Comicality

I dedicated an article to Aaron Carter in this month's Imagine Magazine if you want to check it out. I'll miss him. https://imagine-magazine.org/releases/volume-90/aaron-carter-a-fond-farewell/

"On The Outside 29" I think that I was only ten minutes into my next period class before my thoughts started to swirl themselves up into a cyclone of madness and paranoia that I really had to fight to escape with every annoying tick of that damn high school clock. I mean, I wanted this, right? I was willing to move forward and make a real go at living the kind of life that I always wanted to live...deep down inside. Even if I didn’t know it at the time. And Drew was worth the effort.

HEY!!! WTF is going on here?!?!?! ::Looks at my sweetie's face:: What's happening??? Who hit my baby!!! Oh FUCK no!!!! ::Calls Back To Chicago:: "Yeah. Yeah, we've got a problem. Definitely. Be here tomorrow morning? Cool! We'll go see him! Yep! I'm ready!" Giving my baby a black eye...you must be out of your everloving MIND! Screw that! Expect a knock on your door, dude! >:O Chi-Town...let's ride!

A brand new chapter of "Savage Moon: The New Breed" is now up, as Wesley tries desperately to find his way back home without running into trouble! So go on over and check it out as soon as you get a chance, and let me know what you think! Cool? https://gayauthors.org/story/comicality/savagemoon06-thenewbreed Thanks in advance! And remember that the first 6 Books of the series are available in the Comicality Ebook section! Grab your copies today! MWAH!!! https://imagine-magazine.org/store/comicality/ If you haven't been checking out the action, sci fi, fantasy, horror, paranormal, stories that I've written so far...you're missing out! Hehehe, just saying! Seezya soon!

"Savage Moon: The New Breed 42" As Isaac attempted to get whatever few minutes of relaxation in his legs and ankles as he could, Kyla began searching around the beach to make sure none of my other pack members were anywhere in sight. I’d hate to tell her that it wouldn’t be anywhere near that easy...but it brought me some comfort to at least see her trying. “Dallas? You still got any of those firecrackers left?” Jack asked him, but I interrupted him. “Don’t. It’ll only draw

https://imagine-magazine.org/ We're taking another step towards the big 100!!! Hehehe, we'll have to make that one a big celebration somehow! ::Giggles:: But's for a future time! Sticking to the present, issue #90 is now live and ready for you guys to dive into at your convenience! So run on over and check it out when you get a chance! And don't forget to hit that green 'Up Vote' button at the bottom of each page to let our authors know you love them! I'm not going to blab away too much today! I'll seezya soon! Enjoy!

I'm alive....sorta. Creatively exhausted at the moment...but alive. I don't know how to check my word count, but if I haven't surpassed at least three MILLION words at this point, I'm sure that I'll be coming up on it soon. Sometimes my head and my heart just need to go numb for a little while, and use that time to fix a couple of things that were broken. That's all... i hope you understand. That aside, though...leave it to the youth to re-energize you and make you smile. Works every time when you feel worn down! You simply CAN'T watch this and not smile, you know? By the way, what school is THIS??? Where was I? Learning has NEVER been that much fun! ::Grins:: Go out there today and do something for yourselves that makes you feel good today! K? Something selfish. Hopefully...I'll be able to join you some time in the near future. ((Hugz))

