Goal Post: An End to Some Things?

Posted on October 14, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

I didn’t have a good week in terms of health.  Allergies, post nasal drip, and not sleeping well combined to make me limp through Thursday and Friday.  That’s why I’m writing this Friday night because I don’t know if I’m sleeping through all of Saturday or not.  Probably shouldn’t, but we’ll see what happens.

Glancing at my goals for this week, my simplicity made this a successful time.  I only wrote one December blog post and biked once because I did a lot more Pokemon Go outings than expected.  That might be why I felt so tired.  Well, the breaking of my oral appliance before I got the CPAP yesterday didn’t help.  Still, I can’t say the week was a wash and I got a decent amount of accomplished.  With any luck, this weekend will see me with more energy and I can add finishing a chapter of Darwin & the Beast Collector to the list.

I’m bouncing around a bit because I don’t really know what I’m going to be like when I wake up on Saturday.  As I said, I finally got a CPAP machine, so I’m using it for the first time.  It’s not what I expected.  It requires distilled water and I had to get the full face mask due to the way I sleep.  I’ve been told that it will take 2 weeks to get used to everything, but also that I could end up getting a perfect night of sleep right away.  There are a lot of morning maintenance things too, which will make workdays rather difficult.  I ordered some CPAP wipes to help there, but I still need to pack everything away before leaving for work.  We’ll see how this goes since I don’t know how deep a sleep I’m going to be getting.

As much as I want to get 2 chapters of Darwin & the Beast Collector done this weekend, I’ll be happy with one.  I’m at the start of the third act, so the next 3 chapters all have 4 sections.  The final 2 chapters have 3 a piece.  This means, I should finish by the end of November the latest.  Doing two sections on a Saturday and 2 on a Sunday should be fine.  If my energy and focus improves with the CPAP machine then I’ll start being able to write during a few weeknights or get back up to 3 sections on Saturday and Sunday.  Be nice to get my old energy and mojo again.  Hard to tell if it will happen because my sinuses are still a problem.

Oh!  I almost forgot about what I did with my son last Sunday night.  Since Monday was a day off, we went to the Bronx Zoo for a nighttime pumpkin event.  They had a trail with pumpkins emblazoned with animals.  Don’t really think they were real pumpkins, but I could be wrong.  Here’s a few of my favorite pictures:

There weren’t any real animals like we thought, but it was still a lot of fun.  Totally worth staying up until close to midnight.  It was the highlight of last weekend since Saturday was raining (homework time) and Monday was sleeping in then appointments.  We still got in enough Pokemon Go to get our exercise and accomplish tasks.  Maybe my son not being around is why I tend to not have much energy or focus on the weekends he’s not here.  I’ll have to think about that one.

Life event is still going on, which is another reason for stress.  Going to be a long month with that continuing.  I’m trying to distract myself with reading manga and watching some anime.  Technically, I do this anyway, but I’m rationalizing my actions that don’t involve writing now.  Whatever gets me through the worst of it.

This coming week is going to be more of the same.  The next two weeks have a bunch of appointments and meetings too.  It’s crazy that the life event is moving so rapidly while all this other stuff is going on.  Feels like I don’t have enough time to focus or breathe with everything going on.  If it isn’t an appointment for me, it’s one for my son.  It’s a struggle just to carve out a small about of quality time with him and resting time for myself.  Makes my head spin at times.  That’s why I’m not trying to push book writing as much as I would like.  I’d run myself ragged and either have to take a longer break from my books or put out terrible quality sections.  Best to accomplish what I can and hope there’s a point in the future where I have the time, energy, and health to get back into author form.

So, what are the goals of the week?

  1. Write some Darwin & the Beast Collector.
  2. Time with son for school and fun.
  3. Biking and walking.
  4. Appointments . . . Ugh.
  5. Get used to the CPAP.
  6. Keep eating salads.
  7. Work on December blog posts.
  8. Figure out more Sunday post topics.
  9. Keep the pain on the inside.
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Monster Month: The Hodag

Posted on October 13, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

Google Image Search

This one comes straight out of Rhinelander, Wisconsin.  I was surprised about how big and popular this monster was after I starting looking around.  So, what is a Hodag?

First, let’s talk about the Hodag’s origin.  It is considered a monster of American folklore from the 1800’s.  It was supposedly spotted by a lumberjack, which associated it with the forest and even early Paul Bunyan stories.  The Hodag remained low key until the late 1800’s when Eugene Shephard sent out a picture of one that him and some people hunted down.  They shot it with poison water and then used dynamite.  Three years later, he traveled around with a ‘captured Hodag’, which people could ‘see’ and hear in a darkened tent.  He would admit to it being a fake when scientists were on their way to take a look, but the legend still existed prior to Shephard and had locked itself in place.

