Let's try something . . .

I stole my title from LiLe, because I think it really fits this post. I originally had it in my head to write a Rhett one shot based on the first few bars of the Animal's song House of the Rising Son but, somehow it became something else.

This is still a oneshot meaning it is only this one piece but, it is pretty long. I will explain a little more later. Anyway this is the first of three one shots for Rose Garlands and Golden Stars. I have had an interesting time writing this because even though Rhett is originally supposed to be a mouth piece for Caine in UL he became more a full character and I feel like I'm not "making things up" for his character but like they were there all along.

And yes I really did try something in this so, it will be interesting to see how it follows through.

The playlist is acting up so, I put it in the sidebar to the right!

Here is Rhett Clark's Story

Playlist

House of the Rising Sun-- First few bars were my inspiration

Part 1 - Dreams by Gavin Degraw (love his voice and the imagery in this is perfect.)

Part 2- Drops of Jupiter by Train (I'm not sure if I used this in IVB or not)

Part 3 - Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol (I feel like I stole this from LiLe)

Honesty

Okay as I am writing this I have not read any of the comments on my last post because I want to address a few things.

IVB
Did this web serial seem a little unfinished to you ? It did to me as well like it was missing something. I realized this as I came closer and closer to the end. The thing is this web serial was more like an IVB abridged because there were so many events that I mentioned but never explained because they were in the past. In a way this serial was kind of the last chapter in a longer anthology. It would have been better if I started where Darcy's excerpt began. I would have shown his diagnosis, how the boys met, Slate's intervention, Nick's surgery and a couple things about Elias. So, I will go on to the comments now, I have a lot of other things to say so I will only answer some and hopefully my blogging answers the others. I realize this story may be lacking content wise but, I am going to focus on the context :
Aym--squeeee! an UL update this looks like it is going to be amazing is this what you were hinting at ?

Yes, it was
I don't really believe that Slate is completely over Emily. So is Slate and His dad the "other two Bennetts

No, it was actually Slate's stepmother. In my mind Slate and his dad still don't get along.

I guess we should start shortening it to RGGS already ! I was clicking on it hoping the pic was a link. LOL

I was thinking of something to shorten it to like RoGaGoSa or something, IDK !
Darcy's Death

Darcy was the very first IVB character I wrote all those years ago and I knew he was going to die. As I wrote the others I imagined they would die later but, I decided not to. For those of you who know my previous work you know that I was inspired to write the short story that became Terminal Heartbreaker's Club because I was at a breast cancer awareness walk and felt very inspired by all the hope but also by all the loss. I wanted to create something where people like myself who knew very little about breast cancer (except that I was at risk) could not only see those people but, also relate.

In short, my goal for having Darcy die was so that if you were to ever go to any kind of cancer awareness events you remember the names on the back of those shirts are people and you will think of this story

In a comment someone thought Darcy not being in the kitchen during Thanksgiving was foreshadowing his death but it wasn't really. For a while there I was going to write this really dramatic death scene but, then I thought the last chapter would have lost some impact. Then I consulted Joel and we considered writing the death scene after the relay for life chapter but together what we did was we took what Slate would have done and said at Darcy's death and put it in at the last chapter when they are in Slate's room. Does that make sense ?

In the end I tried the LL fakeout, when I originally wasn't going to but, it was so much fun.

I did however foreshadow Darcy's death here :

Darcy and I were not good at being real and serious or atleast I wasn't good at being that way with him. I walked into the room, it looked just as it had since I was like 11. The walls were still covered with superhero posters and Darcy was laying on my bed that still had Captain Marvel bedsheets.

For those of you who don't know Captain Marvel was a superhero who died of cancer and unlike most superhero deaths they never brought him back.

In my head Darcy died of complications from having the cancer in his digestive system and there was nothing Slate could have done to really save him. He did live long enough for Noah and Sadie's wedding though.