Character Interaction Not long ago, I was talking about my love for working with ensemble casts in my stories. It’s something that I really love to engage in as a writer, and it sort of fleshes out the world that I’m working with. I mean, even if you happen to be a fan of video games, you might remember way back when it was just your character on the screen trying to complete some kind of quest or whatever, and a horde of enemies trying to stop you. But video games have evolved since then. When you run through a city or a neighborhood...there are actual people walking around. Driving, shopping, talking, and just existing all around your character. Not enemies. They’re just sort of there. Hehehe! Well, when I’m writing...I think about this from time to time and try to keep things as realistic as I can, while still keeping my focus centered around a small cast of characters that I plan to be using to carry my story. Because that’s what characters do. They carry your story. Not the other way around. I can’t really spend too much time building up side characters that aren’t really meant to have much of an impact on the plot as it plays out, but that doesn’t mean they’re not there. It’s a bit unrealistic to think that NONE of my fictional characters have any friends at school. No teachers? No parents? No activities? No homework? I do try to address the situation, but only briefly. And only if it means something to the rest of the story. But I’m doubting that there are any of us who don’t have daily interactions with other people in some capacity or another. Friends, family, neighbors, the mailman, an online chat, a text on your phone...something is happening outside of your own personal bubble at home, right? Even a virtual recluse like me has to go out and deal with other human entities every once in a while. Hehehe! So, I like to make the stories that I write feel as though they’re somehow ‘populated’ with other people from time to time. Even if they only appear as faceless with no dialogue at all, at least they’re there. I might describe a crowded school hallway, a mall, a skater park, a family gathering...something. It keeps my fictional world from feeling like some sort of dystopian wasteland where the only ones left are the protagonist and his love interest. You know? However...when it comes to building a cast of characters that are meant to share the spotlight with my main character? I get to have a great deal of fun building them up through their interactions with one another. And I feel like I have a lot more freedom to define who they are as individuals without having them come off as awkward or forced in the storytelling. You have no idea how off-putting it is to have a side character just start giving a random monologue about themselves without any real reason as to why they felt the need to do so. It’s creepy. Hehehe! And people don’t often talk like that. Even if you have a wide fanbase of readers who are already fully invested into whatever it is that you’re writing...something like that will pull them out of the moment and weaken your story as a whole. Sad, but true. This goes back to the fundamental rule of writing. ‘Show, don’t tell’. The beauty of having an ensemble cast to work with is that you can really lean into it and create a dynamic with other characters populating your story that will convincingly expose who they are in an interesting way that your audience will hopefully appreciate in the long run. Remember, it’s up to your characters, all of the ones you focus on, to do the heavy lifting and carry the story forward. And if you want your readers to care about them and empathize with what they’re going through (Or, at least loathe them for being the bastards that you created them to be), then you’re going to have to find a way to explore and explain who they are, inside and out...so that can happen and have some weight. This can be achieved through character interactions. Let’s say that you have a side character who’s a total hot head. He can’t help it, he’s just cursed with an extremely short fuse and a very low tolerance for bullshit of any kind. Would he be sitting down with your main character and just go into a monologue about how he has a bad temper and sometimes loses control? Would he just say that out of nowhere? That would feel a bit awkward to me if I read that in the middle of a story. Just saying. But, maybe this is a scene that demonstrates a certain level of bonding between this character and your protagonist. What I would do, personally, is have a third character involved that just rubs him the wrong way. It might not be on purpose. In fact, it might be completely benign on the other boy’s part. But he’s frustrated and annoyed by every word that comes out of his mouth, and they clash and interact in a way that is hostile and destructive at every turn. I would write out a scene or two of cruelty and conflict first between them...and then have my protagonist sit down with him and ask him what his problem is. THEN...maybe he sighs and gives a short, ‘I just lose control sometimes’, speech...almost in an apologetic way. We’ve already demonstrated his behavior and see the aftermath of his tantrums...but it comes from his interaction with the third member of their little group. We’ve seen it first hand. And being asked about it has a preamble that makes sense in a literary sense. He’s not just telling us something about himself out of nowhere. Allow your characters to mesh and talk every now and then. Weave them into the story in a meaningful way, and ‘show’ why they feel and act the way they do. With a bunch of different characters (Not TOO many), you get conflicting emotions, different goals, competitive instincts, and a lot more. All of us are different, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t coexist. One of the reasons that I’ve never been a big Facebook fan is the simple fact that I don’t interact with everybody in the same way. That’s not to say that I’m being fake or dishonest with anybody. It’s just that I can joke around with the friends I grew up with in high school in a way that I could never joke with the people I used to work with. I can’t talk to the people I work with the same way that I talk to my family. And so forth and so on. I can’t curse and make sex jokes or bring up funny drunken memories from my college days on Facebook! My MOM reads this! LOL! Well, if you look at the character interactions that I put into all of my stories...the same thing is happening