Lucid Truth

[Stellar 4,122]

Here we come to it, at last. This is the Official Discussion Thread for Lucid Truth, the sequel to Veil of Shadow and Hidden Sunlight, and the series ending to the Aspects of Dawn trilogy.

[Stellar 4,122]

Currently, this thread is purely informational; to state the book's title, and that I am beginning work on it. It will be some time before you see the first chapter posted, but I wanted readers to know that it is happening and is out of the theoretical phase and into the planning phase. Simply put, I am now doing something about it actively, and make no mistake, this will be a major exercise for me as there is a lot that I need to conceptualise and organise for this final part of the saga.

In the broadest possible manner and without any kind of spoiler, you can expect to see these things feature in the book:

• a war in space between humanity's fleet and the xenomorph armada
• a conflict on Earth, as civil society fractures
• the Mishith of Dagen's Grace rediscovering the origins of their heritage, knowledge of the Sundering, and the ancient past
• a confrontation with the Herald of Truth
• the journey of Shay Andersen and those with him, in order to do what must be done
• the human oligarch Tytos Hartley, what he has been planning, and his quest for power
• what motivates the Master, the alien intelligence behind the xenomorph threat

I am looking forward to sharing this work with you all, and completing what I started many years ago.

[Bleu 466]

I'm glad about your decision. Your stories are well worth the wait anyway

[Xanderuk 9]

I have been reading the first 2 stories over the past few years (life gets in the way!). The silver lining to the current lockdown business has meant I finally have the opportunity to (sadly) finish your story, and what an amazing story! Hand on heart my favourite story I've ever read. Fantasy, super powers, space, incredible characters, action, and love. AMAZBALLs!

So looking forward to this 3rd installment! Thank you for giving us this joy to read. 

xo

[Stellar 4,122]

9 hours ago, Xanderuk said:

I have been reading the first 2 stories over the past few years (life gets in the way!). The silver lining to the current lockdown business has meant I finally have the opportunity to (sadly) finish your story, and what an amazing story! Hand on heart my favourite story I've ever read. Fantasy, super powers, space, incredible characters, action, and love. AMAZBALLs!

So looking forward to this 3rd installment! Thank you for giving us this joy to read. 

xo

Thank you for such a wonderful compliment! I promise I will try my best to give a worthy ending to the trilogy.

[Stellar 4,122]

Just an update on what's going on with this. Some of you might be wondering why literally nothing has happened regarding the third book in 2020. The only mention of it has been this status update back in August. So, I'd certainly forgive you for wanting to know what's going on.

Well, to put it bluntly, I'm not very happy -- for several reasons.

So, I should probably be clear about this, as it's a mixture of stuff, but ... fair warning:

Because I don't want this thread to be about my personal feelings and situation, I'm going to put it in a spoiler tag below. You can read more if you so choose. If you'd rather skip all of that and just want some basic information, I'll say that I'm going to try and actually get something written in 2021. I think I can promise that much, so that's what I'm going to stick to.

In the meanwhile, here's a light bit of Christmas parody in the Spirit of Fire vein to alleviate the mood. It's here in my newly created blog, because I didn't want to publish it as an individual story/fiction entry on the site.

Now, more serious thoughts will follow:

Spoiler

Frankly, this year has been fucking horrible.

At the top of the list is the pandemic. It hasn't hit New Zealand hard compared with some countries, but like practically everywhere else on the planet, there has been an impact. We shut down international travel early and were aggressive in implementing all of the social rules to minimise the chance of it spreading. Consequently, the country has been free of community transmission since the middle of 2020, with only isolated cases from international travelers in quarantine. The downside of being so stringent in restrictions is that the majority of the country was effectively shut down for nearly six weeks. Though a government subsidy was in place for businesses, the interruption to regular trading exacerbated an overdue employee restructure that my employer -- a major retailer -- was going through. Basically, I, along with most of the people I worked with at the same location, had to compete with one another and reapply for our own jobs. Only, there were fewer roles available, less hours in total, and very little negotiation on the part of the company.

This process took months, and wasn't completed until late September, early October, so I spent the better part of half a year wondering whether I would be employed at all. Not a stress I really wanted, given the lack of suitable alternatives where I live.

Secondly, there are lingering health concerns over family. Don't particularly want to get into details, but I will say that it's to do with the potential recurrence of cancer, and heart issues. My parents are not so young anymore, so to say this hasn't been weighing on my mind this year would be a lie.

Thirdly, this book has really really not been easy to plan. I know what I want to do broadly, but there are just things I still don't have any real clue about how to proceed with, and very little has changed in months on certain plot concepts that I need to wrangle into some kind of order. I don't really know what else to say about this point than that -- it's just complicated, and for all the perfect beautiful ideas that I have that make sense, there is a matching counterpoint somewhere else that just fucking doesn't work. I hate that it's like that, and I also hate that I haven't been doing enough about it to move that process along. I haven't been working at it as much as I could have been, and it's frustrating.

But that brings me to my next, and perhaps last, point.

