names for Ethan. Originally Ethan's name was Liam and then Phillip and then Ethan.  I really liked the name Phillip, but for some reason wanted to give it to a different character besides Ethan, so I gave it to Phillip.

Also, yes, Phillip and Corinne don't have last names. I have no idea.

Abandoned Plot Idea

- I mentioned I originally was going to have more family drama and it's because of the song All I Ever Needed by Paul MacDonald. I wanted to write a 'mature' romance to that song, so I was going to give Aris and Michelle Morrow a storyline about reconciling. But then I used the song in Vice for Sara and Derek and pushed the plot back.

- In the way, way, way, beginning I was originally going to give Ethan a serious sexual assault storyline with a friend of Corinne's, but it felt like too much and I didn't want to make him that bad.

Eastham College...kind of exists ?

Eastham College is pretty much based on Williams College in Williamstown, MA. All of the building names and descriptions are from the actual college and as I mentioned all the restaurants are names of real restaurants in that area.

The trivia competition is real too, it's a big tradition at the school. In fact, all the trivia questions in  the serial were from the actual Williams Trivia Contest. The January 2014 winning team was Requiem for the Blue Civic, so I crashed Jonah's car just so I could expy that name.

Other Names of Winning Williams Trivia Teams I'd Like to Share:

- Gratuitous Use of the Word "Belgium"
- Awesome Sauce: Grammar For *** Like You
-  A Bunch of Mindless Jerks who'll be First up Against the Wall When the Revolution Comes

How's Vice 2 Coming ?

I think I've got it...I think.

What's Next SHV ?

Well, to be honest I kind of want to take some time and do some site redesign on the blog and on my websites. And I think you will be seeing Vice 2 sooner than later.

What was that thing you hinted at in the Q&A ?

It's flashfic for a SHV serial. That's all I'm saying. It's very much like Lile's vault.

Okay, see you all around soon !

*runs away*

Let's Do The Timewarp ! (Again)

Random Thought #46385: Sometimes I see commercials for the Red Band Society and it makes me think of Ivy Brothers...




Let's Take Another Look Back
This week I want to look at two posts that were around this time in 2009.
Writing Process and Another One of Those Times

In both of these I don't do updates, but I do something I'm ashamed to say I still do;  talk about 'teh writing struggle'. I think we all know how that goes, but  I also talk a little bit about my process.

I think my process is mostly the same; I make chicken scratch, rewrite into sentences,  edit and then re-edit and depending on if I am ready for the next chapter, edit some more. Then I "score" the chapter if I don't already have  songs planned out. And I typically have to write it in order.

 Although recently I've started to write entire chapters with no outlines or drafted  ideas.This is happening a lot with Vice 2, because I don't have an official outline so I just kind of start writing sometimes. And it's not because Vice 2 is basically me re-writing Hidden, the stories are SO different, I promise.

I also post an alternate scene from UL, which reminded me I have the first chapter of HMLIS in third person (that wasn't working) and I also have an alternate scene from Vice I may share.

Other bits
- The Another One of Those Times may be one of the first earlier mentions of the LL-SH Paradox line. In fact, in the next post Lile says she is going to change something to get rid of the similarity.

- I mention wanting to see the Bruce Willis movie Surrogates, about people who can control artificial people (or something ???). I'm not sure why I mention that...maybe it's the beginnings of Vice ?
-

Vice 2 Update
That awkward moment when you have to go back to re-read your old serials to make sure your voice sounds right. It's coming along is all I can say.


Chapter 15/16
These chapters were really exploring the fall out of them finding out the truth and how Corinne and Jonah each cope with it.

Chapter 17 +18
This is the last double chapter post, Chapter 17 is the short one this time.
Corinne and Jonah visit Abigail, but how can they get her to come back when she doesn't want to ?

Chapter 17 w/ link to 18
17 + 18 Playlist

Chapter 17  (w/link to 18)

-1- Higher Lover

Chapter 18
-1- Wonderwall by Boyce Avenue
-2- Amnesia by 5 Seconds of Summer (Piano Tribute Players cover)
-3- Little Talks Cover by Corey Gray and Alexi Blue
-4-  Over Again by One Direction (I told you there would be some 1D !)

Few More Pictures...

Who wants pictures ?

So, I'm juggling two serials right now that I'm  super behind on...but I had time to pick out dresses for my fictional characters to wear to a fictional dance that isn't going to come up again.
          Blythe's (except in pink)               Abigail's (with suit jacket)


Blythe Turner (17)

This is Anna Sophia Robb. So little story, she was originally an Abigail inspiration, but I wanted Abigail to be super sweet looking and I felt like ASR' has the face of a good girl, but something about her expression made it seem like she is the girl who will  ruin your life. So, then she became Blythe.

Also, Blythe didn't have a name until the chapter she's introduced in and neither did  the owner of the BAL jacket. I was looking through B names for BAL and I decided on Blythe, but realized I liked it so much I wanted to use it for more than a throwaway character.

Which is why I introduce two characters with B names in the same chapter.

Chapter 14

Would you believe this entire serial has been leading up to Abigail and Blythe's story ? I didn't have it written, but from word one I knew it would involve a bridge suicide  and about two chapters in I knew Abigail was a had been in love with another girl.

 It's why she is so dismissive whenever Corinne mentions her crush on Jonah.

Chapter 15 + 16

Double chapter because chapter 16 is a super short


Abigail past is revealed and they know how she died...she did die...right ?

Chapter 15 (w/ link to 16)
Chapter 15/16 Playlist
-1-  Story of My Life Boyce Ave Cover
-2-  With or Without You by 2Cellos
-3-  Skinny Love by Gavin Mikhail 

Chapter 16 
-1- Just Give Me A Reason by P!nk
- 2- Novacain Green Day OBC
-3- Like Real People Do by Hozier

Minor Character Picspirations...

Pretty Fall image is pretty.

Layla and Zain ( 18, 20)


First things first, I got all of the foreign characters names from Olympic athletes so I had the name Zain before I decided to base him off Zayne from One Direction. There are literally no Lebanese actors out there I could find, so these are the closest I could find.

I'm not sure Layla or Zain come back, but I had these for them. I created them because I needed to flesh out Corinne's circle.


Morris (24)

Funny story, Morris' name was originally Connor but I changed it because it looked confusing with Corinne's name on the same page er, web space. Also, Morris totally disappears during  the Thanksgiving scene. In my head he leaves before dinner to go somewhere else, but I couldn't write him in.

His picspiration is young  Chris Pratt in Everwood. Everwood ? Anyone ?

Sam Morrow (48)

This doesn't come back up, but in my head he had a crush on Jonah's mom. His picspiration is Steve Zahn.


Vice 2 Update
I don't know what I'm doing...I'm writing words, but I don't know how they are going to go together. I think I'm having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that this will just be kind of short. I have six chapters done, but some are short and I'm trying to figure out how to pair them with longer ones. I

It's a whole thing.

Chapter 14
This is a long one (and not it's not the end), so take your time . It's a little over 6,000 words and I considered splitting it.


Thanksgiving at the Morrow house took a rocky turn...

Chapter 14
HMLIS14 Playlist

-1- Use Somebody by Kina Grannis
-2- Dead in the Water by Ellie Goulding
-3- #Beautiful by Mariah Carey (Yes, the # is part of the song)
-4- I Won't Give Up by Jason Mraz
-5- Don't Stop Believen' by Journey (JOURNEY!) Boyce Ave. cover
-6- Kiss Me by Ed Sheerhan (This is my favorite song on the entire playlist.)