Teaser Tuesday: Meeting ‘The Blonde’

More wackiness from Chasing Bedlam.

I typed in 'Blonde Public Domain' and this was the first pic

I typed in ‘Blonde Public Domain’ and this was the first pic

Trapped within the shipping container, Lloyd is unable to avoid the firehose blasts that knock him to the ground. Stripped of his clothes and shivering beneath the icy barrage, he refuses to stop singing an old cartoon theme song. When his body has gotten used to the cold, he uses the wall to stand up and pretends to bathe himself. The firehoses turn off when the guards realize that they are having no effect on their new slave, who skips over to them and dries his face on a woman’s shirt. Even with his face covered, Lloyd is able to catch the wrist of a guard and stop the man’s punch. Pressing his thumb into a pressure point, the serial killer finishes drying off before dislocating the arm. The others move to restrain him, but stop when he knocks their coworker out with a heel to the temple.

“Anybody have a towel? It’d be rude to molest this lady any further,” Lloyd says, pulling the female guard by her shirt. Coming to a window, he grips her by the neck to hurl her out of the building and into the river. “That’s for darting me in the sausage. Be thankful I’m not in much of a killing mood today.”

“A hideous man like you should be nicer to the pretty ones,” a silky voice states over an intercom. A burst of static is followed by a curse, the man on the other side having hit a wrong button. “I usually don’t waste much time with overused refuse like yourself. Better to kill a maniac after a day since they rarely sell. The only thing keeping you alive, Mr. Tenay, is that you have a reputation. I see that the warden of Riker’s Island still wants you as well as a few warlords that you managed to anger over the last year. There’s also the possibility of selling you to Battle Mountain.”

“Oh no! Anything, but Battle Mountain. I’d never survive in a place like that,” the killer mockingly complains before cackling. Still in need of a towel, he picks up a chair to knock out a guard and takes his shirt to dry off. “Been there, done that, and have a sweet fan following. I hope you can threaten better than that, Mr. Dick-less. Hiding in an office while I mess with your guards. Did you tell them to play nice with me or are they as gutless as you? Then again, they’re actually in the room with me.”

The cracking of knuckles can be heard over the loudspeaker, followed by the faint sound of someone counting to ten. “You have a mouth on you. I have another bounty on your head that is rather odd. An Emily Tenay wishes for your safe return. That your mother or wife? Not much money in that one, but it is curious.”

“Never heard of her.”

“Just a coincidence then?”

“Yes. I have no knowledge of this sexy, pants optional, mega-crazy woman that haunts my nightmares.”

“Wait . . . What?”

“What what?”

“So, you do know her.”

“Not in the biblical sense.”

“What does that mean?”

“Exactly.”

The intercom goes silent and a door on the other side of the warehouse opens with an echoing bang. A large, bald man wearing shorts and an open dress shirt by the cages, the slaves inside reaching out to their captor. He uses a backscratcher and an umbrella to smack at their hands, his face a mask of disgust. The man screams when one of the prisoners touches the circular scar on his chest. Pulling a machinegun off his back, the slave trader fires at the imprisoned young man until he is satisfied. He runs his hand along the collection of keychains that dangle from the weapon, the gentle clinking calming him down. Using the backscratcher on his scar, he continues toward Lloyd, who is standing with his hands on his hip and not a scrap of clothing. The guards quickly move to stand in two lines and create a straight path to the unruly captive.

“Nobody mocks the Blonde,” the slave trader growls when he gets within a few steps of the serial killer. Putting his umbrella on a chair, the man hits the backscratcher against his palm to make a loud smack. “Business has been slow, so finding a valuable bounty is just what I need to stay in the game. The Redhead and the Brunette insult me with their success. People always want women and kids, but men are only good for hard labor and violence. The attractive ones keep scarring themselves to avoid the sex trade, which angers me. Now, you’re going to behave or I’m going to kill you.”

“Why do they call you the Blonde?” Lloyd asks, accepting clothes from a guard. The tight shirt and baggy pants make him feel ridiculous, but he gets the sense that rejecting them would start the fight early. “Do you run a catering business or have a husband who can dislocated his jaw to eat sandwiches? Sorry, wrong name there. Though, I do wonder if the carpet matches the drapes. If so, you’re a lot braver than I am. Even thinking about putting a knife near the personal firehose makes me shudder.”

“Shut up!” the Blonde snaps, smacking the other man across the face.

Posted in Bedlam Series, Chasing Bedlam, Teaser Tuesday | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Anybody Know About Jousting?

I realized that I write fantasy and never wrote a scene that involved jousting.  I might have a few characters in my notes who use lances, but I never really put much thought into this activity.  So, do I think I can write a post about it?

