Category: canon

productive end of march

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I mean, look at that word count. I haven’t hit three thousand words in a day in a long, long time.

I’m proud of me.

At least today.

Target: 1500 words
Written: 3043 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, Tom Wolfe (like Hunter S. Thompson, Thompson were into status and name dropping and not drugs and rebellion.  Got a bit repetitive in his descriptions - how many times can you refer to bouffant hair, or his weird obsession with women's butts, or tits pointed straight up like a torpedo in launch?)
Comics: Gen 13 v4 2-5
Music: Feelin' Kinda Patton, Patton Oswalt

welp, botched the fuck out of that

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Yeah, a pivotal scene and I wrote it like a ninth grader, or a cop show writer.

Grabbing someone by the lapels and screaming, “Where is he?”, like my main character is fucking Mel Gibson or Clint Eastwood, when he’s more like Buster in Arrested Development.

Jesus, I’ve let my family make me watch too many episodes of Tracker – my writing is now devolving as a result.

(For the record, Tracker is shit. The only time I was even remotely interested was the UFO episode, because I thought they might be pivoting and turning into something good, like the X-Files. Sadly, they’ve never mentioned it again.)

Target: 1500 words
Written: 2666 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Code And Other Laws Of Cyberspace, Lawrence Lessig (like, I see good points, but his pro-corporate copyright stance is distasteful, and his insistence on interjecting the government into everything is as well.  He claims to have made a point or taken a stance in there somewhere, but other than saying, hey, this is an issue (and it was, back then), I don't really see much of a stance on anything, other than we need more government or the magical mystery market will solve the problem, like some kind of divine hand.)
Comics: Gen 13 v2 65-67, GenActive 6
Music: The Fat Of The Land, The Prodigy

i probably shouldn’t be this angry

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Ironically, this whole Father Lightning is supposed to be teaching me about kindness.

I don’t think it’s working.

Target: 1500 words
Written: 1975 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Code And Other Laws Of Cyberspace, Lawrence Lessig
Comics: Gen 13: Science Friction 1, Gen 13 v2 63-64, GenActive 5
Music: Fat Music, Vol. 5: Live Fat Die Young, Anti-Flag

building a path

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I mean, I’m a bit off today because yesterday was St. Patrick’s and I have to get right in there and get back to work, but I’m starting to think of possibilities that might help me move forward.

I’m thinking of possibilities that might break me free of this dreary life.

This bland and weary work.

This modern malaise.

I am planning.

Picking a way forward.

Target: 1500 words
Written: 2163 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Code And Other Laws Of Cyberspace, Lawrence Lessig
Comics: Superman/Gen 13 2-3, Gen 13 v2 54, GenActive 2
Music: Family Tree, Bjork

cinco de marcho

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I’m thinking about kindness today. It’s because I’m writing a book where it’s a large part of it, and while I need kindness to play a large role in my life and my person, I find I’m having difficulty tapping into it.

I think the past two-plus years of wallowing and anger have dulled my sense of compassion. I am an empathic being; I feel everything intensely. I am highly affected by other people’s moods.

But that makes me want to withdraw, not connect.

And what I need is connect.

Target: 1500 words
Written: 324 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: The Twenty-Seventh City, Jonathan Franzen
Comics: Gen 13 v2 26, Gen 13 Bootleg 16, Gen 12 1, Gen 13 Bootleg Annual 1
Music: February 26, 1994, Milan, Nirvana (the last of the bootlegs, I swear.  I think.  For now, anyway.)

yesterday’s point

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Yesterday’s post was identifying where I’d examined previously. I cover lots of little things in my smaller works, but the big themes of my life, I try to save for the canon.

The Mungk was trauma/fatalism.

The Conflagration Of Boor And Aghast is about tribalism and the pointlessness of dualism with substance, subtlety and consequence.

Father Lightning? It’s not going to be a tale of woe; or rather, it is, but there is, as there should be in all great novels of fear, a sense of humanity.

Of kindness.

Compassion.

I spent nearly a year wallowing over the hopelessness of it all with The Mungk. I spent over a year mired in the politics of mutual hate with Boor & Aghast.

It’s time for some higher focus.

It’s time to focus on a little kindness. A little compassion.

it’s time to make the world a little better place. Rather than navelgazing and moaning into the void, or raging against everyone who doesn’t agree with my side in mutually assured destruction, I’m going to learn how to be nice.

It may take more effort than I’ve got.

Target: 1500 words
Written: 2506 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft
Comics: Gen 13 v2 22-23, Gen 13 Bootleg 11-12
Music: February 1, 1992, Melbourne, Nirvana

fatalism

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I tried to leave fatalism behind with The Mungk. The point of that book was an exploration of trauma and hopelessness; the point of The Conflagration Of Boor & Aghast was to explore the nature of unwinnable conflict.

(As well as offer a reminder that placating and avoiding the application of consequences, or the inequal application of consequences, leads to inevitable decline, abuses and ultimately, horror. The application of consequences is critical to both freedom and the suppression of would-be authoritarians.)

It is increasingly difficult to ignore that the United States is at the forefront of these two themes, mashed together into a nightmare of impending Armageddon.

All of which could be stopped by removal of one man.

Vladimir Putin (or by proxy, Trump).

This is your daily reminder that the enemy is not trans people, people of other colours, nationalities or gender, but rather, the ultra fucking rich.

THERE IS ONLY ONE ENEMY.

Remove them from power and guess what?

All of this shit goes away.

Target: 1500 words
Written: 143 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft
Comics: Gen 13/Generation X 1, Gen 13: The Unreal World 1, Gen 13 v2 21, Gen 13 Bootleg 10
Music: October 31, 1991, Seattle, Nirvana (one of the best bootlegs I own)

so begins kindness and horror

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The first draft of Father Lightning is begun.

The mix of horror, gore and love and kindness will hopefully make for a great story.

At the very least, it will help me better understand the concept of the latter.

Target: 1500 words
Written: 1487 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft
Comics: Gen 13 Bootleg 1, Spider-Man/Gen 13 1, Team X/Team 7 1, Gen 13 v2 15
Music: November 22, 1989, Vienna, Nirvana

homeward bound (portugal)

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It promises to be a long day of travel today, ending with a joyous reunion with our dogs and cats, all of whom will greet us like we’re returning from war after they thought we were KIA.

Sometimes, love is truly the greatest thing of all (especially when it involves snuggling kittens and overexcited puppies).

Oh, and I begin a thing.

Target: 1500 words
Written: 1865 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Catch-22, Joseph Heller
Comics: Gen 13 1-4
Music: 66 Breakout!, MC5

back from vacation and ready to rock

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Or at least, will be tomorrow. Valentines dinner with my wife and daughter tonight in Lisbon, return tomorrow and then start posting all this stuff I’ve been writing while I’ve been gone.

It’s short story palooza this week.

Hold on to your gitch, because after that, it’s book number three.

Target: 1500 words
Written: 987 words, short story: Ultra Mundane

Read: Catch-22, Joseph Heller
Comics: Fables 160-162
Music: 54-40 Essentials, 54-40 (nice to love you, baby)