Ally of the light, not of the darkness

Sometimes, you have step back and wonder where we are heading. The same is true for the novel universe. Only, I know the end. The end of this narrative arc at least. Its going to be wild ride that will fit our times at least. The trick is making sure you are all there at the end understanding how everything came together.

Back when I first finished Song of Betrayal, when it still called Collide, I had these basic ideas: Gwen the cheerleader siren, the loss of her sister, and Tom the boy she knew who became a merman. As the story grew these things grew with it. So did the cast of characters around it. Everything got so much bigger as I fleshed out the world of the Assembly.

Tom changed first. From the basic surface teen who bribed his uncle to stay and got caught into the world of the assembly, to this son of a famous musician who met a girl online who turned out to be famous in her own right: grandniece of the biggest names in the music industry as well as a member of the assembly. He fell hard enough for her that he got shot saving her life.

Now 20 he is shepherding her sister in this massive scheme to save the assembly from destruction. Not something I expected.

Gwen changed as well. I always expected her to be light and kind. Her and Tom’s love story to be beautiful. Sadly, all this migrated to Lorelei. Gwen became who she really was: a smarter but darker person, who understands people but will still put her own wants and needs above them.

What does this have to do with the current book? Well, its where the narrative is at. As I edit ‘Song of Reconciliation’ (its final name) those pieces of Collide are indeed slamming into the new story. A lot are collapsing into a pile of rocks. The police pool scene where Tom transfigures the first time; gone. He did that in Melbourne, 3 years before.

This also brings several other things into force. I finally removed Jen the traveler from the novel. Of the four scenes she was in, the first Reagan replaced her. The final three she is replaced with Valiere the cat person. Yes, cat people.

This book I explain how the assembly came about, how the Archive came into existence and elaborate on the Hall of Remembrance scene. You see Atlan society with a little taste to why all the Assembly seems to be christian. Along with it is a more elaborate linking of the cat people, Gellicles, to the Assembly.

Here is the fun thing about copyright: Jellicle cats are a fictional^[1] type of feline from T. S. Eliot‘s 1939 light poetry book Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Jellicle cats were first mentioned in Eliot’s 1933 poem “Five-Finger Exercises” and later developed in Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. They were given further characterization in Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s 1981 stage musical Cats, which was based on Eliot’s book. The large cast of diverse cats is an important part of the worldbuilding of Cats. Many of these characters originated from Eliot’s book, while others are named after characters from other works by Eliot or were invented for the musical.

To be clear, the Eliot estate owns the rights to Jellicle cats, the names and the Cats broadway musical imagry. It doesn’t own the idea of anthropomorphic cats having their own society, singing or dancing to achieve a better life. There is even a prevailing theory that jellicles are dead and the place they live is their purgatory.

So I grabbed the idea and ran with it. My cats are outcast members of Atlan society genetically engineered for a purpose that got freed when the assembly did. They escaped the wrath the assembly did and spent the last 6000 years exploring and growing in anticipating of the return of the assembly to live with them.

Then there is Taylor the character. I have a solution in the event there is an issue. However, I would perfer there isn’t. She fits better as herself. This will be the only book where you will see her tail thought. There is a lot of work in the discretion as well as fitting it into the available time.

Lastly, there is the focus of editing history. In addition to the removal of the UN which I explained, I also inverted the CDC, renaming it, Red Hash. I’ll explain more in a different post. Its not detrimental, as the NIH has always done most heavy lifting.

There is no real way to remove Mao without functionally changing the entire course of the twentieth century beyond what I wanted. So as much as it saddens me, he continues to do what he did. However, I can mitigate certain events. The Rape of Nanjing is one of those. Also, Reagan is deeply involved in those changes. She became much more than the girl who simply was a cheerleader in Homecoming Song.

In fact, the editing changes lead to the point that the only young people are Gwen, Lorelei, Tom and Chelsey. Everyone else looks young. Reagan, whose real first name is Aja, is almost 200.

Following the finish of Song of Reconciliation, I still plan on a book addressing the MTV video music awards 2009 which will reveal the career transition of Gwen. It will also establish Reagan as a warrior in her own right, explaining why 20th century history is as different as it is. Once I finish that, all that is left is the final series book where the concert that moves the world, described in Song of Hope, takes place.

Eventually, I will publish the archive of everything I am compiling about the assembly reality. I named it Mythic Notes. It will have detailed timelines of the main characters, historical figures and several altered events as well as maps of the areas in question. Hopefully, you all will discover there is more than the climb.

