(So, this is a poem depicting a scene in Beginning of a Hero. It was one that kept evolving with giving more to secondary characters and leading up to Luke Callindor making a big mistake. There’s some childish humor in it too, but I think it works given the setting.)
Divided in pairs
By the stern instructor
Forced to depend
On the skill of another
Teamwork
The crucial skill
Essential to survive in battle
The drill is simple
Two on two
An even match
Yet for some
The difficulty rises
When paired
With a rabid rival
He is fast
While she is strong
A perfect pairing
But neither one
Can stand the other
And their foes
Are their mirror image
It starts off foul
Arguing
And working alone
Tempers flair
When she uses him
As a blunt weapon
To smack the larger boy
Their teacher shouts
And threatens
Promises of labor
In the distant swamp
Filled with mire
And monsters
Feared by all the class
A change is sensed
They work together
Keeping the others
Off balance
Until the moment’s right
And they divide
To battle one on one
She wrestles with the big man
His massive strength|
Against her corded muscle
Both backed
By Giant’s blood
Pummeling each other
Like warring bears
Her ally has the girl
The princess of the class
She backs away
From his flurry of attacks
Stumbling like a fool
Yet mysteriously
Always out of reach
The big man cries
As his knee is buckled
His partner runs to help
Forgetting
Where she is
And that the fleet-footed boy
Is standing in her way
He reaches out
To grab her arm
Missing as she weaves
Yet his hand is full
Of her simple shirt
That tears away
And ends the day’s lesson
(Originally posted on April 8, 2015. Do not follow list if weather or situation puts self at risk of harm.)
Yahoo Image Search
At the urging of loved ones, including the dying orchid in the corner, you decide to open the window. Taking a big sniff of fresh air, you promptly pass out. Apparently, you’ve been inside for so long that your body mistook the clean air for poison. On the plus side, your trip to the hospital counts as getting out and meeting new people, so your family will leave you alone for a week.
You answer the door for Halloween and kids run screaming from your terrifying ghost costume. You consider it a step in the right direction since last year they thought you were a zombie. Still, you might want to do something about being paler than an albino.
The slightest ray of natural sunlight causes you to do your best Gizmo from Gremlins imitation. Complete with high-pitched screaming about the bright light and the smell of burning flesh. Though that second one might be caused more by you using matches for small light sources.
You have no recollection of what your town looks like. Google Earth helps you fake it when your online friends ask about where you live. But you just said you enjoy going to a restaurant that burned down a year ago. Maybe you should start taking some walks before people start thinking you’re a computer program instead of a real human.
The last time you saw your house key, it was in your jacket pocket. Now you have no idea where either one is. Though the pile of moth-eaten fabric with a sprinkling of rust looks familiar. Come to think of it, where did those moths go to?
You cannot confidently answers the question ‘Are you animal, vegetable, or mineral?’ because you might be all three.
There is a car waiting outside your house and you have no idea where it came from. It just sits there and nobody ever comes to claim it. The police have driven by and say that they don’t see this mystery car. You think you are losing your mind because the car is right there. Now that you think about it, you vaguely remember owning a Corolla as well. That same color too, but not as rusty and faded. Whatever happened to that thing? OH!
Here’s a fun excerpt from The Life & Times of Ichabod Brooks. This one is long because it’s descriptive entirely and was an early challenge to make a scene with no talking. I used to do this with Fizzle a lot, but stopped and this was when I tried to get back into it. I depend a lot on dialogue and action when telling a story, so removing one of my two most common author weapons presents a challenge. It also means it’s tough to find a good breaking point for spoilers, but I can just give you the whole thing. People seem to really like Ichabod Brooks, so it shouldn’t be an issue. Enjoy!
The Central Sister City is where Duke Solomon, ruler of Serab, lives and makes the kingdom laws. Again, this is a rather basic system with a ruler and his advisers. I’ll get more into that later, but first an explanation of the Law Archives.
Gods’ Voice is one of the few cities that survived the Great Cataclysm and the only one to retain its rulership during the chaos of the following years. That’s why it became the center of the Serabian Kingdom and has such an oddly shaped territory. The chaotic regions that weren’t part of the jungles, plains, mountains, barbarian territory, and desert were absorbed. They were placed under the former laws of Gods’ Voice and the residing Duke created his first council. This resulted in a year long meeting to create new laws and revise the old ones. Every region and species got a say, which is why you see such a mix in the cities. You also have strange laws that stuck around for some reason such as ‘The Throne is responsible for any damage done to an administrative office by the forces of an enraged barbarian’.
As for the Duke and his advisers, they rule until their leader decides to retire. When the Duke steps down and hands the throne to his successor, his closest advisers retire as well to make room for the next group. There is a period of training their replacements to make sure they know where everything is and they are always on hand to help. The idea is to always make room for the future and for a ruler to have those he/she has trusted for longer than they have ruled. This may also stem from a few incidents in the past where retained advisers attempted to push former agendas that were no longer viable.