there. It’s not really all that different. The best example of this is probably “The Secret Life Of Billy Chase”. Billy is keeping a secret journal with all of his daily thoughts and experiences, and that’s the one place where he feels like he can speak freely and give an unapologetic view into who he really is as a person. That’s the part of Billy’s life that you as the reader get to read and enjoy it as it is. However, Billy also has an entire life full of parents and friends and lovers and classmates and co-workers who don’t get to see what the audience gets to see. And his interactions with those people mirror my own in my life. Billy is still being honest, and he’s 100% Billy, no matter what. But he can’t have the same kind of open conversations with his mom that he has with his best friend, Sam. And those conversations are different from the way that he talks to his boyfriend. And he can’t talk to his boyfriend in the same way that he might talk to the other friends he has at school. Noticing this is important. But why? And how does it make a difference to you as a writer? It’s because every interaction that my protagonist, Billy, has with each of these different cliques becomes a clear demonstration of who he is as a main character. Everyone that he comes into contact with, whether it be in a positive or a negative way, brings out another aspect of his personality. Some will allow you to see his romantic side, some will display his angry and mistrust, some will show his envy, some will bring his lustful cravings to the surface, others will cause him to feel insecure and afraid...every aspect of his personality is showcased depending on who he’s involved with in that moment. At the same time, having those characters run into one another during the length of your story will create opportunities to expose their personalities and flaws as well. Their interactions build this community that they can all feed off of and trade that energy between one another. In my opinion, this is the best and most entertaining method of introducing and exploring all of the characters in your project. Everyone gets a chance to shine, and creates a bit of a shine to the characters that they’re communicating with, simultaneously. It’s a win/win situation, all around. If you have two characters that absolutely love and care for one another...that says something. If they can’t stand being in the same room with one another, that also says something. If they’re shy and inexplicably bashful around one another...that’s a whole other message being sent. And if they have a history together that creates sadness and heartbreak...another message. Use these interactions as a tool to tell their story and make them more than just flat cardboard cutouts or background characters. If you don’t need them there, take them out of your story. But if you decide to keep them there, give their presence some meaning. By having them share exchanges with one another beefs up their character and gives them more of a history and a purpose as to why they’re a part of your story. And that means that their interactions with your main character will end up having more depth and meaning as a natural side effect of that initial process. Does that make sense? You know more about who your protagonist’s friends and family are...which allow them to have a deeper impact on your protagonist. The way that I often go about this method of writing is by having my main character spend time with each other character separately at first. A one on one meeting where some of the set up details can be conveyed and expressed. He has blue eyes, he’s really standoffish, he wears ripped jeans and retro rock band T-shirts, he’s always in detention...whatever. Very basic descriptions and a few short engagements to build him up on his own first so as not to get him confused with anybody else right away. That’s my usual formula for character interactions, even if I do break the mold from time to time. Then...I bring that character into contact with another one of the characters in the story and see how they act with one another. Sometimes in a good way, and sometimes in a bad way. Whichever I choose...there’s always something being accomplished through having them meet one another, and I try to make it so it highlights parts of both characters’ personalities by seeing how the gel with each other. And even if they don’t get along at first, that leaves room for their relationship to build and evolve beyond that later on. And if not, then I still have characters who are capable of bringing whatever side of my protagonist that I need to use for that particular progression of the story. Whether it be an inspiring and supportive friend, or a troublemaker ‘Devils Advocate’ type...I can use that to craft a well written series of events that will create the peaks and valleys for the kind of the roller coaster vibe that I’m going for. Bonus! Every character that you put into your story should feel like the kind of person that your readers could somehow meet in person and hang out with some time. They should feel real. They don’t have to be perfect, or even likable. But you want them to be memorable. Again...your characters are in charge of carrying the story forward. If you can get your audience invested in them and their struggle, then your work is already half way done. Let them breathe life into your story, and peel back their many complex layers a little bit at a time by having them participate in their interactions with the other characters in your story. Not everybody gets along. And those that do...they don’t get along on everything. Use these emotional collisions to create special moments, to add levity through a humorous back and forth, or bring about the kind of friction that disrupts the peace of the placid lake you’re riding on. It’s a good thing. Trust me. It has more of a positive effect on your story as a whole than you may think, so give it a try. Alrighty then! I hope this helps! Pay attention to the way your characters already connect and talk to one another in the stories you’ve written so far. Or, if you’re just now thinking about writing your first...then take these lessons to heart, and build the most believable and drama filled world that you can. It helps to answer the whole, ‘How do I introduce this person into the group’ question. You’ll go mad trying to figure that one out. Hehehe, I speak from experience. Stay beautiful, you guys! And I’ll seezya soon with more! Happy writing!

