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 The scene from Heartbeat song that addresses the upcoming Taft attack remains unpublished because that story isn’t finished.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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What about Cleveland?

So what about Cleveland. Really there is nothing about in the series, to be mentioned. I used this title because its topical and fits with the theme of this post. Its about updates on the series.

So why Cleveland? Well as I am writing this, there is a serial killer roaming its streets this Easter evening seeking a fifteenth person to kill on facebook live. Kinda horrible right? Well, in the book ‘Heartbeat Song’ that kinda where I am at. Right up to the point where I have to create the Taft Massacre that you all saw pieces of in Song of Betrayal and Homecoming Song. Each over these you saw from Tom and Gwen’s prespectives respectively. However, you never saw Lorelei’s because at that point, she is dead.

That’s the first reveal. She isn’t actually dead. She’s in the same statis they put all the corspes they place is the Hall of Memories in Antarctica. The difference is, she didn’t die before the statis field was applied. She went into hiberation. That happened because Tom would let her die. He loved her too much. So she had to tell him the truth about the vision she saw about the repairer of the breach.

Its heady stuff, dark drama that happens on the day of the attack. This story finishes out the first trilogy (Midnight Train song, Song of the Gyre and Heatbeat Song) which also finishes Shae and Kent’s story line, finishes the introduction of Tom and Gwen as well as the major players of the second trilogy.

Sorry about the wierd way I am writing it, its just this is the way its coming. At least when this story is finished there will be at least some cohesion in the storyline.

So right now I am writing a scene where the King meeting with a group of surface people of influence to determine how to handle the upcoming massacre. It serves to explain some of the opinions of everyone on the surface people, reveals where the Natal house is (as far as I am aware I didnt reveal that in Homecoming song) [ Technically I did in the second draft of Song fo Betrayal before I broke the book in half and added Pyhrric Victory song to it. However, since that will be edited once I finish this, I could still change it so I did.], gives you a glimpse of things I hinted at in Song of Betrayal and gives the most thorough walk through of the connection between NYC/Lafayette yet.

This story is hard, not because of the what it is or how it ends but because I know who Lorelei now. When I first wrote the first draft of Song of Betrayal (back when it was Run to You), I didn’t think anything about it. Yet as I kept and developed the school and Coach Sylvan and Coach Grace and Gwen, I learned more and more. Now I find it difficult to say good bye even temporarily.

That’s is exactly what Tom feels. He’s never found someone who loves him for who is: a street wise Detriot punk who got lucky enough that his dad was roadie for a major band and his mom Police secretary. Suddenly for a year the world opens for him. 90 days he’s connected with this magical lady who ‘gets’ him and pushes him to be better.

He’s not about to let her go and that alters everything. Even her prophecy of her own death. You all have seen him take down Coach Delamort. Yet there is so much more syrrounding it, like why she decides to go into statis, who does it (Chelsey) and how this ties into the prophecy itself.

When I am done, this will be it for the time from 2006-2008. Song of Restoration, which deals with Aria’s golden ticket theft and Gwen becoming the princess, is in mid 2009. Really, all I have to do is pull out the Jenn scenes now and finish the edit. It will be ready too.

This wraps up this update, thanks for reading everyone.

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.