Hello again for another animal. This one is the ‘World’s Happiest Animals’ because they always seem to be smiling. They aren’t afraid of people either, so there’s a trend to get a selfie with them. Of course, they live in Australia, so you can’t do it that easily unless you’re a local. What are they?
The Quokka
Now, this is a type of wallaby, which means they’re a marsupial. They are considered vulnerable for the following reasons:
Loss of habitat
Mostly the introduction of dogs, cats, and foxes to their habit. These aren’t their normal predators, so these animals have weakened their populations. Foxes are apparently the biggest issue for them.
Since they’re a type of wallaby, they’re a subspecies themselves. So I won’t have different types. Means more pictures of them in general. Enjoy. (All images found in Google Image Searc.)
And let’s not forget some videoes. The second one is very informative.
Yesterday was the last day for summer school. That means I get 11 days before I have to go back for superintendent’s conference day. There are two of those and then a 3 day weekend before I’m back for the 26-27 school year. It’ll be like I never left. Mostly because I really didn’t get a lot of time off.
This week was all about getting to the weekend. I managed to start chapter 4 of Darwin & the Deadland Queen. There were two evenings where I thought I could get the other two sections done, but it didn’t work out. One of them had to go to cleaning and making a list for the upcoming father/son trip. The other ended up being at the end of a really crazy work and post-work day, so I just collapsed until I had to get up again. My hope is to finish chapter 4 before leaving for our trip. It’s possible even though I have to pack, cook, shop, and help my son with a bunch of things. I can think of two or three days that might give me the time.
I know there are other projects coming up too. My son gave me his next, and possibly final, Halloween costume idea. This one will require I figure out how to mold things out of cosplay clay and style a wig. We’re trying to figure out how to create a zigzag zipper on a jacket too, but I think I have a solution. The zipper won’t be functional, but it will look the part. It’s going to be this:
Dr Xeno from Doctor Stone
One project I really want to make progress on is the outline for Coven of the Gray. I added one chapter synopsis, which is weird to say. I think this is going to work so much better with each ‘chapter’ have 1-2 coven members. This will end up being more of a short story style to flush everyone out. I want to do 13 stories though, but I already have three ‘pairings’. I wonder if I should have at least one story be without a coven member such as the hero being trapped in their returning memories. That does horn in on the powers of one enemy though. Maybe I shouldn’t get hung up on having 13 stories and just make sure everything works out. 10 isn’t a bad number for a collection.
Keep thinking something else happened this week, but it’s really work stuff and the life event. I should just say that the life event involves custody of my son. Not going to go into details because it’s complicated, messy, and not something that should be public. A lot of high emotions from all corners too. This has actually being going on for months, but kicked up a few notches at the start of the summer. A big reason I’m so tired and finding it hard to write. Not only energy, but having the time and space. We’re going to see how things go this week when I want to write and my son goes to draw. Really going to depend on how easily we get through everything else.
Let’s see . . . I didn’t have any nocturnal panic attacks this week. That’s good, but I have no idea why. It wasn’t like my stress went down, especially with end of summer school stuff and the custody situation. Wish I had an explanation. Although, I did wake up having stomach issues a few times. Maybe that’s the trade-off. My weight isn’t going down either, so perhaps the fixation on that is countering the typical doom spiraling my mind does when I wake up with a jolt. Been eating less most days and walking as much as I can with some stationary biking thrown in if I can’t get outside. Yet, I’m not losing weight. There’s more going on inside though, so a big part is apparently reducing my stress and getting my body out of ‘fight/flight’. It’s been there for years, so you can imagine what a mess that’s made beneath the skin.
As I said, we have a father/son trip coming up. Short one with only two full non-traveling days away, but I can use it. Going to be the first one with my new car, so I need to remember it’s a smaller gas tank and weaker engine. My phone is going to act as my GPS and radio too. Worried that’s going to kill the battery. Running into a current issue where the phone will stop charging because it heats up too much while I’m running both apps. I can’t put it in front of a vent either. So, I might have to keep my phone out of the sun at times, which means out of sight. Thankfully, I always memorize the main parts of the route and watch for signs. Might buy a second portable battery to be safe though.
Every article of clothing that you own has a hidden weapon. This makes doing laundry very difficult and it is not uncommon for a knife to get stuck in the lint trap. Let’s not even get into the challenge of removing blood from silk.
You don’t remember the last time your phone rang and it wasn’t a gravel-voiced man with a request or sultry femme fatale. There was that elderly librarian calling about a late fee, but that was for one of your aliases. So it doesn’t count. Especially since you’re pretty sure that persona died in a bus accident.