As much as I feel like I would really LOVE to have myself an extremely cute celebrity boyfriend on my arm, someone that I can show off to my friends and have them wish beyond all wishes...to have money and fame and the whole red carpet access...I honestly think that I would quickly become unhappy with the whole situation. First of all...I can be selfish with my affections. Hehehe, it's true. When you're famous, you have to go out there and share yourself with the rest of the world. And I would be able to step aide and give someone I love the spotlight for a little while, but sooner or later, I want my own spotlight. I want to be the center of my boyfriends' attention. It doesn't have to be every day, but if you're so famous that you have to give yourself to the rest of the world to the point where there's nothing left for me when you get home? Then I'm going to start feeling neglected and unsatisfied. I don't think that I'd be able to help it. I think I would have an issue with a relationship that I felt was lacking in some way. It would be nice for a while, though. I could definitely go for some hot and naughty times with the boys I see on TV and in movies...but it just seems like it would be more fun in theory than in practice. You know? Maybe some dreams are better left as just that....dreams.

Oh wow...only 34 years old. I used to have such a big crush on him. Rest in peace, Aaron Carter...

A few lightning bolts refused to go in until the clouds could provide them with a better storm. Hmmm...I guess they were on strike.

Have you ever dreamed of being intimately involved with a full blown celebrity? Like...outrageously gorgeous, sweet, sexy, extremely cute, super talented, and adored by millions of people who would be so JEALOUS over the fact that you were the one that got to his heart first? Hehehe, sounds like heaven, doesn't it? But...is it though? If you had a celebrity boyfriend who was invited to all of the big parties and award shows, gracing the covers of all the magazines, doing sexy photo shoots, being lusted after by strangers who might want to take him away from you, a passion and a career that might keep them busy six days out of the week, traveling all around the globe to promote himself...I mean, could you handle all of that and still be happy? How would you feel about that? Would you feel insecure about the idea of other boys wanting him just as badly if not more so as you do? Could you deal with him being so busy and so far away from you for long periods of time? Can you date him out in public? Would the money and the fame get to you over time, once the novelty of it all has worn off? Like...how do you see yourselves dealing with this kind of relationship? And do you think you could make it work, despite the obstacles working against you? Let us know! You've got your dream boy! Now...what are you gonna do with him? Hehehe!