Keep in mind that Shephard’s Hodag looked very similar to the mishipeshu or underwater panther.  This is an important mythical water being from the tribes of the Great Lakes and the Northeastern Woodlands.  Both creatures resembled a cat covered in scales and having spikes running along its back and tail.  The odd thing is that the description I gave and the one of the picture doesn’t even seem to match how Shephard described it or even his photograph:

Now, the Hodag is supposed to be large . . . Doesn’t look that way.  Shephard claimed it had the head of a frog, the face of a giant elephant, thick short legs with claws, the back of a dinosaur, and a long spiked tail.  The first picture looks closer to what he described, but not exact.  In fact, the Hodag looks more like a demonic ox, which makes sense.  It was aid to be born from the ashes of cremated oxen and be the living embodiment of the abuse they endured as beasts of burden.

It was also said that they went extinct after their favorite food became scarce.  What did these carnivores eat?  All white bulldogs.  This is why you really get a sense that this is all a hoax.  I mean, it seemed clear from the hunted one and live one, but we’re looking at it with modern eyes.  You would think that it being declared a hoax would make it lose its power.

Nope!  The Hodag is the official symbol of Rhinelander, Wisconsin.  Their high school’s mascot is the Hodag.  They have an annual music festival named after the creature.  The same goes for various businesses.  There are Hodag statues at the Chamber of Commerce and the ice arena.  They definitely leaned into the creature’s fame and made it their own, which is very impressive.  At this point, it doesn’t matter if the Hodag is a hoax.  Then again, maybe it isn’t and this whole thing is being done to protect a heavily endangered species that lives in secret.

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Homonyms with Harmony, Part 8–Commonly Misused ‘E’ Words

Posted on October 13, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

This post explores the origins of homonyms—words spelt and pronounced the same but with different meanings. We’ll discover how we use them in …

Homonyms with Harmony, Part 8–Commonly Misused ‘E’ Words
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Poetry Day: Frayed

Posted on October 12, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

(This one was written when I had really bad anxiety.  It was to the point that I had body spasms at times.  Not fun.  Glad I haven’t returned to that level.)

I can feel it

A subtle creeping

Like a serpent

Coiling up my spine

Releasing jolts

Of misfired cues

Fingers twitch

Shoulders stiffen

As if I’m on the chair

Such violent jabs

With an unseen source

Yet I feel them

Deep within the marrow

Like savage coughs

Made by muscles

They are the children

Of stress unchecked

Parasites that feed

And fester

Beneath my skin

Birthed from my limits

That have been reached

And shattered

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Series Background

Posted on October 12, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

With the publication of Goodbye Old Paint, it brings the series to seven titles. I always tell people these are stand-alone stories that simply use …

Series Background
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Monster Month: Olitiau

Posted on October 11, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

I’m almost tempted to put this under ‘Animal Posts’ because it’s really a giant bat.  This creature is found in Cameroon and is associated with the Kongamato, which is a pterodactyl cryptid.  Only because they both fly and tend to attack people wandering through a jungle.

Now, the Olitiau doesn’t come from folklore or mythology.  It is a cryptid in the same vein as Sasquatch and Nessie.  That is a mysterious creature that has been sighted in the wild and not identified as a known species.  The Olitiau really does skirt this because it’s description is simply that of a giant bat.  It is said to be all black and the size of an eagle with a 12 foot wingspan.  It has a semicircle of pointy teeth that are spread wide apart and it makes a chattering noise.  Finally, it was later said to have a face closer to that of a monkey than a dog.

Most of the information comes from a single encounter in 1936 by two men (Sanderson & Russell) who were leading an expedition to West Africa.  They encounter the Olitiau, which buzzed them twice and disappeared into the night.  Locals apparently said that they had seen the same type of creature of the years and revealed the name.  An interesting and simple tale, but it starts with the two men having shot the following animal:

Hammerhead Fruit Bat

While not the size of the Olitiau, the hammerhead fruit bat does match the description and they could have angered one after killing the first.  They don’t eat people, but that doesn’t mean they won’t attack.  It was also dark or at least shadowy along with the two men being startled and fueled by adrenaline.  So, the mind could play tricks to enlarge the beast that is coming for your face.  Then again, other people claimed to see or get harassed by it, so maybe it is real.

This story gets stranger too because somebody would later claim the Olitiau was a pterosaur, which upset Sanderson.  He didn’t agree even though he admitted it could be possible, but still thought pterosaurs were cliff-diving hunters.  Even with that thought, him and his partner claimed they had seen a large bat.  Unfortunately, the theory of a pterosaur muddied the waters and that’s why the Olitiau gets connected or absorbed by the Kongamato.

