I'm going to need a lot of somethings . . .

Hello all,

So, this update is a little rough because I've been busy (you may want to open this link in Google Chrome) with certain changes in my life. There has been lots of dinners and relative meetings.

Anyway this chapter, in retrospect could have been tacked on to chapter 7, in fact it originally was so, it is one of the shorter chapters but it is a launching point for something bigger. I have a huge chunk of this story planned out and leading somewhere, although the course changes a lot.

I have to say I am nervous about planning out ahead because that was what I did with IVB and that contributed a little to why it was so short. I actually have "theme songs" for most of the characters and I'm not sure if they will ever fit in to the tone of the story.

Anyway, I am getting excited about this again, I just need to remember to pace myself.

Cyberspace/Internet

Carleigh asked about this in Chapter 5 and I wanted to wait until now to address it. She asked what the difference was between cyberspace and internet and here it is :

The term "Cybernetics" refers to anything you add to your body to perform a task better. So, essentially *prepare to be freaked out* eyeglasses are a type of cybernetics *okay maybe not so freaked out*

So, in this story the internet and cyberspace are the same thing but, cyberspace is a term used because they use something attached to their bodies to access it, the Syndicates.

Past, Present, Future

Something I try to keep track of but haven't been is how I use my verbs to tell the story. I use a lot of "ing" verbs traditionally but, using present tense creates a more fast paced story. To better explain look at this passage from Chapter 5. This isn't the best example but here is the original :
Low acoustic, auto tuned electroica droned out of invisible speakers and the multi colored light strobed along to the pulses. In the corner rows of white bubbles hosted Stimsim casts.

Compare it to

There was low acoustic autotuned electonica droning out of invisible speakers and multi-colored lights were strobbing along to the pulse. In the corner there were rows of while bubble hosting Stimsim casts.

The first uses present verbs the other doesn't and it sounds a bit stilted.

Chapter 8

Alright so this chapter only has one song because the pacing of this chapter changes a lot and I would rather have one good song than a bunch of random ones.

Chapter 8

No Air by Lea Michele and Cory Monteith

California Girls . . We're undeniable !

Blog Stuff
So, I have time to post an update before I go to a Toy Story 3 Midnight premire with Erik. It has been busy at Cobalt and we are all preparing for some changes but, it is also exciting. I am just really glad I have this on the side because it's just something nice and kind of grass roots that I love doing.

Plus this web serial seems like a Care Bear Movie after spending a few hours editing JB's new book.

Clarification

Lile did point out the passage I changed. It was :

“ Wanna hear some crazy shit ?,” Pascal began, “ Before the bombs I heard a Mjollner configed a black clinic leech to do a full conversion,”

It originally said the Yakuza. They are talking about Belle at this point and she is supposed to be on the opposite side (the Mjollner) not on their side the Yakuza.

For a long time I had no idea where the Yakuza thing was going (or if I was even going to use it) so I just threw it in their as a CP term and forgot to change it.

Shawna-Verse

In my head I would love to create stories that all took place in the same universe and could have crossovers. Kind of like Stephen King. (in a side note I have an idea for a hilarious black comedy-ish one shot with Slate and Tomas Alexander)

I was listening to some of the songs from the IVB playlist that I never used and I somehow ended up re-reading IVB and I realized I have a horrible tendecy to reuse names. For instance

Tessa- Is the name of Juliana's stepmom and Elias's cousin. Although her name is Telsa for two sentences.

Belle -- Is the name of a stripper in UL and a character in Veritas

Sara -- Is the name of a character in Veritas and Slate's stepmother's name. Sadie is also a dimunitive of Sara.

Nick in IVB's last name is Minnoe pronounced like Minnow.

These were all just coincidences, and I thought it was kind of funny. There were a few others but, I forgot what they were. I think I've used Henry twice as well.

Inspiration

Also, in case it wasn't obvious Dakota was inspired by Alex Delarege in TCO. I meant to post this last week.

The man had watery aqua eyes that seemed to glow in the dim light of the arcade-- he had orange hair in tendrils around his pierced ears. His face was pale and his dark eyelashes were so long they were practically caressing Minnie's face every time he blinked

Moving On

That's enough blogging for one day. I have more things to add but, I will spread them out over posts.

TBH, I have been sitting on this chapter a while for no particular reason. I've been working ahead and if I needed to change something in a previous chapter I wanted to keep it "unpublished".

Now, I have a much, much clearer image as to where this story is headed.

Chapter 7

Playlist

-1- Teardrop by Massive Attack (or the house theme song)

-2- Love Theme from The Notebook

-3- When I'm Gone by 3 Doors Down

-4- Colorblind by Natalie Walker


Sidenote-- While I don't have a plot or anything in mind I have been thinking a lot about UL and how I liked writing it . . .

This is not an update

Hi,

I didn't want to string you all along. This is less of an update and more of a obligatory mandatory posting by our lovely PR firm the Midnight Company.

Jill Lamberton Ryder, our PR woman is directing/producing/starring in a play called . . . well, I can't remember the name it's a bit long. Anyway more info can be found at http://forredheads.webs.com/

Also, Joel tells me lots of things are happening at Cobalt so, visit our public webstream at http://lifestream.aol.com/stream/cobaltpub.