I actually feel bad about 'killing him off' I have no idea how Mrs.Rowling does it. It actually makes me sad to talk about it.
Nicholas

Somewhere along the way this became a story about family as much as it did about friends. I'm sure Nicholas's story seemed a little all over the place but, I have my reasons. The reason I introduced Mason was because I didn't want Nicholas to be an asexual character and I wanted this possibility of a relationship to give him a reason to reach out to other people. The main goal for Nicholas was the coming of age and growing up theme and for him growing up meant learning how to let go. In the beginning Nicholas was not Catholic but when I remembered he had 5 older siblings and I was trying to name them in chapter 7 I believe I thought it would be easier to come up with names if I used a theme. I knew Nicholas was the name of a Catholic saint so that became my theme and consequently his mother became a devout Catholic. I tried to use unique (like Roderic) or obvious ones (like Frances) to see if anyone would catch on. Nicholas's voice has it's own unique stlye like all the others. Nick is the only character who notices colors when describing things. For instance :

A woman dressed casually in light blue jeans and a loose-fitting beige polo came walking towards us . . . . . . Slate walked in from outside wearing only a pair of jeans, sneakers and a red knit shirt. . . .
. . . his eyes lined with black and the tips of his dark hair dyed blue probably with some kind of specialty expensive organic dye. He was wearing a bright green BROOKLYN graphic shirt embellished with metal pieces with bleach damaged black pants.


Slate
Slate does kind of do a total 360 in this chapter as someone mentioned. He came around the medication after talking with Diana and he came around to seeing his family when he realized that when Emily goes to see her family he will be alone. I also think at a point Slate wasn't really upset anymore and he is learning to not just run away from his problems. Do Emily and Slate get back together ? Sadly, no. Mostly because as Emily states they were never back together. They were just Friends With Benefits. Emily is not the kind of girl who would throw away her principles and what she wants for a boy. Emily and Slate have a destructive relationship and she knows it's not good for her. In my mind Emily is not the girl in a romance story--she is every girl and stands on her own two feet. Writing Slate's voice was almost the exact opposite of Darcy and Nick's. Whenver Darcy is the POV he knows the names of everyone from the delivery food person to the receptionist and that is because he asks and likes to talk. Slate on the other hand doesn't see color or know anyone's names and he spaces out when people are talking so instead of getting dialogue you get summaries most notably here :

Emily quickly stood up and keeping my hand clasped in hers we walked back to the doctor’s office.

“This is Slate,” Emily introduced

The doctor seemed like a nice guy and went into his usual doctor speech that I barely tuned into and then handed Emily the prescriptions.
There was definatley more story with Slate that did not get told and I kind of regret it but so much of it was backstory and I knew I wasn't going to show him doing drugs because that was his past.

Elias

The biggest thing with Elias was people wondering what his relationship with his biological dad and Tessa would be. I think the real answer is there would not be one. As it is shown Elias easily pushes people out of his life so for him the worse thing would be letting more people in. Again not a perfect ending but one that the character can live with. His parent's gave him away so he would have a better chance and he is doing that.

At first Be My Escape was going to be Elias's song in the beginning but I wanted it to be at a part that had all the characters in it. This is actually one of my favorite songs by RK except for another that did not really fit into this serial but hopefully I will get to use it at some point.


I probably have a lot more to say about IVB because I did not do a lot of blogging in between postings but that's all I got for now


Rose Garlands and Golden Stars

I haven't figured out how I want to shorten that just yet, I'm not sure how long it will take me to finish this and start posting so, I may go on a little hiatus or not I honestly don't know. I will make sure these stories are very "plot rich". I already know what the general focus will be and why I chose the specific characters. Here is the original image before I added the title to it and had to distort it. I'm no computer genius so I'm a little proud of it.




For LL :

Although Pandora can be a pain sometimes it is my new favorite tool and it gave me a song I (ahem, we) wanted to give LL. I don't know if she's heard or used it but, I think it is perfect for her previous web series.

Calling All Angels (Album Vers...

Here is your hint !

