Late Furry Friday

Sorry this post comes late, but I wasn’t able to get in and settle to write anything until late last night (Friday).  Work has me leaving at 7PM and fortunately, mom was wanting some all you can eat fish; which I was craving as well.  We did go out for dinner, but wouldn’t you know it, they ran out of the hand battered fish for the all you can eat at 6:30 so we had to make do with something else from the menu.  We’re such huge regulars at this place that we didn’t mind and had a good dinner while we playfully teased our server and the night manager.

Because we are regulars at Village Inn, they proved how well they know us by getting our drink orders without asking.  All they did was make sure of what Colin wanted.  He changes it up with each visit but his drinks are usually one of three things.  His normal meal has also changed but they took it in stride and made it extra special good for him.

I love our normal server at Village Inn.  While she does keep up a professional attitude, she’s funny, vibrant, and willing to go that extra mile, like bringing my mom and me a pitcher of unsweet tea to refill our glasses.  We drink that much tea when we’re there.  She also puts a couple extra lemons in knowing we love lemon in our tea.  She’s taken the time to memorize our usual orders, including Dave who doesn’t come in as much as mom and I do.

It’s people like her that I put into my stories.  Though the main character I associate with her is in another book (being written right now), I keep certain aspects of her for others stories, like the young druid in one of the short stories in my erotica compilation.  The kitsune she’s seeking is based on someone I knew as a child and someone I know online now whose character this fox is based on.

I’ve encountered a block on the story with the druid and kitsune.  He’s supposed to be playing tricks on her while she follows his trail.  Along the way, it’ll be him that falls for her.  She, Leofa, won’t be in love with him, but she will be infatuated.  Her heart belongs to the Nature goddess who currently remains unnamed so their relationship won’t go the same way as others have in this set.

Another story will take things in reverse, in a way.  I haven’t thought of a working title for it, yet.  This one has the dragon/elf taurs. (I know, very difficult to imagine let alone conceive)  This story will start off with the sex scene then the couple will have to deal with the consequences of it when they reach their new home and wait to be paired with their future ‘mates’.  It won’t go well for them socially, but they will stay together even though they’re community will try to force them apart.

I’m still thinking of other stories to add into this compilation to make a total of ten.  I was thinking of doing a story with my elf character Jade.  She’s younger, a little more naive and trying to forget the bloodshed and lost comrades in a war between two tribal kingdoms she fought in.  This would be the story where she meets to one man who stole her heart and helped her heal emotionally from the war and find a new home among the folca in the high mountains.  It could be an interesting story if bittersweet in its own way.  When she married, she was still considered young by elf standards.

I don’t know.  We’ll see how the muse dances when I finally finish revisions on SoNL.  That one is my primary focus for now.

Black Friday News

It’s Sunday again.  This week has been a busy one but not as hectic as before my birthday.  I found out Monday that I was being cursed during my week of vacation.  Not only was I out, but two others were down sick for a few days.  They were mega-short on techs and they were slammed.

Well… I didn’t expect anyone to be sick and neither did they.  Sometimes, Murphy’s Law likes to sneak up and backhand everyone just to see how well they can handle the pressure.  According to sales and the weekly reports, they handled it just fine.

But, that isn’t what this post is about.  But, it does hint at what will be done in Black Friday 2.  For the curious, I’m going to give a few ideas of what will be going to happen.  Much of this is what I think would naturally happen.    To help with it, I’ve watched a little Survivor Man, talked to a few people who have done similar things.  I’ve even sought out the opinions of co-workers and friends on how they think people would respond and how they would react to finding out if they were a therian or if someone they knew and respected was a therian.

Just think, this is the closest I have come to actually plotting out a story.  Strange… isn’t it?  Especially since I’m a write by the seat of your pants type of writer.

Karina, her mate, adopted son, and her son’s best friend and former pet have gotten their growing menagerie of new therians into a safe place where they can rest, heal, and learn while winter rages around them.  Considering the season and where they are, it won’t be an easy task surviving the cold ravages of winter.