First, I guess I’ll explain what jousting is . . . Two people ride horses at each other and use lances.  The object of the sport is to knock the opponent off first.  I think modern versions also have a point system where you get them for breaking a lance and hitting specific areas as well as unhorsing.  Sounds pretty simple in terms of the rules, but I’m only going over the basics.  It has to be physically demanding on the rider and the horse.

There are places that do jousts like Ren Faires and some eateries that have a knight competition atmosphere.  So, the activity hasn’t died out.  Yet, I doubt everyone has heard of it or seen it.  I have a vague memory of seeing one when I was a kid, but I didn’t really understand.  That and I believe I was enjoying drinking soda out of a large, metal flagon that would normally hold beer.  Probably no older than 9, so my interests were not as worldly.  Anyway, I’m sure people can find a place to witness a joust if they look hard enough.

In terms of fiction, jousting really doesn’t have a variety of uses.  It’s a form of entertainment, which is typically associated with nobles.  Participants need horses, lances, armor, and some level of training, which typically doesn’t happen in lower classes.  That is unless the story is about a peasant who is determined to become a jousting champion or knight through a contest.  Yes, I know ‘A Knight’s Tale’ exists and will be mentioned in the comments.  Beat you to it.  Outside of that film’s underdog plot, it’s difficult to fit jousting into a story that doesn’t even noble entertainment.  Adventurers might get thrown into it somehow, but they would at least have training in combat and horse-riding.  You really have to stretch it a bit.

Maybe jousting works best as a background feature.  For example, the characters might be going through a festival and happen to see a jousting contest.  Perhaps they have a meeting within the crowd, which would be big enough to hide them.  This shows jousting exists and you can demonstrate some of the rules, especially if a character has a bet on one of the knights.  It can open the door for an adventurer to have a background in jousting, but again that can be limiting.

What do other people think of jousting?  Do you think it could have some versatility in a story?

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Happy Read A Book Day

Hope everyone can take even a few minutes to read a little today.  I’m deciding between ‘Toriko’ on my Kindle app or grabbing one of the other manga.  Maybe ‘Love Hina’ since I haven’t read it in years.  Just can’t bring it to work due to some of the covers.  Enjoy these memes too.

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Goal Post: Plan Meet Open Window

A . . . single . . . paragraph.

That is the only progress I made with Darwin & the Deadland Queen.  I had started the chapter section a while back and meant to finish it last Sunday.  Never happened because stress and allergies caused me to be bedridden.  It was like everything hit me at once and my body just gave up.  No fever and no tests came back positive.  Crawled back into my pajamas and flopped onto the bed to sleep the day away.  If I wasn’t sleeping, I was staring at the ceiling fan trying to focus on thinking through the section.  Probably for the best, but it was frustrating.

The rest of the week wasn’t author friendly.  My students came back on Monday, so I had to get back into that groove.  Special education has the fun addition of kids and teachers needing time to reacclimate.  So, there was a lot of chaos since we had to remember systems, schedules, and make adjustments.  Not to mention meetings, assemblies, and new faces.  I was tired by the time I got home and then had to take my son to Pokemon or an appointment.  It was always 9 PM by the time I got to do things for myself, which meant no writing since I had to call it a day at 9:30 PM.

My son started his senior year too.  So, last weekend had a lot of prep work for that, including a little supply shopping.  His schedule is interesting with the heavy subjects at the start and then electives for most of the day.  This year has the added headache of applying for colleges too.  We’re trying to navigate the timing and what is needed, which is difficult with other things going on.  I need to look into FAFSA and other things while he needs to start asking for letters of recommendation.  On the plus side, he’s going to be in charge of a few things, which should be good for his independence and responsibility growth.

Another factor this week was court.  I won’t go into details about it, but things happened and the life event will continue.  No idea how long this will go or how it will end.  Fingers crossed that things work out.  Either way, I was too exhausted to write or do more than eat pizza after I got home.  By the time I regained my energy and will to go outside, I had to run errands.  This is when I found out that they were having a free ZZ Top concert in the park and got caught in the traffic on the way home.  It was pouring for the entire time I was out too, so I got home tired again and drenched.  This is when I got the single paragraph written and then had trouble knowing where else to go.

This weekend might only see me finishing the chapter section.  It’s a 3-day one, so I might finish chapter 5.  There’s a big Pokemon event all weekend, but I don’t plan on being out for the whole day.  One issue is that I wrote a character into a corner and I don’t know if I can draw out his rescue any longer.  He really ran into the trap fairly quickly, which makes sense for him.  This isn’t sitting right for me because I imagined this bigger before I fully designed this character.  It’s a supporting one and I was hoping this was their big scene, but they might be more minor than I planned.