So with all that, I leave you with this: “It’s just a dream until you believe.“

Diversity and Privilege

So the virus is tearing through society and now we are dealing with the fruits of centuries of racial hatred. One of the things I promised way back in the beginning was this would as ac urate as I could. Here’s an interesting fact: whales and Dolphins are grey because of the hemoglobin. So I promised a diverse cast of people. I am delivering. From support of the correctly pigmented ariel, to the fact that 80% of assembly is copper toned or darker, I am doing my part to ensure diversity.

Yet, that isn’t enough. No there won’t be lessons about white privilege. Yet there will be discussions on privilege. The assembly are the most privileged and this can lead to abuses and injustices. Not everything is roses. So in Reconciliation Song (the actual name of the other half of Collide) you have that. I will probably run in issues with including Taylor as an active character but well thats my burden. I am a swiftie and have several albums. So lets say its a labor of love.

That being said, its almost half way done, you get more Atlantis, actual mermaid origins, orgins of the archive and Hall of remembrance as well as Gwen’s uplift. And I decided not to kill Tyrion. I hope to get it finish before the election.

Anyway, the combination of the first 3 books is out on Amazon in bound form. As is everything else. So until the morrow, talk at you latet.

Insanity in the rose garden…

If you know me, you know I don’t talk politics unless it relates to my novel series universe. That hasn’t changed. However, I do have a purpose for this post. I finally have images of my characters. I talked in the past about how I used Jamie Andries and others to help picture Gwen and the others in my mind. That’s great for me. Not so great when it comes time for covers or making other properties.

I am trapped which what they do. I have been thankful Ms. Andries had a very robust cheer career, loves to model and travel so I could see various sides of her personality. Yet she isn’t Gwen. Nor was I interested in reaching out to her for a novel deal. She became a public relations manager for Rebel Cheer, of all things. (Incredibly proud).

So I am back to Square one, that same square I was in 2013. The images I posted in 2014 won’t work. Then, GANs and deep fakes came along showing me the good side of tech. Thispersondoesntexist generated the pictures I needed.

I present to you Lorelei Breton Cetus and Tom Istan. Each looks as close to the actor or actress I chose to base the character off of. So moving forward this is what I will use.

I have images of Lee, Tyrion, Gwen, Portia, Shelly, Reagan, Aria, Chelsey, the Taft Babysitters club, Kent and Coach Delamort.  When I release Mythic Notes, I will release the images of all the characters.

I released these here because, I just sent to the publisher the combined volume of the first three books. This way anyone who wants to can read the books in chronological order. Considering I published Midnight Train Song shortly after Song of Betrayal in 2014, its been a long time.

As I said, its never been about money. This is all the marketing I will ever do unless someone famous discovers this one I get on TV and talk about it. And Yes, behind them is Booker Field. (for those smart enough to notice, I used Allen Eagle stadium 2012 shot).

The volume will be $17 and is 614 pages 6×9. The mock up looks beautiful. You get the sense of who each person is. Lorelei standing in the 3rd floor Taft High hallway and Tom with a swimming pool behind him.

Oh, I decided Operation Valkyrie succeeded. (Yes, Hitler got assassinated in 1944) This is what I get for watching the Plot Against America.   It’s good, watch it. Also, I highly suggest Westworld. They are scaring the f*** out of you again. This time without violence.

Finally, did a little research into how COVID-19 kills people. To TL;DR it, the assembly can’t get it because of their gills. The way hemoglobin works in them is just enough different that it can’t strip the oxygen out. Without that they become asymptomatic. (they don’t get colds either). They do get Ick though as I pointed out in Song of Hope.

Well, time to wrap this up. Just remember no matter what happens this year, my characters have it worse. Only a billion people crossed to the new world ( different reality set in the past. Yes, I said in Song of Hope its 30 million but, there is no promise I will stick to that until I actually write it. Now that I established that the Atlan also jumped realities, its easier to find an empty earth in modern times that simply had nothing.

Good luck, Good Journey and remember Love is six feet apart until at least May 15th.

No matter where you go, there you are.

Well, as I am typing this, the entire world is suffering from an virus that is forcing us to hide. Not to socialize or travel. It forces us to focus necessities. This is a double edged sword for me. My job (the one that pays my rent) is considered essential according to the US department of Homeland Security. So work in the amongst the public dealing with deadly contagion.

This is the perfect time to craft my stories, promote them and have you read them. Only, I am one of the lucky few who doesn’t have a quarantine. So no spare free time. Today is in fact the first time in two weeks I have got enough spare time to do this. So what have I been doing with my time. Finishing Passion Song and setting up the rest of the series. So Passion Song is now published as both Ebook and print. Here is the ebook Link to Passion Song. Other links will be available soon.

With the completion of Passion Song, I achieved the goal I set when I finished Homecoming song. I finished the beginning. From introducing Lorelei, to fleshing out who the Assembly is to actually revealing how different their world is from ours (its not just them), in those four books I weaved a rich history to work in.