Their first task is to patch holes in walls, windows, and roofs to get through the first big storm.  Think of this storm as the one we had at the beginning of Snowmagen here in Oklahoma and other states in the nation.  If you guessed a blizzard, then you will be correct.  Thankfully, this type of weather will work to their advantage.  For now.

If you are thinking what I’m thinking, then you know this is no global takeover by a smart, if clueless, mouse and his insane and funny companion.  We won’t even consider what the kids will look like if Binky and Pippy get married.

I’ve given this a lot of thought.  They’ll have to find food, learn to hunt while hunting, repair their new and possibly temporary home, while making sure no one but other therians will find them hiding deep in the Appalachian Mountains.  Their only real godsend is the place they found is off the main trail tucked away in a valley.

Tensions will be running high between them while personalities clash and spark heated arguments.  I can almost bet Karina will not be as calm when spring starts to warm the snow-covered land.  Other things will be happening as well when all of them realize that Nature’s call will affect each of them at some point or another.  By then, Karina will be ready to step in her role to give back to her people who their battle with the sorcerers took from them at their last stand.

Those diabolical magic users haven’t been wiped out.  Not by a long shot.  They’re doing their own planning and setting into motion plans which will threaten the peaceful therians in more ways than one.  The sorcerers will even have some help from someone among Karina’s group.  I know who that person is.  They’ll be shown why you can’t trust a magic user during their darkest hour.

Personally, I think this book will go well beyond the 50 or even 80K mark.  There won’t be as many time jumps and the POV will also change some to give the reader a better sense of what is happening and why.  Definitely won’t be dropping so many names like I did in the first but those I did use will be appearing at one point or another in this one.

Progress on Society

No, not today’s society.  No one wants to listen to my opinions on the atrocious degradation of today’s society.  We’ll save that for a very special post on another blog that few will ever see.  Nah, the society in question tonight is Society of Night and Lies.  (Honestly, I still need to come up with a book title. That’s the trilogy title.)

Since the weekend I have pondered how I should re-write chapter eight.  This chapter is Sabrina tells her past to Jason.  For a while I have asked myself ‘Why would she be telling anyone that much about her past?  That wasn’t what he was wanting to know.’  Then, last night, while I am letting my mind relax by playing a few rounds of Jewels Legend in bed and the idea comes to me.  Instead of totally re-writing this chapter, change it so there are internal thoughts which will tell the reader the how and why, but have her only give the more pertinent information in the dialog of their conversation.

Sabrina has kept her past a secret for a while.  There’s no real need to blab about it to someone she’s only known part of that time.  Sure, she trusts Jason, but she isn’t sure where his allegiances lie because the Claw and Fang want him dead and they want her to do the deed.  For all she knows, he could be working for another, similar, group and she has been targeted by them.  While possible, nothing has been said about it in the past and he’s acting pretty secretive as well.

There’s a twist to add into the story.  I’ll have to think about that while I go over chapter eight.

Which brings me to something else.  I need to download and re-read the short stories the creator of this world and owner/player of the character Jason Foxworth (who is a totally awesome guy, good looking and very talented).   He will be getting the main mention when it comes time to publish.  This is his world and I’m only borrowing it for this trilogy.  I’m just glad he’s allowing me to use it and publish.

Back to the original topic…

This will definitely work this chapter, but I’ll have to see if it’ll work for the others where she’s going on about her past.  Only this one has any real information that useful. The rest, I think, can be cut down to a paragraph or two and worked into the ongoing story.

Be honest, does this sound like a workable solution to prevent a lot of re-writing?

On a side note, tomorrow, the 9th, is my 41st birthday.  It’s amazing I managed to live this long without something going horribly wrong considering the accidents I’ve had in youth.  So, if there’s no post tomorrow, you now know why.