With any luck, I’ll have an easier week.  This might be the only ‘normal’ one that I have since the next two are messy.  One has a medical procedure and the other one has the next court date.  School year is only a week in and I keep having to take days off for things, which I hate to do.  Stress will probably trigger a collapse at some point too.  That’s why I need to use this coming week to take it easy as much as possible.  If I can get writing done then I’ll see it as a bonus.  Still, the goals are going to be:

  1. Finish chapter 5 of Darwin & the Deadland Queen.
  2. Buy supplies for Halloween costume.
  3. Go to bed early.
  4. Remember allergy meds.
  5. See ‘Coyote vs Acme’.
  6. Try to get some walking in to relax.
  7. Lego time to relax.
  8. Just relax when I don’t have anything big to do.
Posted in Goal Posts | Tagged , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Questions 3: Writing While On Vacation

I know many people will claim that they never stop writing or that they write while they’re working ‘real’ jobs too.  If you’re in that boat then you are very fortunate.  For many, the daily grind and responsibilities of adulthood make writing even a page a challenge.  One can go months without making progress because they have work, kids, birthdays, anniversaries, appointments, errands, food prep, sleep, exercise, extended family, friends, sickness, and unexpected surprises that drain time.  I’m sure I missed some categories, but it feels like writing for adults is a battle for focus, energy, and time to be aligned enough to do anything.  That’s why true vacations can be an amazing reprieve even if it’s for a weekend.

Here are some questions to consider and maybe help others;

  1. Do you plan your projects for a vacation?
  2. What type of vacation do you take to focus on writing?
  3. What is one non-author item you would take on a writing vacation?
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Poetry Day: The Sleepy Destroyer

(An old poem I found on the blog.  In college, I owned an N64.  My friends and I loved to play Super Smash Bros.  The problem came about that I was destroying people . . . routinely.  First, they banned Link then Samus Aran and it kept going until I was forced to use Jigglypuff.  I still kept winning.)

Excitement coursing through my veins
As my fingers strike the buttons
And slam the stick
My enemies fly and fall
Their screams echoing
Through the speakers
Even with my handicap
A body made of pudgy fluff
Threatening to fall asleep
Instead of fight
Yet this creampuff destroys all
From gorillas to bounty hunters
All have been decimated
By Jigglypuff
And the local King of Super Smash

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Two Wolves In A Character: Not Were-Wolves

Many of us have probably heard the story about the two wolves inside you.  It can vary with what each one means, but it’s typically a good one and an evil one.  The one that wins is the one you feed.  It’s associated with Cherokee folklore, but it could also have come from modern Christian evangelicalism.  Either way, this can be fairly helpful when creating a character that isn’t one dimensional.

First, what do we mean by ‘feeding the wolves’?  The simple explanation is that the version of you that gets used the most will become the stronger one.  For example, if you act bad more often then this path will be your more likely decision.  It becomes your developed nature and will affect other aspects of your life.  Morality, personality, relationships, world view, career, and everything will be influenced by you being more bad than good or vice versa.  So, the feeding is what kind of creates your mental/emotional foundation.

Of course, you can switch with a lot of work.  If you start running into problems while being bad, you might try to atone.  This means feeding the good wolf more and starving the bad one.  It doesn’t result in the bad one going away completely, but it can change all of those aspects I previously mentioned.  Many people who walked a dark path find a way to return to the light through focus and work.  Keep in mind that you’re going against your developed nature here, so it isn’t easy.  One slip revives the other wolf and can push you back further than a single taste moves you ahead.

In terms of fiction, you need to think about the actions of your characters.  Even if they are pure good or pure bad at the start, they can slide to the opposite direction.  This can create a deeper character with nuance, but you have to be careful about pushing them too far.  It might be fun to have the noble hero do bad things because they are forced to, but you can’t do it too often without corrupting their nature.  You have to shift their thoughts, words, and actions as they move along the spectrum of good/evil instead of having them stay in the same place.

You have to consider the pace of change as well.  Certain actions (murder, rape, noble sacrifice, love, etc.) are big enough that they can cause a huge leap to the other side of the coin.  These tend to be major plot events, so you typically can’t use them often.  Instead, you can get further with smaller actions caused by minor decisions.  These can shift the character without them fully realizing it until they reach one of those big ones and find the decision isn’t as simple.  This happens in real life where people steal little things they need to survive.  As they continue without getting caught, they might try for bigger needs and maybe a few wants.  It doesn’t make them evil, but it does change their developed nature due to desperate need.

