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.

 

Tidelands and the amazing synergy of Australian mermaid stories

I am always amazed by the fact that only the Australians seem to be able to tell realistic mermaid stories. Not ones where they eat people or bastardization of Hans Christian Anderson, but real gritty stories of people who deal with hybrid humans who swim in the deep.

I got this idea for mermaids and mermaid culture independant of H20: just add water because the concept is old. Starbucks does it. Splash did it. And of course Ariel. Bith the lore is filled with fish people who can’t function as a society. They sing men to death and lay on stones.

The other stories gave idea to vast underwater cultures but always the main character either was not integrated into the surface so the struggle was integration or hiding who they were with no one else there. I loved them. I use pieces and ideas from everywhere.

But it was H20 that really helped my idea gel. Seeing the swiming made me think about it and how it would work. Yet H20 being teen was fairly light and shied away for hard issues. If you notice most of my stories tend to ignore those too. They are always interpersonal. The scene from Heartbeat song that addresses the upcoming Taft attack remains unpublished because that story isn’t finished.  In fact the darkest so far, is Homecoming Song’s attack on the Graverobber’s complex.

This is why I am so pleased with Tidelands. Its the opposite of Sirens and everything Sirens should have been. I am annoyed that I got keyed up about it only to be disapointed immediately with the dumb beast aspect. Sirens was basically Sharks who became people but still had basically were sharks. They had human bodies so they could ‘be’ people. But they didnt think like people. They thought like sharks. Cue sappy love and familial ties and you get their first season. No mer-society, just a buch of hokey legends around a sea species of Homo that go left behind 200000 years ago. They are working on it and the next season will be better.

Tidelands hits it out of the park. Produced by Hoodlum productions in association with Australian Netflix, it has the same feel as I try to give to my novels. Only theirs is much grittier, filled with broken people who do immoral things to make a living.  The main character Callopie comes back from 10 yrs in prison for burning someone alive (and their house) to discover that the dad she loved is dead, her brother is now a drug dealer and her mother hates her so much that she took her part of the will and spent it on a bar.

So what does this have to do with mermaids? Well they supply the raw component, that the brother needs to make the drugs to sell the to Chinese Traid. Those mermaids are hybrid humans who possess superstrenght, the ability to bend water and siren song.  They put out the eyes of anyone who they catch watching them and they live on the surface as a commune with no real leader but one middle aged blond woman who has a secret key to this one mansion they live around.

The story is about how the sister discovers who she is, who they are and how she fits into to all this. So why am I so excited? It fits exactly where I am going. The only difference between the tidelanders and Assembly warrior archetype: you cant see the gill slits on the tidelanders and they breath underwater with no trouble. Everything else matches.

My great houses are a little more structured than this but Tidelands is like watching my artistic vision come to life.

Which brings me to where I am on the stories.

1. No christmas story this year. I didn’t have anytime and by the time I discovered the Nutcracker it was too late.
2. I am writing ‘The widening breach’ with follows ‘Song of Route 91’ immediately.  All the events that were laid out in Song of Route 91 are addressed here. You also get a view of exactly how they plan to move the society. Its not pretty. Neither is Gwen’s growth into the Queen. The revelation that Tom worked behind her back to safe Lorelei from death came to a head in that story. Its fallout is here. As is her brokeness.
3. I decided that since I put Tom and Gwen into ‘Faking it’, that universe is apart of mine. So you see her fresh from Clement (which is in the heart of downtown Memphis) working on her singer career. If you have no clue what ‘Faking it’ is. Its a MTV show that got the short end of the stick, that deal with teen sexuality. Its really good. Also go read my story ‘We saw the dream’ after you watch the 31 30 minute episodes. Its my take on the finale and considering I folded their story into mine, its how I feel it flowed without breaking their canon.
4. Once I finish ‘The Widening breach’ I should enough info to finish ‘Heartbeat song’. Once that is done, I will do Song of Revelation (i never seem to remember, what I will call the book. It will be song of ‘something’)
5. With that I will essentially have 5 books of the series that can be read in order to get from late 2006 to sept 2009.
6. I will do books dealing with 2012 and the end of dagon and the other mentioned things here.
7. Finally, I decided that while Obama was president from 2009 to 2016 Mueller was killed in Vietnam
8. I rolled Amazon series ‘the last tycoon’ into the chronology. I will explain that in another post. Its how Emmett starts collecting his empire. Also a detailed explanation of how is in the Widening breach. So in SOA there is no 20th century Fox. Its ‘Brady’ instead. And CBS is ACN. This is why I love Tidelanders. For every Emmett who owns one quarter of all media, there is a woman who sells ‘drugs’ to make money. Its all about how the surface in inferior to the assembly.
9. Finally, On tumblr the adult nudity and sex purge continues. I am still unable to post stories there so I will continue to support them until they choose to shut down.