Fantasy Alrighty then, hehehe... This is going to be another one of those articles that I need help with from the rest of you, because even though it’s been a while since I first started my very first full blown ‘fantasy’ story, I am still doing my best to wing it and figure things out. Any help or advice that you guys could give me from your own experiences would be greatly appreciated. I still feel a bit intimidated by the series, personally, but I’m trying my best to get past that. I think that one of the most important parts of any story that is science fiction or fantasy is the world building aspect of it all. And, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE world building in my stories. It’s one of the most entertaining parts of writing something new. However, with so much information that has to be delivered and displayed, I’ve found that the pacing is slightly different from what I’m used to. I would really love to hear how some of our fantasy writers get through that part. See...I write a lot of sci fi, horror, type of stuff. Like with the vampires in the “Gone From Daylight” storyline, there’s obviously a heavy fantasy influence there and a ton of world building that had to be done ahead of time before the first chapter even got started and was published years ago. BUT...”Gone From Daylight” takes place in modern day Chicago, you know? So, that’s somewhat grounded in a reality that has already been built, cultivated, and agreed upon. The whole point of me going all out with my story, “The Plateau” (https://gayauthors.org/story/comicality/the-plateau/), was not being able to use any part of the real world as a crutch. It was meant to be a challenge. Obviously, I have them speaking English to make it easier for people to read, but I tried to stay away with common phrases or slang if possible. Even something as simple as “Oh my God”...would they have the same religious concepts in this world? How would their society operate? How many different species exist there, and how do they view one another? These are all things that I was constantly thinking about the whole time that I was writing, and maybe I was thinking too much in some cases, hehehe...but I really wanted to detach the customs and gestures and speech patterns away from the recognizable world as much as I possibly could. That was an important part of this ‘experiment’ of mine. I hate referring to it like that, because I really do enjoy writing it and what I have planned for future chapters...but I’d be lying if I said that it doesn’t scare me sometimes to get it wrong. Something else that I’ve learned so far? Set the rules, and stick to them. This something that I definitely plan to stick to throughout the entire run of the series. There’s a problem with just saying that everything is ‘magic’, I think. Hehehe, it’s like...not fair. When I grew up reading comic books, I was the BIGGEST “X-Men” fan ever! But one thing that I loved and always depended on back then was that every mutant had ONE special ability, and that was it. They might be able to use it in a variety of different and surprising ways from time to time...but it wasn’t like they just pulled something new out of their ass from nowhere. Even magic has to have some rules involved. Some limitations. Otherwise, everybody is ridiculously overpowered and that begins to drain on a reader’s sense of stakes or danger. You know what I mean? Even in “Gone From Daylight”, Justin should be seriously overpowered himself...but he’s just a kid. He doesn’t even know what he’s capable of, how to use the abilities at his disposal, and he’s got people that he cares about that will cause him to make snap decisions that most other people wouldn’t make. Not at a moment’s notice. But there’s strength in that vulnerability, I think. All of my characters can’’t be perfect, flawless, knowledgeable, and mature beyond their actual ages. That makes for a very BORING story in my mind! “Yeah, I had a problem. But I’m so awesome and powerful and smart that I solved it in a couple of seconds and now it’s over.” I mean...what? If somebody wants to go read that story, they can look elsewhere. I don’t like being bored when I write, and I don’t think my audience likes being bored when they read. So...yeah. There needs to be boundaries on the world that I created. And there needs to be a variety of dangerous consequences that come with going past those boundaries if that’s where I decide to lead the story. But I feel like I need to tell a story within a certain ‘pocket’ that remains somewhat stable throughout the entirety of the series. Not limiting, mind you...just stable. Let me know if I’m being a bit too constricting on this idea. Hehehe, because I wonder about that all the time. Maybe nobody will really notice or care, but I would. So I try to avoid whatever pitfalls I’ve seen in other stories that I grew up reading, so I could take a shot at creating something better. The idea was to challenge myself, after all...so completely breaking away from the norm was the original goal. Feel free to speak openly if I failed at this. With this story, I’m working with an ensemble cast (I love ensemble casts! That’s just my thing!), but I try to make sure that each one of them acts and engages everything in this world that I built in ways that are all unique from how my main character does. I feel like there is such a rich mythology and sooooo much backstory that I’d love to dive into before really moving the story forward...but again, I feel like that would slow the pacing of the story way down. I don’t want it to turn into an expository info dump, you know? At the same time, I don’t want to skip over anything and have it pop up as one of the fundamental rules of this particular reality, making it feel like I just randomly came up with it on the fly for the sake of moving the plot along. I figure, there’s got to be a decent middle ground between both sides somewhere that won’t make readers feel as though they’re stuck in the same place while the rest of the story and its characters become stale and uninteresting. To those of you who write fantasy? How do you get around this particular issue? Or is it not much of an issue at all? I’d be interested to know. I definitely don’t want to shatter the fantasy anywhere along the way. It’s like being immersed in the middle of this incredibly elaborate dream while you’re sleeping...but then you see something that’s really ‘off’ or out of a place, like, “Hey...why is there a purple goat driving a taxi?” And suddenly, you’re taken out of the moment and you realize that it’s all a fantasy and none of it’s real. Causing it to almost immediately lose a lot of its luster. I’m inviting an entirely audience into a world that they’ve