Motivation.

I've said before that I love what I do, and that I fully intend to see my creative projects through to the end. This remains true, and in the strictest sense, I don't need approval nor accolades to get anything done, because the love of the art is important to me. Yet, sometimes I feel like -- how can I say this diplomatically? -- people don't fucking care. Or, at the minimum, they barely show it. It's hard to say this without sounding entitled at best, or just rude at worst, but the more I've thought about it, the more irritable it makes me. A part of this feeling might be that the reader reaction to Spirit of Fire concluding felt so egregiously empty and disinterested. I got the distinct impression the book ending wasn't liked, and while I was expecting it to be a harder sell than my science-fiction, just the general lack of ... anything much ... was galling.

Don't get me wrong, there have always been a few people who have taken the time to engage with me -- and I will continue to be grateful to them -- but they are indeed few.

To go on a tangent for perspective: outside of GA, an interest I have is reading same-sex romance webcomics -- typically manga- style, though there's a variety to be found on the platforms Tapas and Webtoon. Many of the creators there are like those here on GA -- doing it for free (at least initially), some drawing pure smut, some making romance, all invariably taking their own time to draw and create the stories they're wanting to tell. Also like GA, some of these comics have big audience followings, and some don't. For quite some time, I was only a passive participant as a reader, but that began to change when I considered that I didn't want some of those creators to feel like their effort was being taken for granted, or going unnoticed -- a sentiment that I was becoming a little too wrapped up in. Particularly for the smaller artists, I made a point to say something informative, if not encouraging -- to make them think about their art and want to return to it, or continue it.

It was surprising how often the audience support was quoted as being a reason for the artist wanting to continue and not give up entirely.

I didn't want those artists to be feeling like the people they were creating their art for didn't care about what they were making.

I don't know why other people don't consider this, and make more effort.

Truly, I'm not expecting to be coddled or lauded or want people to kiss my shoes. This isn't an attempt to fish for compliments, or ... whatever. I don't want to sound like I'm diminishing those who have been kind and engaged with me, either.

But, honestly? Sometimes it does feel like I'm expected to produce something amazing to entertain the followers, but most of the readership can't even take the time leave a single comment after an entire book's worth of ridiculous effort. I've never been the most social, and I don't think I ever will be, but god knows, I've certainly tried.

So, motivation -- do I need approval, do I need interaction to keep going? Would I stop, without it?

No, but I can sincerely say that it saps my energy to feel so disconnected, and it definitely kills my motivation to put effort into doing anything.

So, yeah, 2020 has been a culmination and a combination of all of the above. Feelings and circumstance. Makes me tired just thinking about.

Hope I won't regret leaving this here later.

Now you know.

 

Edited December 18, 2020 by Stellar

[Philippe 3,320]

3 hours ago, Stellar said:

Just an update on what's going on with this. Some of you might be wondering why literally nothing has happened regarding the third book in 2020. The only mention of it has been this status update back in August. So, I'd certainly forgive you for wanting to know what's going on.

Well, to put it bluntly, I'm not very happy -- for several reasons.

So, I should probably be clear about this, as it's a mixture of stuff, but ... fair warning:

Because I don't want this thread to be about my personal feelings and situation, I'm going to put it in a spoiler tag below. You can read more if you so choose. If you'd rather skip all of that and just want some basic information, I'll say that I'm going to try and actually get something written in 2021. I think I can promise that much, so that's what I'm going to stick to.

In the meanwhile, here's a light bit of Christmas parody in the Spirit of Fire vein to alleviate the mood. It's here in my newly created blog, because I didn't want to publish it as an individual story/fiction entry on the site.

Now, more serious thoughts will follow:

 

Many agree that 2020 will go down as the year from hell. Though tough to find the good within, we will endure what remains; and then upon reflection, I feel we will see the many outgrowths from challenges answered. I too have experienced the funk of the Covid confines but we are emerging as more is understood and as people are now demanding self determination.

Hang in their mate, I suspect for many your works are too complex and intimidating to freely express comments with public confidence or   without the fear of embarrassment from the many nuggets possibly  missed or not yet connected; but yet the number of followers and views still confirm a level of interest far much beyond incidental. So ironically, the blueprint complexities of your works contribute to low yield of public comments, but the appreciation and respect remains.

[Buddy1691 13]

On 12/18/2020 at 10:50 AM, Stellar said:

Just an update on what's going on with this. Some of you might be wondering why literally nothing has happened regarding the third book in 2020. The only mention of it has been this status update back in August. So, I'd certainly forgive you for wanting to know what's going on.

Well, to put it bluntly, I'm not very happy -- for several reasons.

So, I should probably be clear about this, as it's a mixture of stuff, but ... fair warning:

Because I don't want this thread to be about my personal feelings and situation, I'm going to put it in a spoiler tag below. You can read more if you so choose. If you'd rather skip all of that and just want some basic information, I'll say that I'm going to try and actually get something written in 2021. I think I can promise that much, so that's what I'm going to stick to.