Update coming soon.

If You're Keeping Count this is post . . . 80

Hiatus

I guess I have been on a bit of a hiatus lately. Between work and personal relationships some things have to take a backseat. People say it is a lot easier to deal with fiction than real life but, I sometimes find the exact opposite. Sometimes writing something can make me more of an emotional wreck than dealing with something in the real world.

When I began this story I was obsessed with it. I read and did so much research and somehow that flame smoldered a bit. I think I was taking on to much. It was like I read Harry Potter and then tried to recreate my own wizarding story. I was stressed because I could never do anything remotely similar to the wonderful things I read. And with this break I completely forgot where I was going with this story.

Anyway, I think I am past that stage and am ready to start writing again. I used my reference quotes and themes and restructured the outline a bit. While this story is still inspired heavily by concepts from speculative fiction, cyberpunk short stories, novels, tabletops and video games it is becoming something of my own as well.

Retirement

After I finished Veritas I intended to go into web serial retirement. However reading LL and House of Fierro has made me want to sit down and write a romance kind of story. Maybe even a supernatural one ? Well, probably not supernatural but a romance defiantly.

As my boss occasionally says "The mark of a good writer is one who inspires others to write," and that defines Lile's writings to me. I also tend to write in 'ensembles' and I would love to write something with less characters, something more intimate if you will.

Chapter 5

So, chapter 5 was labeled in my notes as somewhat of a comedic interlude. It didn't intentionally add to the plot I just wanted to try that chaotic cyberpunk style of writing and creating that world.

I wanted to blog about the 'style' of writing I was trying and everything but, I wrote that so long ago I forgot exactly how I did it. I know it was a lot of present participle. That's one of the interesting things about language especially English, the forms of verbs you use (or I use anyway) can say a lot about a character.

There was also a misprint in chapter 5 that I fixed and I will explain it in the next blog. I mixed up two words.

Chapter 6

I wish I could say this was 30+ days of work but, it's not, it's just a long time coming. This chapter is music and pic lite.

Chapter 6

+1+ Alone at Night

+2+ Soul Meets Body (String Edition)

Let's Go Back

(Yeah it's something like that.)

Let's Go Back

I know chapter 4 was a lot and I kind of want to explain it more and also explain more about the world Veritas takes place in. Pieces of this post may end up in the Lexicon.

As I created more back story this serial it strayed away from cyberpunk and into speculative fiction. But, speculative fiction is an umbrella term so, I think I'm okay.

If you haven't figured it out Veritas exist in an alternate history as well (it was news to me as well). In this history the the USSR never collapsed and the arms race never ended, which is why nuclear power is so advanced.

Part 1 of Chapter 4 gets into some of the political stuff I was talking about. I will admit the meat of the backstory was influenced by the earthquakes in Haiti and all the news coverage. Haiti is a poor country because of it's long history so, I had think what could happen to the US to make it similar to a 3rd world country. I was also inspired by a news story I saw about the Mexican Cartel. The amount of government corruption and control the cartels have is really hard to imagine. Anyway, the wars were the scenario I used to create a different kind of America.

One thing to remember is the Serial Wars happened 60 years ago at this point in time. So, it is their history but, it is a history that is affecting them today. Think about history affects us today even though we don't acknowledge it. There is a huge Asian population in California because Asians were immigrated to work on railroads in the 1800's. It happened 200 years ago but, it's something you can still see.

Gendercide

Gendercide is one of the more serious tropes I came across. At first I brushed it off as a plot point and thought of it as something from some lame 60's sci-fi movie but the more I thought about it the more I thought it would create an interesting social situation.

Joanna Russ is a feminist science fiction writer who wrote a lot of speculative fiction about male gendercide and female societies that didn't need men to reproduce. From what I understand if there were men they usually ended up getting killed by a woman ripping him apart with her bare hands So . . . Yeah.

Anyway, I came across another fictional story about nuclear war and how only the military survived and that's when I decided female gendercide made the most sense because the military is mostly men. That's how this whole idea came about.

Is it anti-feminist ? Maybe, I don't really know. I honestly had to ask myself what would really happen if there were significantly less women in this country ? Are we discounting men by saying they can't control sexual impulses ? It's always been interesting to me that in all the episodes of To Catch A Predator (I need to stop watching MSNBC) they have never caught a woman.

I will say I have no agenda in writing this so, take from it what you will.

I had kind of meddled with the gendercide for a while but, it is kind of hinted at in the earlier chapters with the way the women are treated so carefully. It is also hinted in chapter 3:

1. Alan says he went to Barnards Boy's School. Barnards is a womens' college but, with less woman some womens' colleges never reopened.

2. He says is he were ever so lucky to have a family.

3. He mentions that Sara could leave the West because she's a--. He never finished the sentence but he was going to say because she was a female she might be allowed asylum.