 

That’s everything. Have a merry Christmas and Happy 2019. The rollercoster will continue  for those here in the US. But like it on not, for my novel world History ends april 12, 2019

 

The magic of that moment on a glory night

Each time I finish and publish a story its like placing a puzzle piece down. I am slowly revelaing the remarkable picture of how the Assembly saved itself and the Earth. Of course this process is slow going and I haven’t put enough pictures to make true sense of everything. Nevertheless the stories should be able to stand on there own.

Having said that preamble, I want to announce that ‘Song of Route 91’ is now available on all digital platforms. Expect Amazon. I opted out of publishing the ebook on them. Yet, Scribd, Barnes & Noble, Apple Ibooks, Google and others now have it. It’s longer that the one I submitted for Nanowrimo coming in at roughly 30,000 words.  Also, to show that I am trying to have mermaids being in the ocean, (heh) the last 2 chapters are completely underwater. You see inside House Cetus 2018 and I reveal a dueling area so you get songs underwater.

This brings me to the reason for the title. In the story the decision is made about how to handle the burgening tech society of today in relation to the Assembly’s need for secrecy. How those consquences play out is revealed in a later story. That story as I mentioned earier could be the final one in this series. I dont know. I do know that its named ‘Song of the Children of Tommorrow’

That line and the title both come from the Scorpian song ‘Winds of Change’. That sound referenced the fall of soviet union and the impending freedom everyone thought was coming. For the Assembly, that night was the night before the Taft High Massacre. It will also be the night of the concert that will effectively save the assembly, Which was April 13 2018.

This brings me to another point. I decided to not subtitle them book ? of the Song of the Assembly series because I am writing them out of order and don’t know what actual number it will be until I write all of them. If I still do three groups of three books each, Song of Route 91 is the first of the last series.  However, this is the fifth book I wrote. Midnight Train song, Song of the Gyre and the unfinished Heartbeat Song are the first group of three. Song of Betrayal and Song of Transition (also unfinished. [its the third edit of the orginally much larger last six chapters of Song of Betrayal when it was called Collide]) are the first two of the second. Then there is Homecoming song and Christmas circle.

So rather that say book 5, I am going to give a timeline and then assign numbers when its actually complete.  The song of the Assembly series begins in early 2006 when Lorelei starts talking to Tom over the internet. Six months later puts you with the first meeting with Gwen in Midnight train song.  Song of the Gyre takes place during the 2006-2007 school year prior to the Taft High Massacre. HeartBeat song covers the night before, the Massacre and the days following. One of the final scenes is placing fallen Lorelei in Antarctica.

Song Of Betrayal, Song Of Transition and Homecoming song take place in 2009.  The first two take place in that 2009 part of the 2008-2009 school year while the other takes place in beginning part of the 2009-2010 school year.  Homecoming Song will be the last one that I believe at this moment will have Gwen in Forest Hills.  Her career takes off in 2010.

Christmas Circle took place near christmas 2016. There is a gap of 6 years that I need to fill in events like the fall of the Taiji, Tom becoming an olympian and Gwen getting her grammys etc. Plus a lot of bad changes as well.

The series will end on April 13 2018 unless I write a group of post ‘restorer of the breach’ prophecy books. It will end with the same character it began with: Lorelei. Rather that communicating with one man. She will be communicating with the world. So I am thinking 12 books. This other 3 will be around 2012.

On the topic of Siren, it got better. Its still not quite where I wanted it to be but it got better.  On this note, thanks to all who read this, clicked this link etc. I appreciate it.

finally

somewhere evenescence my immortal and Passenger Let her go will be in heartbeat song along with the title song.

Danny Gokey – Tell Your Heart to Beat Again

I am finishing it now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am still here! Dilly! Dilly!

Well, I think this is the longest I have ever went without posting. Sorry about that.

Alot has happened since the last post. I posted Song of Route 91 on the Nanowrimo site. I then reedited it, so remove the junk and continue the story. (Sometimes I mash things together to meet the word count and cull it). In the process of reediting it, I guess I decided I would use it (as it is a now [ie Oct 2017] story) to fill in the gasps in Heartbeat song ( like why did Lorelei have to go, what happened to hers and Tom’s relationship, the prophecy etc). So suddenly, we now have a gate in the Luxor, and all this romantic baggage fit for an episode of ‘The Bachelor’.

I am going to wrap this story up shortly because if I don’t it will become a novel. It basically is now about the Tom, Lorelei, Gwen triangle and the fulfillment of the prophecy of the restorer of the breach. (its bigger than you thought). Also I get to use Jacob the Mighty who is doing the heavy lifting (because he started all this), questions will be answered and there will be more underwater actions (unlike Christmas circle).

After I finish it will appear here as well as on the book seller sites. Following that I will continue on with Heartbeat song which will deal with Taft High massacre, wrap up the story lines for everyone there (expect those who follow forward).

One thing I don’t think I will do is the actual scene where Tom goes to his uncle (Graverobber) to get the white onyx for Gwen. Why? because that can become a short story on it own.  Also, I kinda want to use some of the Repo songs in Heartbeat song.