You only have two modes: charming and cold. There is nothing in the middle and you switch so easily that you aren’t sure which one is the real you. One time you tried to be friendly and it resulted in 17 deaths, 3 collapsed buildings, and a cruise liner getting launched into the Statue of Liberty.
Before you took on your current line of work, you were in some kind of special forces where you learned all of your skills. There’s no telling what those skills are until you need them. In fact, you have no idea how you mastered so many things before the your twenty-fifth birthday.
Every time you get into a car, it turns into a destructive chase. This is why you walk to get your groceries, which still has the occasional gunfight in the produce aisle. For some odd reason, you’re never arrested even though you’re caught on camera. The few times cops get involved, they give up after a lengthy chase and forget you ever existed.
If you go a week without leaping off a high ledge into water, staring through a sniper scope, or jumping through a window then you don’t know what you’re doing with your life.
You’ve been to every vacation hot spot, but you have no photos or souvenirs from them. Not even wanted posters because those mean you aren’t good at your job.
(It really is odd that humans consider themselves the superior creature of Earth. We come up short in so many things. Still, it has got me wondering how other creatures perceive the planet and their place in it.)
Do cats believe
They are the chosen
Because their claws retract
Do giraffes believe|
They are Earth’s center
Because they have the longest necks
Do spiders believe
They are God’s favorite
Because they can spin webs
Why do humans believe
They are the highest form
When they lack what others have
We brag about our minds
They are the most evolved
Dividing us from the faunal rabble
Yet does this make us higher
Than the stronger bear
Or the faster hummingbird
We can change our world
Which we typically destroy
Believing we have the holy right
Our fanatic actions
In the name of human need
Cause harm to the global garden
So why are we superior
When in countless ways
We are naturally inferior
Do all animals believe
They are the chosen species
Because this thought is a simple fact of living?
Welcome, potential evildoer, to the store where we have minions, lackeys, henchmen, fodder, and whatever other human resources you need. You’re not a cop or a hero in disguise, are you? Of course not. The dogs would have already torn your throat out if you were. What dogs? Best you don’t ask and pretend you didn’t hear anything. So, what can I get for you?
First timer with a powerful hero to contend with? Wow, I don’t want to know what you did to get that racket. Seriously, I don’t care about origins because I’m not your therapist or friend. Now, it sounds like you need a wide variety of underlings. I suggest getting Combo 37, which includes a small army of nameless drones, an altered death squad of three to five codenamed henchmen, and a powerful right hand assistant. No, the gender and powers are up to you. Grab one of those clipboards and start filling out the form while I show you around the warehouse. Watch where you go since we had a small . . . incident and are still cleaning the floors.
Don’t worry about the drones since they’re around to get destroyed by the hero, so we’ll create an army based on the others. Given you have a flying and beam-shooting enemy, I recommend a four person death squad. Five would be overkill and three feels like it won’t be enough. Might I suggest a bruiser, a reflector, a speedster, and the hot one who doesn’t do anything besides looking pretty. Yes, I have that last one in male. You can do whatever you want with him, but the warranty is voided if you hurt, kill, or marry him. No, making an example of him won’t void the warranty, but we do require you give us a written explanation and the body within 48 hours. The only reason for an extension is if you’re in jail and there are no agents to contact us. Though, we’ll know about that simply by watching the news and our spy cameras. What spy cameras? Don’t worry about. Standard issue in our business. Here, have a cupcake while we move on to your main henchman.
Now, you’re a technology-based villain as I can see from the funny gun at your hip and all the gizmos on your head. That’s your hair? Kids these days. So, what kind of villain are you? Summoned from the hell of the future to get revenge on your former master’s enemies, but he was killed soon after you arrived. So, you have no idea what you’re doing here and are simply going for world domination? I have a power absorber in stock that can help with your enemy and be used as a battery for any doomsday weapons. There’s a sale on psionic henchman where you buy one and get a mindlinked one for half off. They count as one agent since they share the same psychic space. The only thing is that losing one means the other is useless or insane. We’ve also had a few complaints about them trying to absorb each other in a mental war of wills. If that happens then we’ll give you store credit and . . . refund? Only if you can fight your way to the portal in the basement and defeat Cthulu. He’s your uncle? In that case, I’ll throw in a tropical island lair on your next purchase. What if you win the first time? That’s adorable.
Ichabod Brooks & the City of Beasts (Cover by Nio Mendoza)
This is going way back! Before The Life & Times of Ichabod Brooks, I gave our favorite adventurer a smaller outing. It was a single short story that was well received on the blog. I figured it was a great way to introduce people to him, my writing style, and Windemere. It’s called Ichabod Brooks & The City of Beasts. Feel free to check it out since it’s cheap and a quick read at 27 pages. Hence the short teaser created solely for ambiance.
Legends of Windemere 