To give a taste of what is actually different, here is a top ten differences.

1. Two totally different US Presidents. No Clinton or Wilson. Champ Clark is president in his place (he was Wilson’s speaker of the House) and Johnathan Graefs (pronounced Graves) former governor of Arizona is in Clinton’s place. (Clinton didn’t run because he was only governor of Arkansas once.)
2. No United Nations. The St. James Meeting that the UN points to as its founding, happened but then the building was bombed by the Assembly as certain members were Piscine.
3. What we call Pedophile island owned by Epstein, instead was colonized by Tyrion Cetus in the 17th century while he was functioning as a Japanese imperial citizen. In fact that Virgin Island was a part of the Japanese Shogunate until the end of 1863. The smaller of the two islands called Lesser St. James, has a Replica Himeji now used as a private hospital for the Assembly.
4. Port Royal the pirate city is now the capital of Jamaica instead of Kingston.
5. In environmental work Greenpeace competes with Thalassa: spirit of the sea.
6. Archeologists know where Atlantis is, just like we know where Troy is. Its in Mauritania, Africa. We call it the Eye of the Sahara.
7. What they don’t know is that it was called Atlan and rivaled Rome and America for scope and breath of its technological prowess. They figured out of to travel to other realities as well as across the planet. In fact its how the assembly survived the commentary impact that flooded the entire planet in 5304 BC (what we call the creation event)
8. The movie and music landscape is different with far less rap, hip hop and ethnic music. Much more rock, 80s style pop and jazz exist.
9. Post World War II divided up a bit differently allowing for a couple of different countries to exist that don’t here. The same is said for Africa. Somalia doesn’t exist as its capital was wiped out by Super Typhoon Gwarosa in April 2007 and the tribes roam in bands along the border of Ethiopia. Without a UN, no real help came outside of NGOs that quickly discovered they were unwelcome. One year later most of the tribes vanished as well, from starvation or escape.
10. Did I mention that largest archive of human history rested under Mount Ross of Kerguelen. Its also where the youngest of the Atlan gates is (or the oldest usable gate is)

This is just minor plot points and other things mentioned.  The order of books is now:

• Midnight Train Song
• Song of the Gyre
• Heartbeat Song
• Passion Song
• Song of Betrayal
• Homecoming Song
• View from the street (short story)
• Christmas circle
• Song of Route 91
• Song of Hope

Passion song is the tenth formally published story of this arc, not including the ‘Faking it!’ fan fiction. Also, the entire beginning is now available. It makes Song of Betrayal more powerful now as you know who Lorelei is, and why she is suffering.

This leads into where the arc is going. I decided awhile ago to that I wanted to finish the other half of Song of Betrayal. Then I wanted to write book on Gwen’s balancing her music career with being a mermaid and one on Taiji.

More or less this is what I will be doing. The editing of the other half to get it to match what I have revealed (alot of things changed but not so much that I can’t edit it into something usable) will be first.

Then there is this idea I got that I don’t want to lose. Another fanfiction story involving the cast of Unreal. You know that lifetime show that mocked Bachelor by showing you the behind the scenes. Well, I got the idea to use characters similar to two minor characters. So why not use Tom to solve the one problem Unreal refuses to address; consequences for is main characters.

The story will take place across 2017-2018 revealing exactly how powerful Tom has gotten but in being a circlemaker and as a broker. If you watched the problem it will be a fun piece that rolls my characters into Unreal (or Unreal into my world). And the only deviation is Quinn never finds the camera. It won’t be draft2digital published, just posted on Archive of our own and here in pdf.

Then I will do a story that will fit right after Homecoming Song involving MTV VMA 2009. Since I gutted most of the winners from that, (no Katy Perry, no Kayne, no Beyonce nominated) I will do one around the show itself.

Then there is the Taiji story.  I don’t know if I actually plan on finishing it. If I do I will let you all know. This should take me all the way to 2022.

In reality, I don’t think this age has much more past that. This is why I really am not marketing it. The story matters, whether I make money on it doesn’t. The internet will survive and so will the books.

Draft2digital finally allowed me to use my own fonts in my pdf. Yes the print size is 8 1/2 by 11 but I will figure out how to make it smaller later. 8 1/2 by 11 is coffee table sized but its got the correct fonts and you can finally see the assembly characters.

Finally, on Covid-19, to those of us who actually read this, its going to end sooner rather than later. This month will the last we need of social distancing for most of the US outside of NYC. It wont be as bad as they say in the press conferences. As for the economic fall out. Well, that I can’t say. Anyway, Nothing changes until everything changes. So until then, I bid you good journey. For every destination is but a doorway to another.