Then again, I didn’t expect the story to take this turn while I was writing it either. I am only a few chapters in, but I figure it should top out at 50K. Its hard to write because its so sad. Still it needs to be filled in so there is a sense of where everything is so when the dramatic events happen they have the appropriate context.

Yes, I will have celebrities in this with their real name. There is no way around this, so I am putting a similar warning like I did in Christmas circle.  Also, I am confirming many more of my choices so I can have active paths for them. I have posted the current list of people who aren’t apart of the assembly reality so but I will update it in the future.

Also one final thing. When I started this version, it was 2011 and the person who I chose for Gwen, was still in high school (a sophomore). This year, 2018, she is a college senior. Time flies but it also helps put things in perspective. Hopefully, your 2018 will be good too.

You, sir, are a true friend to the crown! Dilly! Dilly!

Thoughts on the Bowling Green Massacre…

Well, I must first thank Kellyanne Connelly for the fictional massacre to motivate me to be creative. I needed a small push because things got away from me. This happened to be that push. Truth is you enver know what it takes to get you over the hump. Nevertheless, this will actually be an update on the stories and background.

So what is happening? Alot actually. First, I will actually have a ‘Bowling Green Massacre in 2011 just like she said but also with Fredrick Douglass (not the historical figure one though) . It fits the direction I am going and considering its a college town, there is ample opportunity. I however will use the mining pits outside the town for the brutal horror. Its better imagery.

Second, I have adjusted another location in Lafayette. While never actually revealing the physical location of Gwen and Aria’s houses yet in published works, I do have a Google earth map of the city that did have their actual locations on it. When I went to actually use this for a scene in Heartbeat song I realized that the area Aria was in was River Ranch, a newer subdivision.

This is fine for Gwen and the Bretons as they moved from Australia in the 1990s. Its not good for the Natals as the gate is supposed to be in a fixed location since 1780. There are no buildings in that area from that period and no reason for such as its the same Vermillion river just down stream. So I moved the Natal House to across the street from Cafe Vermillion which has been in existance since at least 1812.

The quick and dirty is that both buildings were built at the same time by Vann’s Grandfather who was a Laurents. In all the stories I have included Shelly, Aria’s mother in, I have never revealed her actual last name only her house name. Laurents is a french name and blends into the fabric of the city better. Also a quick explanation of the house etc is in the story as well.

This brings me to the fact that as I am working on Heartbeat song I ran headlong into another issue. If there is an school shooting that envolves IEDs and massive causalities the hospitals in Lafayette can’t handle it. Without Charity and the other LSU hospitals ion New Orleans, the Primary trauma 1 hospital was in Sherveport or Houston. (Yes I am aware they did assign one post Katrina but it was ill-equiped to actually handle the load)

So I was left with solving that problem. First I figured I would upgrade the hospital, Lafayette general. Yet it would not be capable as the population wouldnt justify it. (I squeaked by with Forest Hills because of LSU and the CajunDome and making Booker Field old. This would be handwaving the solution away)

That left New Orleans. While Baton Rouge is closer. New Orleans is larger and up until Katrina had one of the Best hospitals in the country there: Charity Hospital. When I discovered why Charity was permanently closed (I won’t elaborate here other than to say LSU greed, however that overlooks alot of side issues) I decided to save the hospital. Doing so allows you all to actually meet Tyrion Cetus so when he dies in Song of Redemption, it will have meaning (like how Lorelei’s does now). Haven’t worked out all the plans yet but it envolves preventing the hospital from flooding during the MR-GO, Industrial canal, and London Avenue canal breechs. Something involving hard light constructs.

Most people were unaware (outside of the residents who were very much aware) that almost the entire city flooded from the canal breachs except the French quarter. Charity was in the CBD near the Superdome. Yet its basement and some of the first floor flooded.

Keeping the hospital fully operational (by revealing exactly how the Assembly handles Natural disasters) will allow it to remain into 2007 and on into my 2017. I will use the upgraded plans for the Hospital for my now timeline. It also means I will have a crap load of lifeflights from the attack as the criticals will be handled there. Thats the idea.

Finally, the Faking It! connection is gone as it will take too long to fully integrate into my world. I am keeping what I worked on in Heartbeat song but the fan fiction will be just that. Amy’s existential crisis of looking like Lorelei when she feels the exact opposite was in a fun challenge yet it detracted from where I am going with the story.So no Amy or Karma in my world anymore. Sorry.

I view Heartbeat Song be the connection to Song of Betrayal without actually tying into it. It will end the first series (which had Lorelei as the main character and Gwen as a minor character) yet open the path for Gwen to become the woman she is in Song of Betrayal.

Finally after this and finishing the editing of Song of Redemption, I will beack to open creation as that will finish the second series. (Song of Betrayal, Song of Redemption, Homecoming Song). Christmas circle is a follow up on A view from the street and not tied to the main story even though it has Tom in it.

The final 3 books (or next three depending on if I have more story) will take place in 2016 with the ressurrection of Lorelei, Gwen being queen and a musician like Becky, who at the time of this post, just finished singing at Club Nomatic in Houston.

That’s all for now.