4. It's also the reason Alan tries to save Minnie when she falls even though he is tied up-- he is afraid she will die.

East v West

In my head the Former Republic of the Western States is fromWashington to California to Texas. It's unruliness and repuation is kind of a throwback to the "New Frontier" "Wild West" mentality. Here are the basic notes on the two countries :

Former Western Republic

* Controlled by Eastern Government Militia
* Called "Former Republic" because the East does not want to recognize it as a real country.
*Commonly called the Western Republic but referred to as "The West" "The LOLA" "Republic" it's inhabitants are called Republicans
* State lines don't exsits

Eastern United States
The Eastern United States expands from New York to Florida to Lousiana, it is basically just one big city. There is no green, it's just industry and covered by a geodesic dome (think epcot)

*Controlled by Eastern democracy
*Commonly called the Eastern States but referred to as "States" "The State" "The East." It's inhabitants are called Easterners.
*State lines don't exist so the city is separated into districts or sectors. Alan lives in the South District which is where Atlanta is.
* The term America is not really used anymore so, when they talk about the country before the split he calls it the State.

The Midwest does not exist anymore because the country's population is so small they don't need all the space.

Truths
The truths for Sara about the harmful Uranium testing and practices. Not to mention other government secrets she learned from her husband. The reason she mentions the Shift is because the Shift is why she had the "take no prisoners" attitude. She wants people to know she is not weak and she wont allow herself to be a victim.


Pomegranate
I'm surprised Lile did not call me out on this one. I mentioned Pomegranate tea in the prologue because I thought it was a kind of futuristic, trendy fruit.

I wanted to use a Greek words for the title (Veritas is the Greek goddess of truth) and I came across the story of Persephone and Hades. The reason Persephone has to stay in the Underworld is because Hades tricked her into eating 5 pomegranate seeds and if you eat food in the Underworld you have to stay. The last thing Alan drinks is pomegranate tea and it sort of symbolizes him staying in the "underworld" of the Western Republic.

This was very unintentional on my part.

Terminology

In this piece the term Deckjockey refers to someone who works in computer information and keeps the internet running. They write code and create all the internal parts of computers. It is also use to mean hackers.

Chapter 5
Now that I'm done with that mini dissertation on to the next chapter. I'm pretty much out of songs except for a few faves I'm holding on to so, it will be interesting to see what music I use next. It's funny I actually have a song for each character, I hope I can use them.

Chapter 5

Playlist
-1- No More Rain by Kylie Mingoue
-2- Down to Earth by Jem
-3- As I Moved On by Blue Foundation

Earth Day (Well, the day after !)

I'm sure I should have a million things to blog about but, I can't remember them right now. I did get started on the lexicon but, it is a big work-in-progress.

Music

I do have one thing to blog about. This whole story all of the elements and little things came from the song Eyes on Fire by Blue Foundation. Lile mentioned listening to the lyrics to this song a while ago and I did and somehow this story developed out of the lyrics. So, this was my "root" song in Pandora. Of course I did not account that that means all the music sounds similar so, I will be working on diversifying the playlist.

Chapter 4

This chapter is once again a short one that felt long so, I decided to cut it into two parts. So, if you want to read part 1 and then read part 2 later that may help it make more sense.

Chapter 4

Playlist

Part I

Sideways by Citizen Cope ( I wish they had an instrumental only of this song)

Part II

-2- When I'm Gone by 3 Doors Down
-3- Erase/Rewind by Cardigans

Happy Birthday Linda !

That's Fishy . . .
So, as I said in my last post there would be some little references to Kurt Vonnegut and that is what Jean and Minnie are. They are named after Vonnegut's Kilgore Trout (who is named after real life Theodore Sturgeon).

So, Jean is a man. His name is a play on the name of the fish John Dory. So, it's pronounced like the English name John although in my head it's more JA-n than j-OH-n. With an emphasis on the 'j'. Minnow is named after the fish as well. It is just their names I would not look to far into it. I have to say there are not a lot fish names that work as people names.

As far as other names I did play around with Sara Graces's name. I tried Cera, Sariagras, Sarah Grace.

Pictures

I only have pictures for some of the characters introduced:







Alan Gray


Based a little on Zac Efron's even features but, Tom Felton a little too.


Sara Grace

Based on Kate Winslet

Jean Dory

Imagine Jonny Depp with white hair

Minnow Dory

Ashley Greene. She is probably the actor who resembles my idea of a character the most.

What if ?

I have to say there are a lot of what if's that I take in consideration in writing this. Beauty Standards exist for a reason--because they are what some people find attractive and want in themselves. There are surgery's to open eyelids, lighten skin, fix noses that make a lot of money. I had to ask myself if people could choose how they look would they really want to be different. The answer in this scenario is no.

Music

I've always liked to type to piano music so, I will be incorporating some of it into this. I know a lot of the songs sound similar . . . I suppose I am trying to set a mood ? There will be a lot more diverse sounds as this goes on.

Chapter 3

Before I get to chapter 3 I do want to say a lexicon is in progress right now.

Chapter 3

Playlist

-1-The Meadow by Alexandre Desplat
-2-Precious by Minipop
-3-Hopeless by Breaking Benjamin
-4-I Love To See The Temple by Paul Cardall
-5-Pippins Song by Pippin