Okay, so I am working on a new project that is still in the forming phases but, I will give you all some information about it. Here it is :




It is called Rose Garlands & Golden Stars and will be a collection of short stories about Rhett, Cecelia and Rosa. By short stories I imagine each image they will be about 7 to 10,000 words long and would be posted in one entry. This is sort of something I am creating while I figure out exactly what will happen in the UL sequel. I know the general plot and some things I want to happen but nothing has been put in writing yet with the sequel. So that was my new special project. I'm not sure if I will ever write something completely new but, maybe one day.

IVB

Now, on to current updates. I have another 4 updates for IVB hopefully some of these are a bit longer. This posting uses my favorite song! I will admit I try to give every character equal time but sometimes it doesn't work out because it's better to tell a story from a certain point of view so, don't look to deep into the the chapter names. I have linked the chapters in the song descriptions.

Chapter 22 -- "Brighter than Sunshine" by Aqualung

Chapter 23--" Wonderwall" by Oasis

Chapter 24-- "Be My Escape" by Relient K (This was my personal fave that I've been holding on to)

Chapter 25 -- "World" by Five for Fighting

Sexy 60 !

Wow, I can't believe I ended UL only 10 posts ago. I don't have much blogging wise so, I'll get right to the update. I did have some graphical difficulties (some look blurry) but, they are fixed but I'm not going back to change the messed up ones. This is another multiple update

Oh wait I do have something to blog about and you all are going to hate me for it. I am working on a new special project but, I won't say what it is or give any hints if you ask about it but I have been inspired again.

Here is chapter 18

Chapters 18-20 : "True Colors" by Phil Collins (Don't look to much into this song either I will admit it is a little tongue and cheek (or is is cloak and daggar ?). I kind of like using male voices for some of the songs in this no idea why.

Chapter 21-- Miss Independent by Ne-Yo (I never had a song for this chapter so, JB picked this one. He says it's his ringtone for a 'special someone')

The Wheels Are Constantly Turning

Gratuitous Web Serial Post
This update may be a little bit behind but, I can explain why. I was looking for some real inspiration with music and in a recent chat session some members of a forum mentioned how much they like the Black Eyed Peas song I used in United Light so, I went back to that post and re-read that chapter with the song. And then I did the next chapter with it's playlist, and the next one and the next one all until about chapter 15 or so and I had been reading for nearly 2 hours and I had a few questions for this Shawna Harrison person myself ! It was definatley intersting because I learned my weaknesses as a writer and where it could have been better. I also saw that I was posting 9,000 word chapters regularly, I have no idea how I was doing that.

I also saw there actually exists a pretty clean transition from the light blue font to the purple font. I could also see where I was going to have Juliana pregnant but, changed it.

I admit I became a UL fan and while I will not let this affect Shawna Harrison the writer I

am kind of on the side of :







I didn't try and make it to obvious but, I can tell Rosa really cares about Elisa especially in the chapter when Sawyer comes back.

I also learned I use some common motif a lot of the time and I use a lot of the same things including :

*Dead parents
*Engaged couples
*Comic relief character
*Unrequited Love
*Quiet Characters

and a few others I can't think of but I saw a lot of elements I use constantly.

I also learned Shawna Harrison will never (maybe not never) write a sex scene ever again. While I may not be Tom Wolfe, the scenes did not give the vulnerability or passion I wanted it came off as clumsy. If I do write one though, I promise I will never use the word loins or quivering.

I'm also adding tags to my posts now it will make things a lot easier if I ever want to look back

IVB

On to IVB's I will start posting in groups of 4 but some of them are very short. Writing these short chapters kind of gets me thinking of writing short stories because with a few things added these chapters could function as their own story. I mentioned flash fiction earlier and looked into it and I'm not sure it's for me. You have to be very creative. There is supposedly a flash fiction by Hemingway that is 6 words and goes : For sale: baby shoes, never worn. I thought it was not much of a story and then I realized I was getting a real story from those words when I thought about it. It was very strange. I'm not sure if anyone gets that.

