A little back story here. In freshman year of college, a few friends make a fake fraternity because they wanted to be in one, but were too lazy to pledge. It was called Phi Beta and the only reason I wasn’t a founding member is because I was taking a test. Missed it by an hour, but that’s besides the point. This crew lasted to a point that I cannot legally talk about. 😀 The grand order of Phi Beta will forever be etched into my mind, so I had to make a story about them. Being a fiction author, it was going to be wild.
This began as a science fiction story with Phi Beta being a squad of misfits in a military academy. This academy trained groups that would go to foreign wars and act as a 6-man specialty squad. There was the Pointman (leader), the medic, the shadow (stealth operative), the Jack (knows a bunch of everything), the Biosuit user, and the psychic because that could be done now. Think Animal House mixed with the training part of Starship Troopers. Yeah. It was a strange series. I took all of the crew and turned them into various supporting characters or villains. I lacked a female hero, but I thought I could get away with it considering they were run like a fraternity.
The main crew was a Jack with a cybernetic arm and eye that came from the gangland area. There was the rich psychic/biosuit user that was trying to get used to being out of his life of luxury. The stealth with a secret past and a habit of finding things that ‘fell off the shuttle’. The pointman/medic that was into women, booze, violence, and being in charge. Various supporting cast were around too. The first book was based on real events then went with a book for each preceding year and a spring break book.
Then came the transition to Windemere. I’m still not 100% how to work some things in like the magnetic wave powered motorcycle. The characters still work and the military academy has been changed to a college for adventurers. During the Age of Heroes, this would be a ridiculous idea that someone would have. Maybe this is going to be more humor than seriousness. We were a whacky bunch. I’m leaning toward adding a female and another guy into it, so there are no doubling up on roles. Maybe throw in a 7th that acts as an engineer, but is more background and support. With the rise of technology, this idea could work out pretty well. It could even be fun to make the leader a gnome, which would explain the motorcycle. Never heard of a badass gnome, so that could be unique.
So, this is another idea that I’ve been toying with this week. It’s one that is dear to my heart because of its origin. Also, I really couldn’t come up with a good sci-fi ending, so going fantasy seems to have helped a bit. Previously, it was being stuck on a zombie-infested alien planet with their rivals and a pair of assassins. We played a lot of Resident Evil back in those days.
Legends of Windemere 
Sounds like a blast!
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And this is one of the reasons why I love to be a writer!!!!! This is a great idea too!
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Thanks. There are some wild stories in this one. Though, my wife is annoyed that it is another story where the character based on her doesn’t hook up with the character based on me. For some reason, most of our fictional selves never match up romantically.
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Ahahah! This is nice!
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I love to see how creative you are and how these idea pop into your heard. Great post and keep on writing 🙂
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Thanks. Don’t plan on stopping as long as the fingers work. I’d go for that voice software that types what you say, but my fantasy writing could give those seizures.
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There’s got to be a female character, Charles…just got to be – maybe more than one. What’s an adventure story without a bit of the ‘ol sexual tension? Women always seem to stir things up, and I’m not talking cooking here ! Like the idea of a psychic…but with a psychic, they would always be avoiding the usual conflict troubles. He’d always be tamping down the tension by directing the group away from trouble…unless he was a dysfunctional psychic, which would help the humor.
Later…
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I’m thinking of making it more of a telekinetic than a psychic. I’m so used to people not understanding that term that I keep saying psychic.
The tough thing with the female character is that the crew this is based on was mostly male. There were two women involved, but not really involved to the point where you’d call them main cast. This is one of the pains of working off reality. I’m not even sure, which role I would put her into. The medic sounds cliche and the Biosuit driver would make her Ripley from Aliens. The other roles are kind of stuck on the original crew. I did have a female weapons specialist and can bump her up to main cast like the engineer.
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House mother, but what a mother…cooking up fertilizer bombs, plots, pumpkin pie, an making the guys do the dishes. Linda Carter meets Lindsey Lohan – whoooaaaahhhoooo !
Later….
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I’ll have to think about that one. I’m really worried about putting a female character in that keeps all of the male characters in line. I’ve read stories like that and it always makes the males come off as utter morons while the female character comes off as the only smart person in the series.
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I am always amazed at your imagination! My son still talks about his Sigma Nu days…like the night they moved all of the signs around in the city, doctors became dentists and lawyers became morticians, Applebee’s became Bennigan’s and so on. Your’s sound much more daring, a lot more dangerous and probably more fun! I like the idea of a female engineer…a woman in a less traditional role that promotes math and science…we need more women encouraged to enter these fields.
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I was thinking about that too. Making the engineer/weapons expert female would be interesting, but I’d have to make her as messed up as the others. Can’t have a sane, nice character on the team.
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Of course! But you guys know all women are crazy…that shouldn’t be too hard.
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Of course. The challenge is making her crazy mix with the guys’ crazy.
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Maybe she should be a lesbian who refuses to join the sorority so she gets accepted by the fraternity. That could be fun, esp if she has her girlfriends over.
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I have a feeling this story is starting to move away from the antics and the squad making sure they make it to the following semester. 😀
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🙂
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Very cool, nice back story. Animal House is a very important film to me (‘They confiscated everything, even the stuff we didn’t steal!’), I grin just thinking about it and can’t watch Roamn documentaries or even Spartacus without chanting in my head ‘Toga,toga,toga!’. Your imagination is a brilliant realm, Charles, I must come adventuring there with you some day…
I really liked how some ideas started somewhere special to you like that, somwhere in your past, I can relate to this. Best wishes, baldy 🙂
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Animal House and PCU were two of the big movies of my college years. My friends and I loved to say, ‘They took the bar! They whole f’in bar!’ That and threatening to ‘Belushi’ a guy’s guitar when he played horribly.
You’re welcome to visit, but you’ll have to sign a waiver. There are some dangerous critters in there.
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awesome, that line about the bar is also one of my faves. I like the terminology: ‘belushi a guitar’… That one may come in to use this side of the pond! I grin throughout the entire movie. Note to self about the critters, I like you, Charles but I’ll still have to read the smallprint before I sign, critters tend to be able to smell fear and I had ‘whatthef%^&wasthat’ for breakfast.
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They’re relatively harmless. Not sure what to relate them to for them to seem harmless, but I’m sure there’s something.
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“Animal House mixed with the training part of Starship Troopers”……….. now that is something I would love to see! LOL
Great story my friend 😉
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Thanks. It’s going more sword and magic these days, but I’ll see what happens when I get to the deeper planning stages.
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I love how your mind is always plotting plots 🙂 I think it sounds great and I look forward to seeing what you do with it!
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Thanks. The plotting of plots is definitely one of my best skills. Just wish it would turn off when I want to sleep.
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