Ideas from Dreams?

http://www.xlibris.com/BlackFriday

Ick!  Two days with no post.  Bad girl!  No cookies for me.  😉  Good excuses though.  Tuesday, I didn’t get home until late thanks to some much needed shopping.  I ate my pizza, checked emails, then crashed hard, only to be awakened at am by my tom cat running across my legs after something.  Good thing he did.  The dream I was having was about to turn into a nightmare.  >.<

I guess the mix of humidity, no air flow, and five cheese pizza didn’t make for good dreaming or good sleep.

Dreams are windows into our psyches.  They give insights into things we have repressed or buried so deep, we can’t consciously think of them.  They show our fears to our naked mind.  But, our dreams also give ideas.  Ideas that could become something truly amazing.

Would you believe that the wonderful invention known as the sewing machine wouldn’t be here today if the guy who made it didn’t have a dream about it?  It wasn’t about the machine itself but how to make it work.  Before man even thought of the airplane, he dreamed of flying with wings of his own while watching birds soar high over head.

It was because of a dream that some of my stories came into being.  I still have one running about in my head that I am not sure how to begin.  It centers around transformation, felines, canines and an invasion of some kind.  It is the invasion that starts the whole thing off.  Needless to say, the dream repeated itself several times and I thought on it for about two years straight on how the plot moved before it simply faded into the back of mind to spring up  once in a while.  Elements of this story appear in a lot of my fiction.  In fact, Black Friday has a lot of it in there.

The dream that I had Tuesday night, though, started off innocently enough.  Nothing noteworthy, just the general worries of the week strolling through of me trying to get the shopping done and pay bills.  Mundane stuff everyone thinks about and immediately forgets upon waking.  Then, it took a turn into the strange.  I was speaking to my mom while we were out walking someplace.  Could  have been a park, arboretum, or down one of the streets near her apartment.  My son was there running ahead and being a goofy little twerp.  Nothing unusual except for the general vibe.

We were talking about ideas and what to do once money came in.  Moving has been heavy on my mind lately, so I am sure that was the conversation; which apartment complex were we considering.  Nice places that offered Wal-Mart employees discount were at the top of the list, then things which benefited us as a whole for general entertainment and budgeting.  While we were talking, a bee flies up and makes a few circles, almost diving by as if it were controlled by some sadistic person.  Think of the flybys done in Top Gun and you have the right idea of what this insect was doing.  Both my mom and me are allergic to bee stings.  But, she’s one who needs the epi-pen for just in case.  Anaphelptic(sp?) shock is what hers becomes when stung. (Boo)  Mine gets extremely painful and requires doctor care, but to the point of nearly killing me.  (Yay)  Still, I’m twitchy around stinging insects like bees and was ducking away from this dive bombing pest.

Then, it lands on her.  I panic and immediately swipe it off her and it comes diving back with stinger poised to sting on impact.  How it was caught in mid-air by me, I don’t know, but suddenly, in my dream, it was there and buzzing madly at me while wriggling.  No way was I going to let my mother be stung by something as small as a bee.  It gets flung away into a clump of aromatic flowers.  I wasn’t going to kill it, bees are a necessity in nature.  We start to walk off and look back as we return to our conversation.  Things are quiet then an eerie chill crawls up my neck and tickles the base of my skull and vibrates in my ears.  Mom looks terror-stricken.  I look back and there it is; the bee I flung away and the rest of its hive swarming behind it.  Not only was that single bee mad, but so were the rest and we were in their sites.

Last thing I remember from the dream was that swarm spiraling toward me.  i was frozen in place, unable to move at all and shaking.  Mom was trying to run off and protect my son.  right as the first bee was about to sting, Caffeine, my tom cat, runs  over me, nicks me with a claw and makes this funny meow when he wants to play.  He woke me up just in time.  Had that nightmare continued, it could have caused some damage from the shock factor alone.  I was that deep into sleep with it and thought I was awake.

If I were any good at writing horror, or suspense, that would make a wonderful story line to read.  Something along the lines of a Stephen King novel.  heh  Would be cool if he stumbled across this journal and got inspiration for his next book from that dream.  Now that I have it wrote down, I may do something with it.  I don’t have to keep it alive in my mind until I think of what I could do with it.