An interesting tidbit is the origin of the name.  Olitiau is thought to be a transcription of the Ipulo word for cloven or forked.  This is used for a local dance mask that depicts a devil.  The locals may have thought Sanderson was describing a devil instead of a large bat, which is why they shared their term for the mask.  When Olitiau was said to people in the region, they usually didn’t have a response.  Yet, sometimes they would if the word was stated closer to the original, mask name.  So, there could be a translation situation here as well.

My personal thought is that this could have been a incredibly large bat.  Possibly a mutant that grew much bigger than normal.  That’s if it really exists because it’s also possible that the Olitiau is a regular bat enhanced by human fear and imagination.  Still popular enough to end up in fiction though.

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Bad Moon Rising with Teri Polen

Posted on October 11, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

Today I am at Teri Polen’s place, participating in her Bad Moon Rising feature.  This feature is an annual event bringing together authors for the …

Bad Moon Rising with Teri Polen
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Beating the Snallygaster: Pantsing, Endings, and Working with Your Muse #writers

Posted on October 11, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

Hi, SEers! Thank you for joining me for another Mae Day on Story Empire. If you’ve been a follower of the blog for several years, you might recall me…

Beating the Snallygaster: Pantsing, Endings, and Working with Your Muse #writers
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Revisiting Origins: Mab the Dark Mistress

Posted on October 10, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

Cover Art by Alison Hunt

Mab is the only character from War of Nytefall who has already been introduced to readers.  She appeared in Legends of Windemere: The Mercenary Prince and kind of helped Delvin.  This showed an older, more mature, not as friendly version of this character who has turned out to have an interesting personality so far.  She’s serious with bouts of excitement that borders on childishness.  That usually comes about when she’s given a chance to be a thief, which is her true calling.  Similar to Clyde, Mab is very quick to go brutal on someone who has angered her and threatened the gang.  Some people might think this sounds a little like a previous female protagonist in my series.  There is a good reason why too.

While Nyx was my ex-wife’s first Dungeons & Dragons (as well as first overall) RPG character, Mab was her first Vampire: The Masquerade (second overall) RPG character.  So, the two had the same personalities at the beginning since my ex-wife was still learning the rules and how to play.  One typically starts with a persona closer to their real selves and she had the temper back then.  Complete with the punch throwing that Nyx started with.  Mab never got that, but was prone to giving ‘the look’ and mouthing off.  Her origin was rather simple too because it was her being a cat burglar and that was it.  Much of her depth came about as she was used due to her having one unique standing among the characters that my ex-wife played.

I had already been using Clyde for a bit and was helping her make Mab.  We came up with the idea to have them be criminal partners and lovers.  Only half of that actually happened once the game started.  Instead of mushy romance, Clyde and Mab bickered over old mistakes, past transgressions, and repeatedly stated why they broke up.  They still cared about each other and there was sexual tension, but the two of us had a bit too much fun with the bickering.  It’s funny because even though it sounded like they hated each other at times, there was always a very close bond of loyalty between them.  While Luke and Nyx became pseudo-siblings, Mab and Clyde were very much partners with a rather complicated history.  Still, they came the closest to being a couple, which is something my ex-wife and I never really played as.

This relationship was one of the main things I focused on with the first book and may do with the whole series.  The bond between these two is very important to them, which puts it on the front line of subplots.  It’s what helped Mab evolve into something different than Nyx and drives her initial actions.  It’s probably the most important relationship for Clyde who is always at risk of going full monster.  Their odd co-dependence is also why the characters tend to compliment each other.  Clyde is brute force and monstrous aggression while Mab is agility and a predatory savagery.  Both use stealth, but in different ways with Clyde using illusionary tricks and Mab having her shadow powers.  I would go so far as to say the they are the most dangerous pair I have in all of my series.  Not only because of their powers, but how they synch with each other to the point where one can read the other’s plan with a single look.

The powers for Mab were tougher to come up with than Clyde, but they were still easier than some of the other characters.  My ex-wife depended a lot on the claws of her RPG character, so that had to be her thing.  The ‘mind’ power was a tough one that’s also a secret for the book.  Besides, the biggest thing about Mab is her ability to travel through shadows.  It isn’t running along them, but entering a shadowy dimension between words and flying/swimming through it.  This came about because I wanted to give her a unique fighting style that would utilize her claws, her agility, and wreck havoc with large groups in contrast to Clyde just moving people down.  The image of her leaping from shadow to shadow, yanking people into the darkness, and even having only a clawed had come jutting out of the shadows seemed to really work with Mab.  I’m going to have a lot of fun doing her fight scenes.