This isn’t that foreign a subject though, but we might not think of it.  Definitely not with the wolf analogy.  It’s really the corruption of a hero or the redemption of a villain.  The target of the plot has to change their behavior and the perceptions of others.  That second part is important because those around them need to notice when they are either falling or rising.  I think this means you can use the ‘wolves’ of one character to influence the feeding and starving of those in another.  You can really get a domino effect in an adventuring party if one stumbles and takes the others with them.  It can also lead to a full fracturing of the heroes or even a villain group.

Finally, you can use this analogy to help with balance or maybe imbalance.  An author who keeps this in mind will pick up on when a character is acting too much out of their nature.  This can help them change decisions to be more inline with the character or to change their behavior going forward.  Otherwise, you might have things be inconsistent and readers will repeatedly drift out of the story.  They won’t take the hero or villain seriously if those characters aren’t stable.

So, what do other people think of the ‘two wolves’ use on character balance?

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Teaser Tuesday: Begone Foul Beasties!

Here is a Chasing Bedlam teaser since it’s been a while.  Enjoy the carnage!  Keep wondering if I should post the final book section by section one day.  The third one would be an issue since it was clearly a shot at 2016-2020 political and social figures, which wouldn’t go over well in today’s climate.

Cujo

Cujo

Continue reading

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Windemere Governments: Everthorne

(Originally posted on December 2o, 2014.  Only covers Legends of Windemere for a bit, but it was still interesting.)

Lake Town (Duh)

Lake Town (Duh)

This city may have been mentioned, but it doesn’t make an appearance until Book 8.  This means I should explain the Northern Sister City a bit.  Everthorne sits on the craggy northern coast of Ralian.  It is nestled in a swath of cleared ground between the Swamp of the Sun and the Ice Fields.  The swamp is home to various were-creatures and is perpetually warm and bright.  It even glows at night.  The Ice Fields are home to the mammoths and Ice Goblins who herd them.  To the south is a long region of hallucinogenic briars that take a day to traverse down a solitary path.  These surroundings make it difficult to visit Everthorne and trade is equally challenging.  So this is probably the poorest and weakest of the Sister Cities.

The reason Everthorne is included in Serab is because it is the only northern port.  They are maintained by the Duke and kept afloat, but there is only so much that can be done without them giving up all government control.  Even though the populace wishes for this to happen, the ruling party refuses.  They fear that another cataclysm will occur and leave them on their own, so removing their personal system would leave them susceptible to chaos.

The rulers of Everthorne are called the Pillars and they’re similar to the Grand Counselors of Gaia.  Each member is in charge of a certain area and may be a specialist.  There’s no way to be sure because the only known Pillar is the King who is more like a Lord, but refuses to change the title.  When these people meet, they wear billowing robes and masks to hide their identities.  Even their voices are disguised.  New Pillars are recruited by a mask appearing at the new person’s house with instructions.  Only the King knows that an immortal oracle lives under the castle and watches the future of the city.  That is why Everthorne will never truly fall.

The problem with this system is that the Pillars tend to fight for their own interests and rarely come to an agreement.  Laws that pass are usually done by setting up a meeting at the last minute to get some of the opposition to miss.  Not knowing who is a Pillar and who isn’t, this is a very risky maneuver and is not always successful.  In fact, it’s lead to some terrible laws that were immediately removed upon the next meeting.  To this end, the Pillars tend to be desperate and will jump at any chance to make progress for their city while retaining their anonymity.

Posted in Legends of Windemere | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

My Favorite: The Tiger

(Reposted from 2022.  Although, I’ve now read there are 5,574 tigers in the wild instead of the 3,900 below.  So, progress has been made.)

I love tigers.  They’re always my favorite at the zoo with red pandas coming in second.  So, I’m well aware of how endangered they are.  Only 3,900 left in the wild with breeding programs trying to fix that.  3 subspecies are extinct too.  Tigers are killed for the following reasons:

  • Habitat destruction
  • Reduced food supply
  • Poaching

In other words, it’s humans again.  Should I even point that out?  I think it’s pretty well-established that most, if not all, endangered species are in their position because of what we do.

HERE’S A SITE WITH PLENTY OF INFO!

Now, how many tiger species are there?  9 subspecies with 3 of those being extinct.  Though, there is debate on if it’s 2, 6, 8, or 9.  Let’s go with the bigger number for more pictures.

Bengal Tiger

Amur/Siberian Tiger

South China Tiger

Indochinese Tiger

Malayan tiger

Sumatran Tiger

Extinct- Javan Tiger

Extinct- Caspian Tiger

Extinct- Bali Tiger

And that’s the 9 subspecies.  There are also white tigers, but they’re mutations from Amur or Bengal tigers. Now, a video:

Posted in Animal Posts | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments