Happy Birthday

to
wc_helmets!

I Hate Thursdays

They shouldn't exist. They're positioned just right to make you long for the weekend, yet realise the weekend is far enough away to make you miserable. When I was still able to work, Thursdays never failed to piss me off. Now that I'm not working, they still piss me off for my friends who must endure them. The only good thing about Thursday is Fringe. I hope I can get it tuned in. Fox is iffy at best on our digital tuning box thingie.

Okay, now that I've been all negative and shit, I guess I should write something positive. How about The Augury of Gideon? I've decided to pull characters and plots from the early days of my Vampire writing into the mix. Sydney, now named Ishtar, is going to be a main character. When I was writing her story yesterday, acook came rushing into my psyche and embodied Sydney perfectly. Before that even happened, I'd decided that Sydney/Ishtar would be an important figure in the resurrection of Faust/Kallum. It's my desire to see the two of them become very deeply involved.

Here's what I've written on Sydney/Ishtar so far. The Dhampir becomes a Vampire thanks to Dmitri. I'm cutting it for explicit sexual content and length. Click at your own risk.

( Sydney becomes Ishtar )

So there you have it. She already senses the existence of Kallum and it's only a matter of time 'til the adventurers bring out the incorruptible body of Faust only to have him wake up upon tasting Ishtar's blood.

GAH!

I've gotten the domain "vampirerelics.com" for serious cheapness and I'm getting free hosting if I can ever get the two linked up. xevokitty is helping me with this and I am forever grateful for her knowledge and skill in this. I feel like a moron. I mean, I know how to use FTP and the importance of ISP addresses, but I just can't seem to get there. When stuff like this happens, I get the distinct impression that I am a total idiot who needs to be beaten soundly with a computer.

Xanadu Fanzine

I scanned the entire fanzine I bought in 1980. Click the piccie to go to the picture album!

Brittle

Aunt Tudi has found a plastic bag into which I can slip my Xanadu magazine to try to protect and preserve it. It began to fall apart while I was scanning it. The cover and first two inner pages came loose from the staples and I could hear the paper crackling. When I told Aunt Tudi that, she commented that the magazine indeed had some age on it. I commented that the thing is thirty years old (almost to the day) and no wonder the paper was getting brittle. "Hell, I started getting brittle at 30 myself!" I exclaimed. And I admit that I sort of did. Well, at age 35, that's when things started to go downhill.

I attempted to take a walk about an hour ago. Even though I adored being out in nature, the walk was a bad idea. A really really bad idea. I just got in and thought about licking my wounds, but it would be unseemly to do such a thing in the presence of the beasties. It's bad enough I shower in front of them.

Finding My Way

I'm waiting for the characters for The Augury of Gideon to talk to me enough to help me find my way around the narrative of the novel. I know how it's going to end, but that's pretty much all I know, and that's frustrating. It's a good thing that there's going to be some time between the release of each book because I'm beginning to think that The Augury of Gideon is going to be a bitch to write.

Let's see... as it stands now The Chalice will be released sometime in November or December, then The Blood Crown will come approximately a year after that. If I took 12 to 16 months to get The Augury of Gideon written, that'd be enough time for gunslingaaahhh to edit it and m0usegrrl to do the artwork. There would still be several months for Sophie to do her publishing magick and the book could still be available for purchase before the Alpaca Lips.

Since The Blood Crown is finished, though, and I'm the impatient type, I may want to ride on the wave of enthusiasm and take Sophie up on possibly publishing the books in six-month increments. Not sure if she'd be up for that or not. It was mentioned in passing, so I'm not sure if she was altogether serious about that. It may not even be an option if I continue to have difficulty with The Augury of Gideon. Then again...if I catch my stride with Augury and if Sophie is open to the idea, all three books could be out by late 2011 and that would give people the opportunity to read them before the Alpaca Lips!

I'm going to do my best, that's for sure and true.

1780 Words

I didn't do too swell with my word count, but after writing almost 6000 words yesterday, I guess I slack day is to be expected and possibly even deserved. My word count for today is 1780 and I think the ebb and flow of the language is pretty nifty. Take this, for example, the beginning passage of chapter 5.

CHAPTER 5

REMEMBRANCE

Those dark eyes conceal their life within them. Buried secrets – the flesh won’t keep. ~ Shriekback “Evaporation”

She opened her eyes, all silver-blue and awash in alien resplendence. Kelat, the queen of the Great Hive, looked up at the waxing moon and reflected its lunar loveliness to grace the night sky and the world that revolved within it.

“Gentle Kessilon, ye in the dust of whose feet are the hosts of heaven, whose body encircles this Universe and all the verses that have been and are yet to be sung, I call upon thee to witness this, my offering of honour to thee.”

Kelat extended her ivory arms and, out of a pitcher, poured crystal clear water into a marble basin. The light of the moon was captured by the water, making its reflection shimmer and undulate with the movement of the liquid.

All was silent as Kelat poured wine upon the ground, her lips moving in silent reverence to her patron Goddess, She Who Wrought the Stars of Heaven.

It had been at least a century, maybe longer, since Kelat had visited the Canopy Ruins, one of the last untouched natural circles of Tarmian worship. The only other one she could think existed that was still diligently tended and pristinely kept was Avebury. Avebury was well-known by the Goddess peoples of the world, but no one save Dmitri knew about the Canopy Ruins. It was kept hidden by layered geasa to where only Kelat could find it and enter into that hallowed existence. Even though Dmitri knew about the Canopy Ruins and had, in fact, been transformed into a Vampire there, he could not find it or enter therein without Kelat guiding him.

And so she was here, acting out the ways of worship so old as to make the ancient look young, yet using the modern language of the spiritual children of the Tarmian Ways.