(Side note: She never had a last name until this series and my ex-wife hated ‘Winthrop’.  It worked for her brother, but not with Mab.  So, I came up with the idea that it’s there, but she hates it and takes the surname as an insult.)

Since I gave a funny game story with Clyde, I might as well do something similar with Mab.  My ex-wife played her in a live action RPG, which requires that you try your best to dress up as the character.  Going cat burglar, she decided that no loose clothing aside from a leather jacket.  This is where Mab’s hydra-scale jacket came from because this item ended up turning into her trademark.  Anyway, the rest of the outfit was relatively skintight.  Now, these games typically start in a safe zone, so you have to hand over weapons until you ‘leave’ and this also requires a search.  That went like this:

Weapons Checker-  ‘I have to search you for hidden weapons.’
Mab-  ‘Really?’
W.C.-  ‘Part of the rules.’  *looks at her clothing, makes eye contact, looks at me, looks back at her’
Mab-  ‘What?’
W.C.-  ‘There’s no way you can hide any weapons on that outfit.  Go on in.’
Everyone with long coats, many pockets, and hidden weapons-  ‘Oh, come on!’

Even worse, she had a knife that was never confiscated.

2023 Additions– First, I had to go through and change ‘wife’ to ‘ex-wife’ for my own comfort levels.  Now, I really don’t know what to think about Mab even now.  The original plan was an awkward, but stable romance with Clyde that wouldn’t be challenged.  Then, my divorce started a few months after I released Lost and before I released Rivalry.  It was the latter where the Clyde/Mab romance went from ‘will they’ to ‘they will’.  The other books were planned out, but I was angry and upset for a while.  This is probably why I gave Mab a drug addiction after a planned miscarriage in Eradication.  Originally, Clyde and Mab were supposed to grow closer after some pain, but I really couldn’t bring myself to pull her out of the darkness.  This also made me realize that I had plans for Clyde to suffer, but Mab was getting away clean.  I didn’t have her emotionally broken after what should be a traumatic event, so I guess my being upset about my divorce also helped me keep the aftermath more realistic.  It resulted in Mab being on the edge of breaking throughout the rest of the series.  You don’t see it in her debut during The Mercenary Prince since I hadn’t thought it up, but I guess she really broke her habit.  Well, that and the person behind the drug wasn’t making it any more.  Now, would I change anything about Mab if I had to write her again?  Probably not.  I really don’t want to take my feelings for a real person out on a fictional one that’s transcended her origins.  Wouldn’t be right.

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Monster Month: Zilant

Posted on October 9, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

Google Image Search

As you can tell from the picture, this is some kind of dragon.  It has been the symbol of Kazan, Russia since the 1730, so it has a solid reputation.  Although, it has changed over the years from what I’ve read.

The Zilant isn’t exactly a dragon or a wyvern.  It’s kind of in between, so it stands on its own legs.  Originally, it four chicken legs, the body of a bird, and the tail of a serpent.  This changed due to Western influence and it developed a more reptilian visage similar to that of a wyvern.  So, it went down to two legs, which are sometimes depicted as arms, and a serpentine body.  The chicken parts were reduced to the claws and it developed the ability to breathe fire.

The Zilant also went from a positive image to a negative one, but now it appears to be back to being positive.  Part of this was the influence of invaders who saw the creature on flags and pushed the ‘flying evil serpent’ concept.  This changed the Zilant’s background and maybe responsible for it having a contradictory history.  Sometimes, it is a terrifying creature and other times it is not.  Really depended on who was telling the story and what time period.

A story that I kept finding about the Zilant had it as a two-headed serpent.  One head ate grass and the other swallowed virgins and children.  A young khan wanted to get rid of the Zilant and the other large snakes.  He was told to build a pile of straw and wood, which would attract them after they emerged from hibernation.  The pile was set on fire and the snakes died, but also released toxic gas.  The Zilant escaped to a lake where it is said to live and still take vengeance on the town.  Another version has it turn into a spirit that creates an underground kingdom.

There is another version of that story, which cuts out the escape to the lake.  Instead, the Zilant tries to get revenge on the knight who was told to set the pile on fire.  It’s a long chase and then a big battle.  The knight is cut into six pieces, but he used his poisoned pike to kill the Zilant as well.

A third version has the Zilant return to a nearby cave.  It would get a drink from the black lake and terrorize the village.  People tried to appease him through tributes, which ranged from regular food to virgins.  This couldn’t go on forever, so they eventually got a wizard to kill him.

Everything else I found was connected to movies, fantasy rpgs, and books.  So, the Zilant is a popular creature in fiction.  It’s folklore history seems to be that one story and then becoming the symbol of Kazan.

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