IVB Music

Some of this music will definatley follow a theme genre wise. This was the kind of music I always kind of imagined for this web serial. I had to use 2 songs for a chapter so they no longer go by chapter number. In a side note I was also going to use Thick as Theives by Dashboard at some point but Linda, stole it from me, lol ! It's okay though.

Here is chapter 14 to get you started

Chapter 14-- "Dance Inside" All-American Rejects

Chapter 15 "Numb" All American Rejects & "Comatose" Skillet

Chapter 16 "Can't Take it" All American Rejects

Chapter 17 "I see you" Leona Lewis (Try and take it out of it's context)

Crazy Updates

Okay, so Shawna was invited to a chat and I wanted to see what it was about and I cam across some interesting comments and I kind of want to clear some things up.

For one I am not a douchebag (although my wife may tell you different)

Secondly, I do help Shawna but, I don't write Slate's story, I did the excerpt but that is it. It's funny that people think I write those chapters. I have had brain cancer so I do write a lot of Nicholas's medical experiences. I will say I also did help Shawna in how to break it up and helped her realize that not every chapter has to be 3,000 words.


With that in mind, Shawna had put together 4 chapters for you guys. The host has been acting up so, some of the images are distorted but here is chapter 10.

Also, yes Shawna will be answering comments not me.

Playlist

Chapter 10-- Say -- John Mayer (I do hate his music and Shawna knows this is a cliched song, she hopes you forgive her.)

Chapter 11 - Why-- Secondhand Serenade (Yes, she stole it from Linda)

Chapter 12 - What I've Done -- Linkin Park

Chapter 13-- 100 Years -- Five for fighting (Shawna knows she is being cliched again.)

Benefits

I have to say I am surprised at the amount of difference working with someone can cause, it defianaltey puts a dent in the workload but, writing this has been so refreshing it's not even like work for me. I am very lucky to have this job.

Okay, so there are 3 updates today. There could have been 4 but, I thought that was a bit much even though not posting it messes with the "flow" so to speak. Well, then again not really, it just means one person doesn't have a chapter for this update. I have to say one of the hardest parts about making a web serial is the music but, having music stockpiled in a mystery playlist (one that is not connected to my account for all you spies !) makes it easier to pick and choose songs.

I promise I will do some blogging later, I just need some topics because I know I could go on forever about the process of writing this. Just about everything has a purpose and a reason or is developing one.

Joel's Note : I think Shawna and I should see how long we can keep coming up with suggestive blog titles.

To start you off here is chapter 7

Playlist (It's not exactly literal except maybe the last song)

I just realized if I keep doing one song a chapter the numbers on the playlist and the chapter numbers will match up.

Chapter 7 -- Breathe by Ana Nalick (I feel like I stole this song from Linda, but I'm not sure)

Chapter 8 -- Unwell by Matchbox 20

Chapter 9 -- I Miss You by Blink 182

Office Romance

Well, Joel was in charge of creating the title for today's entry. I'll let him explain.

I'm thankful that Shawna lets me write in her blog. I have to say I have always loved writing almost as much as I loved reading. Recently I spend lots of time at work but I'm not writing so, working with Shawna is it nice to be back at work but, doing what I love. I will say this is going to still be mostly Shawna because I want this to be a Shawna Harrison thing not a "JB" story. That is why we aren't explicitly saying how we are writing. Unless I have something to add Shawna will be doing most of the 'blogging'.

Well, this is our first time posting together. We have decided to post chapter 4,5&6 at the same time. I really wanted to have some chapter 7 for you as well but, it's still in the 'presses'. After you read chapter 4 you'll have to go to the IVB Web Serial page to access the others. We've only added one song to the playlist. I honestly feel like I am stockpiling songs, I have so many in my 'inspiration' page but never find a place for them. I added the song to the end of the playlist because I realized it chronologically made more sense but, IDK what do you guys think?

I guess there are no other words.

Chapter 4