never been to before and attempting to hold their attention for as long as I can. This is one of those moments where I have to be consistent at all times, but in a way that covers a heck of a lot more than what I’m used to. To the point where I spent a lot of time trying to study humanity itself and all of the things that we do and say on a daily basis. I wanted to figure out how our lives and our habits would look to a life form from another planet or reality in general. How incredibly ODD would we all look to someone who didn’t grow up with the things that we just accepted as being normal? Yeah...I wanted to get rid of all of that. Hehehe! The first time that I was inspired to try something like this out was with a touching short story that I wrote for a GayAuthors Anthology entry called, “Light Reaches Earth” (https://gayauthors.org/story/comicality/lightreachesearth) where a teen in a group home befriends a strange new arrival who thinks he’s from another part of the solar system, light years away. I definitely had a lot of fun with that one, trying to imagine how our world looks to someone who’s a first time visitor to it, and still add a heartwarming message of hope on top of it. The difference between that story and “The Plateau” is that I got to direct the narrative through the eyes of a boy who’s only job was trying to explain everything from what we would see as a normal and realistic point of view. But this was still in Chicago, with a city, and the moon, and day and night, and clocks and blue oceans and gravity. How would it feel to someone who saw our world as fantasy or science fiction? What is their concept of time like? What is language like? How do they view the wildlife here? All questions that I wanted to touch upon in that one story wthout getting repetitive or too ridiculous. However...trying to start all over from scratch was a bit of a mental drain with what I’m trying to pull off with this new series. I catch myself wanting to just refer to certain things in every day culture that probably wouldn’t exist in this new world. Which is why I believe that the world building part of the whole fantasy writing process is so important, and why I have to keep pages and pages of notes handy so that I can refer to them often when I’m writing. I don’t want to be handcuffed to every idea that I have written down so far, but I worry about wandering too far off course and not being able to find my way back without a whole lot of explanation. Hehehe, do you believe me when I tell you that I’m new at this yet? Something else that I’ve learned from this project so far...not everything has to be explained to a tee for it to work. Contradictory to a lot of what I said above? Maybe. I don’t know. But I discovered that, as long as I can keep readers engaged in the world that I’ve already built so far...some details can be left up to the imagination. And it’ll be ok. I’m just getting started down that road now, and it will most certainly get much more complex as the adventures spreads further out than where it is, but I’ve found a few places where the suspension of disbelief has been my friend. I would like to play around with that a bit more. There are certain animals or foods or different species that all exist in the same realm, and I might give a few major details here and there...but now that the whole ‘fantasy’ aspect of the story has been firmly rooted in the minds of my audience, I’m finding that they’re willing to accept a great deal of weirdness about what’s going on here in this world. I feel like I’ve been giving a bit more freedom as the story expands, and that makes it a lot more comfortable for me to put my ideas on the screen and stretch everything out to widen the boundaries I set up for myself to create a more three dimensional vision of this world. I wanted everything to feel familiar, but still foreign and surreal to anyone who is looking to explore this world on their own in their minds. So describing certain meats in the marketplace, or spices, or practices of magic, or the sights and sounds of a swarm of demonic looking creatures flying overhead in erratic patterns while most of the characters in the story just see this as a normal, every day, occurrence. Which makes a lot of sense to me. Because it’s new to the readers...but not to the characters. This is the only world that they’ve ever known. Going back to the whole ‘alien’ idea...coming to Earth and seeing a chicken for the first time might freak them out. Hehehe! Like...what the hell kind of creature is THAT? And then to see them roasted on a spit over a low flame in a store window might be equally as disturbing. We see it every day and never really think about it, and that’s how I feel my characters would react in this fantasy world. Normally, to deliver exposition in a somewhat clever way without making it actually sound like exposition...I would have someone from our world interact with the characters in “The Plateau” and batter them with questions and confusion, while they try to explain and normalize everything for their ‘fish out of water’ guest. But that would be a bit of a cheat. I’ve already written that story. I wanted this to feel different. So...no outsiders this time around. It’s like learning a new computer program and tinkering with it until I find all of the really cool stuff while leaving out the stuff I don’t need. At least not for now. And it worked. Most readers just shrugged their shoulders and thought, “Ok...that might as well be a thing. Why not?” So I definitely feel a lot better about that as well. Which is inspiring new ideas for me all the time. I kind of like raising the difficulty level from time to time. So far, that’s pretty much all that I’ve learned about writing a story that is full fantasy and detached from anything and everything else that I’ve written before. Naturally, anyone reading it will still feel that ‘Comicality’ vibe running through it from beginning to end, but I’ve literally only got a heavy dose of trial and error guiding me on this one. It’s kind of fun at times, but please excuse me if I misstep a couple hundred times along the way. I can’t say that I have much past experience to draw from here with my writing, but if you guys were trying to write a fantasy story of your very own? This is what I’ve figured out so far! K? Hope it helps! And if any of you guys are writers or readers of fantasy fiction yourselves, and have any tips or previous experiences with the genre that you want to share in the replies down below, I would definitely appreciate you dispelling some wisdom on this one! I’m sure there are many others who could benefit from it as well! It’ll be your good deed for the day! Take care! Happy writing! And I’ll seezya soon!

