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  • wildone

    Weekly Wrap Up (May 12 - May 18)

    By wildone

    I can't decide where to start tonight  I had an idea, an overused idea, then when thinking of that idea, I had another idea. So I have 1 new and 1 old idea. Do you have any idea how happy I am   So new idea, I know a lot of stories get written here and a lot are incomplete and a lot more are complete. So here is my question, I will limit it to 3 stories. What stories would you call out to have a sequel or to continue on, ending from the final chapter? Let us know the Author, the story and t
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Dates in the mirror are closer than they appear

So I've been beating up Busted, and I've been finding (as so many people do) that making it good takes a whole lot more work than just making it exist. I'd planned on having it done and shopping it around by the end of the year, assuming my HR department was OK with it. I'm not sure if that's going to happen now, unfortunately. It may, given that it's not yet Halloween, but I'm not holding my breath.     Still, the work going into the rewrite is definitely worth it. Even if the book ultimatel
TheZot

TheZot

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I stink!

The title is quite literal... I really stink right now.   Earlier this evening, I went outside to get something out of my SUV, and it was dark. That's fairly normal at night, so they say.   As I opened the rear hatch, I noticed something moving out of the corner of my eye, between the rear of the SUV and the corner of my house, just a couple of feet away. All I could see was a flash of white.   Then the smell hit... Ugh... I quickly figured out that what I'd seen was a skunk. It got me
C James

C James

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Teenagers in Iran tortured and executed in Iran, for being gay.

Teenagers in Iran tortured and executed in Iran, for being gay. May they rest in peace.   Let it not be forgotten that those two executed gay young men were not alone; there have been at least hundreds executed in Iran for homosexuality in recent years. There's a word for that, it's called genocide.     For anyone who doesn't know, Iran's president recently said that they don't have homosexuals in Iran. He and his ilk are trying to make that into a fact, one gallows at a time.   T
C James

C James

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Rewrites, rewrites, rewrites

And more rewrites.   I'm not dead, but you'd never know it from the postings, would you? When Real Life hasn't been getting in the way, I've been beating up the draft of Busted, trying to get it in shape to shop around for publication.   It's been a !@$! pain in the ass getting it ready, too.   I thought the worst part about this would be throwing out scenes. I've already tossed 30K words, the last third of the book. Not that it isn't bad; some of the stuff I tossed I really, really like.
TheZot

TheZot

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Oh, Rats!

Oh, Rats!!!   In my prior blog entry, I described some of the storm damage to my house. Well, the good news is that I found a roofing contractor willing and able (they have 4x4's) to drive out this far. The bad news is they have only one 4x4, a pickup, and so it's been one or two guys working on the roof.   Sadly, none of them fit the stereotype of hot young shirtless roofers. Oh well.   There has, however, been an unexpected fringe benefit; I have house guests! Yes indeed, unexpected v
C James

C James

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Nature's Fury

In a normal year, Arizona's Monsoon season (summer thunderstorms) starts in mid-july, and ramps up by mid August, often resulting, here in the high mountians of northern Arizona, thunder daily, but rain once ever few days at most.   This year, a years-long drought has broken, and we've had rain daily, over a foot between mid_July and yesterday.   Yesterday, I had major damage to my house (wish I was joking on that). A thunderstorm hit, and in the mountains they can be very violent. This on
C James

C James

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Books

Harry Potter (SPOILERS!)

My goodness. The journey has at least come to an end. It's suprising the amount of things that different fanfiction writers got right.   Albus Severus Potter. Hell of a name for a son, eh?   I couldn't beleive the number of deaths.     Something else!! Bravo!
Myr

Myr in Books

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Twists on an old standard

or semi-old standard, at least. Cliches always bother me, and I've been pestered the past week or so by some characters and a bit of plot. I'm not going to work on it now -- writing time's dedicated either to the rewrite of Busted (which is crawling along, dammit) or working on Wild Life, which I've put off for way too long -- but still, they interest me. Maybe they'll interest someone else, enough to do something with them.   In this case it's the "kid shows up on the doorstep a decade or mor
TheZot

TheZot

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Ooooh! Spiffy-keen client side goodness!

As part of the forum revamp, it looks like the blog module now properly supports XML-RPC access. (It used to claim to, but I never had any luck getting it to work) That means client blog editors (like, say, ecto, the one I rather like. It's well worth the cost) work. Which means I can blog from the train, with a text editor that doesn't suck, and that has built-in spelling checking. (Though I do see the latest version of Camino enables that in text widgets, which is kinda nice)   Being able to
TheZot

TheZot

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Rewrites suck

It's always so much easier to write things in the first place. Not easy, exactly, but easier. Of course, the problem is that the ideas for the new stuff don't stop when I'm struggling to fix the old stuff. (I've only managed to get to the point where Joe's found Stephanie, dammit)   So, while I struggle, have the last few pages of the thing that likely comes next. And all I need now is everything that comes before it. It's going to have to be pretty good, since there's definitely no happily ev
TheZot

TheZot

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Is it right to mourn the words?

