Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Randomness !

Wedding Stuff

So, I know people want some news on the wedding but, honestly at this point Erik and I are just enjoying being engaged--we haven't even set a date yet. We are thankful for all the (albeit unsolicited) advice from our friends and family on marriage though. It will probably be in California somewhere because we both love it here, it's just getting Erik's family over here and hoping some of his groomsmen make parole.

The Arcadians

A majority of this story changed drastically from what I planned it to be. It was originally more of a Da Vinci Code type thing where Alan's meaning of life, his world is turned completely upside down but, it over time became more socially conscious and something different. The idea for the Arcadian came from LiLe who asked me a question about Middle America back in chapter 3 or 4.

In this reality Middle America is empty except for Neo-Luddites who choose to live there. So, Arcadia refers to what was formerly Arcadia, Wisconsin. There are some little notes about it so, I will put them in list form :

* Eau Gaulle (Shai's last name) is a city in Wisconsin and so is Paris, his uncle's first name. Saron and Shai (pronounced Shy) are just names I like.

* The townships headquarters architecture is based on the Georgia State Capitol with the gold dome.

* This fictional Arcadia landscape is based on Middlebury College in Vermont.

The Neo-Luddites are based on the Quakers in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Having a group like the Quakers was an idea I always had for this piece and it was always inspired by the Quakers in that novel. The idea of taking care of strangers no matter what their past deeds had been or what brought them there. In fact, the Quaker family in the novel, the Hallidays have the same name as the Hallidays in the serial: Ruth, Rachel and Siamyn (which is a version of Simon so, it has nothing to do with fish. I changed the spelling so no one would catch on)

Side Note and Musings, um Ramblings ?

On a side note, Vincenzo Natali the director of Splice will be directing the film version of William Gibson's Neuromancer, one of the books I based some of the characteristics of this serial off of. I myself stand in awe of this mans work even if I can't follow half of it.

On that note, I like Lile re-read comments and someone asked me why I did not use a female protagonist. I don't have a reason except that Alan just came to me as a complete character. I will say that one of my issues with some CP short stories and books is the not so great female characters, I do kind of feel some of these authors (who are usually always male, have not come across one female) struggle with writing good females. There are certain words referring to the female anatomy you should not use in a sex scene . . .

In some sense Sara was my answer to this. I wanted to write a strong female character and in some sense she is the main character and Alan is just the plot device.

Does that make sense ? I didn't think so, I'll come back to this rambling later.

Chapter 12

Chapter 12


Playlist

-1-Cello Suite #1 -- Bach/ YoYo Ma ( I like this music for a certain reason)

-2-Taking Over Me-- Evanescence (one of the songs from my original concept playlist. I know I need to stop with the "emo" music)

-3-Hazy by - Rosi G ( Thanks Pandora !)



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Wednesday, July 21, 2010

I write like . . .

New Time Waster

So, I found this new time waster called I write like (iwl.me is the address) . You put in text and it analyzes it to tell you who you write like. It uses 50 authors to choose from and it is based on style, word choice, whether you use dialogue or not. For fun, I put in a passage from chapter 1 of Veritas, the chapter I thought was the best. I got Cory Doctrow. I did not know who he was but, apparently he is a science fiction writer.

I also put in chapter 9 of HoF, my favorite chapter so far and got Charles Dickens. I messed around with LiLe's before and I think I got Edgar Allen Poe for one chapter.

Also when I put this in (something I made up) :

His eyes shined like red rubies. I looked deep into them as our lips locked in a deep passionate kiss. Much to my chagrin he took his pale hand in mine and pushed me away.

"We can't" he said

"Why not ?," I asked fiddling with my bracelet.

"There is so much you do not understand," he explained,"The pain I feel just being near you,"

I got Stephanie Meyer. I know, I'm terrible

Blogging

I know I've been slacking on my blogging but, I will pick up on it for the next entry


Chapter 10 & 11

Alright on to the next chapters. I use one song twice so, the number 5 comes up twice. Speaking of the playlist prepare yourself for some LiLe Throwbacks. I just realized how pretty purple and gray are together. Hmmm . . .

Chapter 10

Citizen Soldier by 3 Doors Down (Saint's theme song)

Chapter 11


-1- Lithium Instrumental

-2- How to Save A Life Instrumental


-3- Life After You Acoustic


-4- Gravity Acapella (you all knew Sara Barielles was coming eventually, I love her !)


-5-Blow Me Away (One of Sara's Theme songs)


-6- My Immortal


-5- Blow Me Away again,







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Sunday, July 18, 2010

Chapter 9

This is the first time I have ever written something and knew exactly what everything is leading to and it is making me kind of nervous for some reason. I don't have much to blog about at this point but, I will say this chapter is one of the longer ones and I think my next post will be a 2 chapter post.

Also, I am getting a bit screwed over by playlist.com as well but, I'm dealing. They only stole one song that I really, really loved so I will have to youtube it !

Oh, wait I do want to post about some of the things in the comments :

Mjollner

Mjollner is romanticized version of Mjöllnir, the hammer of Thor. The hammer is representative of the hammer and scythe on the Soviet Flag. So the Mjollner are the Soviet crime family in this universe. I was originally going to call them the Red Scythes but, I didn't really like it. Also, the hammer and scythe on the Soviet flag represent agriculture and industry in case you were wondering.

Chapter 8

In the last chapter Alan takes something from Minnie's drawer and says just in case. He is taking the gun to kill Dakota. This was added at the very last minute because I needed to explain why he had a weapon.

Chapter 9

Chapter 9


Playlist

-1- Under The Bridge
-2-Bitter Earth
-3-False Pretense
-4- White Flag






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