In the meanwhile, here's a light bit of Christmas parody in the Spirit of Fire vein to alleviate the mood. It's here in my newly created blog, because I didn't want to publish it as an individual story/fiction entry on the site.

Now, more serious thoughts will follow:

  Reveal hidden contents

Frankly, this year has been fucking horrible.

At the top of the list is the pandemic. It hasn't hit New Zealand hard compared with some countries, but like practically everywhere else on the planet, there has been an impact. We shut down international travel early and were aggressive in implementing all of the social rules to minimise the chance of it spreading. Consequently, the country has been free of community transmission since the middle of 2020, with only isolated cases from international travelers in quarantine. The downside of being so stringent in restrictions is that the majority of the country was effectively shut down for nearly six weeks. Though a government subsidy was in place for businesses, the interruption to regular trading exacerbated an overdue employee restructure that my employer -- a major retailer -- was going through. Basically, I, along with most of the people I worked with at the same location, had to compete with one another and reapply for our own jobs. Only, there were fewer roles available, less hours in total, and very little negotiation on the part of the company.

This process took months, and wasn't completed until late September, early October, so I spent the better part of half a year wondering whether I would be employed at all. Not a stress I really wanted, given the lack of suitable alternatives where I live.

Secondly, there are lingering health concerns over family. Don't particularly want to get into details, but I will say that it's to do with the potential recurrence of cancer, and heart issues. My parents are not so young anymore, so to say this hasn't been weighing on my mind this year would be a lie.

Thirdly, this book has really really not been easy to plan. I know what I want to do broadly, but there are just things I still don't have any real clue about how to proceed with, and very little has changed in months on certain plot concepts that I need to wrangle into some kind of order. I don't really know what else to say about this point than that -- it's just complicated, and for all the perfect beautiful ideas that I have that make sense, there is a matching counterpoint somewhere else that just fucking doesn't work. I hate that it's like that, and I also hate that I haven't been doing enough about it to move that process along. I haven't been working at it as much as I could have been, and it's frustrating.

But that brings me to my next, and perhaps last, point.

Motivation.

I've said before that I love what I do, and that I fully intend to see my creative projects through to the end. This remains true, and in the strictest sense, I don't need approval nor accolades to get anything done, because the love of the art is important to me. Yet, sometimes I feel like -- how can I say this diplomatically? -- people don't fucking care. Or, at the minimum, they barely show it. It's hard to say this without sounding entitled at best, or just rude at worst, but the more I've thought about it, the more irritable it makes me. A part of this feeling might be that the reader reaction to Spirit of Fire concluding felt so egregiously empty and disinterested. I got the distinct impression the book ending wasn't liked, and while I was expecting it to be a harder sell than my science-fiction, just the general lack of ... anything much ... was galling.

Don't get me wrong, there have always been a few people who have taken the time to engage with me -- and I will continue to be grateful to them -- but they are indeed few.

To go on a tangent for perspective: outside of GA, an interest I have is reading same-sex romance webcomics -- typically manga- style, though there's a variety to be found on the platforms Tapas and Webtoon. Many of the creators there are like those here on GA -- doing it for free (at least initially), some drawing pure smut, some making romance, all invariably taking their own time to draw and create the stories they're wanting to tell. Also like GA, some of these comics have big audience followings, and some don't. For quite some time, I was only a passive participant as a reader, but that began to change when I considered that I didn't want some of those creators to feel like their effort was being taken for granted, or going unnoticed -- a sentiment that I was becoming a little too wrapped up in. Particularly for the smaller artists, I made a point to say something informative, if not encouraging -- to make them think about their art and want to return to it, or continue it.

It was surprising how often the audience support was quoted as being a reason for the artist wanting to continue and not give up entirely.

I didn't want those artists to be feeling like the people they were creating their art for didn't care about what they were making.

I don't know why other people don't consider this, and make more effort.

Truly, I'm not expecting to be coddled or lauded or want people to kiss my shoes. This isn't an attempt to fish for compliments, or ... whatever. I don't want to sound like I'm diminishing those who have been kind and engaged with me, either.

But, honestly? Sometimes it does feel like I'm expected to produce something amazing to entertain the followers, but most of the readership can't even take the time leave a single comment after an entire book's worth of ridiculous effort. I've never been the most social, and I don't think I ever will be, but god knows, I've certainly tried.

So, motivation -- do I need approval, do I need interaction to keep going? Would I stop, without it?

No, but I can sincerely say that it saps my energy to feel so disconnected, and it definitely kills my motivation to put effort into doing anything.

So, yeah, 2020 has been a culmination and a combination of all of the above. Feelings and circumstance. Makes me tired just thinking about.

Hope I won't regret leaving this here later.

Now you know.

 

Your stories are excellent and most of are waiting for the final series. Don’t delay, please.

[Stellar 4,122]

The story is now released, and the first chapter is available.

I look forward to hearing any and all reactions, and your opinions and insights into what is going on.

My updates may be an uneven pace, so I will make zero promises about delivery, but I will try my best.

Thank you.