I've been re-plotting Busted (yeah, I'm keeping that title for now, as it's better than the replacements I've managed) and I've come to the part of the process I really hate -- chopping out the good bits because they just don't work.   Chopping the crap out's relatively easy. Embarrassing, yeah (I mean, I wrote it in the first place, and what was I thinking?), but easy. So that flashback scene to when Chris was a kid? Gone. Poof, and no worries.   Unfortunately it also means that Steve's ra
TheZot

TheZot

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Werewolf stories always disappoint me

So much macho posturing nonsense. Bleah. I hate it when they start off all promising and go downhill too. (They're much like vampire stories that way. At least with vampire stories you know that they're going to suck...)   I made the mistake of reading one the other day. I swear, at some point I'm going to sit down and write one myself, but until then I'll make do with this scene. (I'm not sure if it works without context, but it's funny in my head)       Clay looked down at Max, lying in
TheZot

TheZot

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Toymaker, part 2

[Hrm. Looks like my tendency to mushy background stuff is getting in the way. 1700 words and nothing's exploded! Have to fix that in the next piece...]   William finished dressing himself a few minutes later. Gone was the barbarian prince, and in his place was an ordinary, unremarkable merchant. He was wearing a tunic and brown overshirt, belted at the waist, and a pair of dark green leggings. He'd exchanged his doeskin boots for a pair made of sturdy leather. He tugged at the collar of the sh
TheZot

TheZot

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Dirty Basement's done!

And up, thanks to Joe. Ben and William are back, and as domestic as Heroes ever get.   Go read, and marvel at the joys of home ownership.
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TheZot

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Toymaker chapter 01

[i'm feeling the need for some good melodramatic monologuing and denoument (it's all Dio's fault!). Ben and William are always good for that, so while I'm sitting on Busted, and polishing up the last draft of Dirty Basement (the second complete Ben and William story) I give you... Toymaker! Or, rather, the first draft dump of it. That seemed to work pretty well with Busted. My son likes these, so this one's going to be PG, at worst]   William reined in his horse as he crested the hill. The mid
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Busted end notes

Right, some notes for the end of the story, and (hopefully) an entry to hang people's comments about things that need fixing or addressing. Yeah, it's quiz time -- please weigh in with the problems you had with the story. I've got my list, but I can't fix what I don't realize is wrong. (This is not the time to be nice)   I need a title! I don't know that 'Busted' really fits all the way through. The folder on my hard drive's labelled "Ghost Cop" but that's not all that good either. You've got
TheZot

TheZot

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Busted chapter 74 + 75 (fin!)

[Ah, I can't wait, so instead I edit and re-release. I'm done. Yay!]   Snuffles may have cleared Chris head, but he also broke the spell that hid Joe. The maniac stiffened as he realized they weren't alone any more.   "You! How are you
TheZot

TheZot

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Busted chapter 73

[Damn, this is slow going. Sorry...]   From the kitchen to the upstairs took Joe all of seven seconds. He heard the nasty laughter as soon as he'd rounded the corner and hit the stairs, and it led him right to the master bedroom.   He gave a strangled little cry as he stopped in the doorway. Chris was sprawled out on the floor next to the bed, his head against the nightstand. He looked dazed, his eyes a little unfocused. The lamp that stood on the nightstand was wobbling, throwing odd flashe
TheZot

TheZot

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Busted chapter 72

[Only one or two parts to go. Racing to the end now]   That sent a chill down Chris' spine and left a lump in his stomach. 'Hungry' was always bad with the violently insane. Not that he had a whole lot of experience with those. He was a detective in a small city police department. He had to deal with drugs and gangs and the occasional psychopath. As deep as he'd dived into the case, the state guys were right. He hadn't ever dealt with this stuff. Not that they had, but that was a problem for a
TheZot

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Busted chapter 70

[Y'know, simultenaety isn't so much of a problem when you're writing first-person...]   Chris was swearing at himself the whole way home. He'd f**ked up, and he knew it. That meant it was time to break the news to Toby. He wasn't looking forward to that.   He parked his car and walked around the back of Steve's house. Steve's car wasn't in the driveway, which probably meant he hadn't gotten back yet. He felt a twinge of guilt for leaving Steve with the paperwork, but better Steve than him. H
TheZot

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Busted chapter 69

It took Joe seven minutes to make the drive, and they were the longest seven minutes of his life. A half block away from Chris' house he threw his car in neutral, cut the engine, and coasted into Steve's driveway. It was probably pointless, but he didn't want any noise to give away his presence.   There was a car in Chris' driveway, a blue Jetta he didn't recognize. It had New Mexico plates, and seemed vaguely familiar.   Joe grabbed his keys and eased himself out of the car. He left the do
TheZot

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Busted chapter 68

[This one's a bit more ragged than I'd like. The shouty bits don't hang together as well as I want 'em to. Damn this 'no sleep' thing anyway...]   Joe was trying to bring himself to eat dinner when his cell rang. He'd picked up Chinese on the way back to the hotel, but his stomach just wasn't up to it. The food sat, cloyingly sweet sauces congealing as it cooled. The suite was filled with the smell of overcooked pineapple and garlic.   The day had been pretty much a total loss
TheZot

TheZot

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