Now, if anyone want to analyze that dream, let me know, I’ll try to give more details upon request.  Or, just offer suggestions about what could be behind it besides an over active imagination and repressed feelings of fear and anger.  I’ll listen.

People who say they don’t dream, aren’t really living.  They aren’t as healthy as they think they are mentally.  Perhaps their dreams are just forgettable.  Things happen and simply do not get filed away into higher memory where the waking mind will contemplate what it saw.  Or, what happens in the dreams is just so intense, the mind cannot cope and buries it deep.  Deep into places where only a psycho-analyst and hypnotist dare to tread to bring them out so they won’t cause any further problems.

Repressing your dreams is just as bad as repressing your feelings.  They have to e given thought or else you simply won’t be able to function in society.  They can hold you back as well as push you forward.

That nasty dream stuck with me all through Wednesday.  I managed to get my shopping and a bit of laundry done.  Even took a nap before starting off just so I could focus on driving and the budget I had to buy food with.  A lot more snoozing was done while listening to animes like Ben 10 and Pokemon (shudder), and a round of SWAT Cats  before mom got in from work.

She made the best sirloin steaks ever!

By the time I had all that running around done, my gas gauge was sitting practically on empty.  The ten dollars mom loaned me last Friday was to last me until today, payday, so i could fill up but an unexpected trip cut me short on fuel.  So, I intended to wait until midnight when my paycheck was to be auto-deposited.  Colin, cute little twerp that he is, stayed awake to make sure we left.

We no sooner pull out and go a few feet when i hear an odd sound coming from my wheels.  I park (two spaces away from where I was) and find my back passenger tire was flat.  No way I was getting home to write any blogs or do anything until morning.  Thankfully, mom lent me her AAA card so it was changed out without any fees and we were on our way.

Here’s something weird.  No one knows what size tank is in my Lumina.  My brother tried to purposefully run it out of gas.  it was sitting on empty and the thing still started and got him where he wanted to go.  Mom tried to do the same thing and the car would not run out of gas.  Unintentionally, I tried and came very close… this time.  I squeezed in almost 16 gallons.  So, Dave and I figure it has an 18 gallon tank.  Give or take.

More than plenty go another two weeks before putting more gas in.  I know that will put it around a quarter of a tank since I go mostly to and from work which about 11 miles round trip.  Round trip to mom’s apartment is almost 25 miles and she’s just a few miles beyond work.  For Colin’s therapy, it’s around 14 miles round trip.  Thankfully, if we need groceries, I can get them en route when coming home from work, or pick them up there.  Only once a month do I go out of my way to restock shelves.  I must go where the deals are to save money.

Now that I think about it and I have that bad dream written down, I wonder if I could turn it into a NaNo novel this November.  If I give it enough thought, it shouldn’t disturb me into having more nightmares or terrors to prevent sleep.  That other dream could very well become the same.  Problem is how to begin the invasion which starts the story.

This is what I love about fiction.  It can be anything at all and placed into any kind of setting.  We’ll see.  I am still considering picking up Rosie’s story.  I may pick up another that has a pair of therian type people which was turning into a good plot before I got side tracked.  There’s another, cross over, I may redo entirely and use the current as the outline.  There are two cross over stories I have which were both written about the same time but the one was done entirely during NaNoWriMo.

Actually, I need to transcribe what I have of book two of Black Friday and see about pushing that story forward some more and work on the editing of Society of Night and Lies.  I still need to come up with another 30K worth of words to meet the minimum with the company I’m self publishing through.  The bare minimum I can submit is 80K words which comes out to about 180 pages in a 6×9 book.  Max amount is 150K I believe for novels.  I’m not too sure on the max amount but it is around the 100K mark.

That’s a lot of writing, even for me.

This blog has turned into a lot writing for this time of night.   At least the ideas are out and put someplace I can find to reference later.