Almost forgot the link! Hehehe, sorry...it's like 9 AM, and I haven't been to sleep yet... https://imagine-magazine.org/store/comicality/

I'm still working hard to fix a few things... And it's taking a lot of time and frustration on my part, but I' really REALLY trying, k? I just don't understand why some of this stuff has to be so difficult. You know? And I HAVE to work on ebooks! Because if I don't sell...then I don't eat. So this is so fucked up right now. But I'm trying to grin and bear it as best as I can. Thanks to you guys who have donated a few bucks to help out! I love you LOTS! And I hope that the new chapters will be worthy of your generosity! MWAH! Take care! And thanks a ton! I'm working my ass off to make you proud! Promise! PS- There was a problem with the first "On The Outside" ebook...and I had to go through the whole thing and re-publish it! So, if any of you guys ever had any problems finding it online, it's been fixed! Cool? So all five books are now available! The next one is coming soon!

Hugz!!! Thanks! Love you too!

I have to go to bed and get some sleep...because...'human'. And I'm exhausted. And Smashwords is a serious pain in my ASS!!!! Arrrrghhhh! Why the fuck are they so difficult? But I'm trying. And I've worked out a bunch of the issues that I had hindering me lately over the past day or two...and I hope to be done tomorrow. Wish me luck. I just wanna post and promote my stories, you know? WTF? Anyway, thanks for being patient with me. And I'll seezya soon

Thanks, Raven1! Some of the things that I do, I just...'do'. So it can be hard to articulate sometimes. I'm glad that it makes sense!

Yay! They're back!!! XD And with new music, no less!!! Awwww....soooo pretty! Plus, they just seem to be having so much fun, ya know? Is it me, or did they all grow, like...six inches taller over the last few months! Geez! There used to be some shorter boys and some taller boys, but they all seem to hav evened out a bit now. Sweet! GAH!!! Quit LOOKING at me like that! You're making me feel funny! >:O ::Runs Away:: See? They were all different sizes about nine months ago! They hide it a bit with depth perception in the way the video is shot, but the second they stand together, you can tell.

I want you guys to hang in there with me for a few days, as there are some glitches and a touch of weirdness going on behind the scenes that I need to fix up in a major way, right now. NOT long!!! But there is something going on with Amazon, with the site, with Smashwords...I'm just going to take a few days to work through this series of entanglements so everything can be in sync as the new posts get released. Not the new stuff though! Hehehe! "Savage Moon" and the newer ebooks look great! But I've got to go in and fix up some of the older titles' format and get them perfect. And Smashwords needs to be updated because they changed the rules on me. Wattpad has to be straightened out. I've got to get Imagine together. All of these things are slowing me down, so give me a fe days to fix it, and we'll pick back up right where we left off. K?

Oops! Sorry, missed a link! The new chapter of New Breed is here... https://gayauthors.org/story/comicality/savagemoon06-thenewbreed

"Savage Moon: The New Breed 41" The sky above seemed to be darkening fast as Isaac and I navigated our way through the thick concentration of trees and low hanging branches ahead of us. Silently, at first...as we didn’t want to draw any attention to ourselves for any reason whatsoever...but we soon picked up the pace. Virgil warned us to get out of that place and try our best to get away from Rainbow’s End before dark...and the evening’s shadow seemed to be spreading a lot quicker th

https://shackoutback.net/?t=vGKpLELg70ddFbQ4 A brand NEW chapter of the "Savage Moon" series is now up and ready to go for the Halloween weekend! So settle in! Grab a blanket and some popcorn! And enjoy! ALSO!!! As an added bonus, the brand new "Savage Moon: The New Breed (Part One)" ebook is NOW available on Amazon! So go and grab your copies today, folks! And thanks in advance! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BKWP96FR

Writing Action Multiple meanings, when talking about ‘action’ in the world of writing of fiction. Something to get readers to lean forward in their chairs, adjust their laptop screens or get a tighter grip on their mobile device. A heightened focus on the moment at hand. And while I’ve definitely written my fair share of chases, fight scenes, and shootouts...that’s not the only kind of action that we’re going to be talking about today. Ask yourselves the question...what is ‘action’? And the answer is simple. It’s moving forward and following a path of behavior based on the thoughts in your head and the emotions in your heart. Now that can be anything from an outburst of violence in a life or death situation...or it can be that nervous walk up to the cute boy at the Homecoming dance and forcing yourself to talk to him for the first time. Action is the bridge between what you have happening and what you hope to have happening once action is taken. But we’ll get into that in just a little bit. For right now, let’s start out with the idea of physical action in your stories. As many talented authors reading this are really great at writing fantasy fiction, I’m assuming that there is some sort of physical confrontation that takes place during their journey, correct? So how does one go about writing that out and making it as exciting as they want it to be for their audience? It’s more than just swinging a sword or casting a spell. Those may be the guidelines of your scene, and the tools used to build something amazing with...but the actual creation of the scene is all up to you. The shortness of breath, the danger involved, the risks at stake...each one of these elements can be an exciting moment in their own right, but one thing that I’ve learned since the beginning and always keep in mind is this... Action...is...CHAOS! A sudden push with no real guarantee of a positive outcome. It’s the craft of taking all of those elements at once and combining them together, where multiple objectives have to immediately be pursued and accomplished, all while crossing paths with many other conflicts of interest. When I’m plotting out an intense action scene, I usually go out walking with my headphones on and some hyped up music blaring in my ears, trying to find just the right rhythms and crazy moments that I can incorporate into the madness. I’m thinking, “What if he’s fighting off two guys at once...and now he has to find his around them because they won’t go down and he needs to keep moving forward.” Then, I might add another element of danger into the mix to energize the scene even more. Maybe there are other people who are shooting at him while he’s trying to fight. Then...maybe there is a panicking crowd of innocent people racing back and forth in hysterical patterns that he doesn’t want to get hurt, but they’re obstacles in his path and blocking his way. Still, he’s trying to save them by telling them to GET DOWN! Maybe the floor is caving in? Maybe something catches fire...and the flames are uncomfortably close to something that is extremely explosive? Who knows...but with all of this going on at once, what started out as a few traded blows between a couple of thugs has now turned into a full blown catastrophe as a series unbelievably lethal threats get added to a situation that was already deadly to begin with. I know it sounds like overkill, but in just the right places of your story, with just the right characters...it really can end up being a truly breathless experience. Even more so once you really put the pressure on your main character by putting him or her under some rather severe time restraints. Put the clock on them! Set the time! And let them figure out while your audience gasps and wiggles with anxiety in the meantime. It always works. To illustrate my ideas here and show you what I mean by piling on a bunch of chaotic elements on top of each other all at once to heighten a feeling of action and desperation, I’d like to point you all towards one of my absolute favorite action scenes from the “Indiana Jones” franchise down below! When I was a little kid, I would rewind and rewind and rewind...watching this opening scene over and over again until the VHS tape got all blurry and out of whack! Hahaha! But I LOVED it! There was SO much going on at once! And as a little boy, I could hardly sit still trying my best to absorb it all at once. This is action at its finest. It’s danger, it’s comedy, it’s high stakes...and the clock is ticking, so he’d better be quick to find a solution! Indiana Jones is in a fancy club, and he’s just been poisoned by the gangster he was doing business with. There’s an innocent showgirl, Willie Scott, in the mix...and a pricelessly large diamond that she would love to get her hands on more than anything. What happens here is pure genius in my eyes! Even to this day, it still gets me all amped up to watch it again! Check it out! And look at how quickly things escalate in this scene. How many obstacles keep getting thrown in the way. How conflicting interests cross paths. The whole package is right here for you to bear witness to. The thing about this scene is...despite the hysteria taking place...there’s a certain ‘flow’ to it all that keeps things moving in a forward direction that makes sense. You get to see enough of the insane antics to feel almost overwhelmed by it all...and yet you don’t really have any really trouble following what’s going on. The characters are placed in ways where they can convincingly run into one another, be in danger, and still have a way to find an effective ‘out’ if only they’re skilled enough and can think fast enough before they meet their untimely demise. This is something that you want to keep in mind while creating an intense action scene in your stories. Think of it as ‘controlled chaos’. There have been many times when I had to use a piece of scrap paper to place all of my characters in a particular scene and draw lines to keep track of what they’re doing and where they’re going. It’s not cheating to keep your notes close and follow them to a tee. Have your characters help each other out when their fights intersect. Think about the environment that they’re battling it, and what are the dangers there? Is it in a tight space where there isn’t a whole lot of room to move around? Are they fighting in the dark? Are there huge drops or pits of fire and lava surrounding them where one wrong step might mean the difference between life and death? Is your main character fighting one big enemy, or many enemies at once? Or maybe there are...I don’t know...wild animals reaching out at you from cages on different sides of the hallway? Create an environment for your action scene to take place in, and then figure out how you might be able to use different elements of said environment to heighten the tension even further as the scene continues. Change things up from place to place. An energetic action scene should be a short story in itself. You know? Another example that I’d like to use here comes from the end of the original “Jurassic Park”, where you can see all of these things in play at once. Notice how the immediate goal of the characters switches from one objective to the next so quickly. Beginning with them trying to be quiet enough to sneak by in the air ducts overhead. Then...SWITCH! They’ve been discovered! Now it’s gone from being a stealth operation to a rapid chase as they just try to get to a place of safety while avoiding the danger nipping at their heels. Then...SWITCH! As they leave the duct with their enemy in pursuit, the goal is to safely find a way down to the ground below. Switch to the raptor jumping on the same shaky structure which begins to crumble under their combined weight and separates the protagonists as things fall apart...making the objective to simply hold on for dear life. And when that can’t be achieved, they just brace themselves for a hard fall, all while dodging debris...etc. What creates the action in this scene is the immediate nature of how it’s put together. The main characters aren’t given a chance to come up with a plan that reaches past the next few seconds needed to survive their current predicament. Everything feels panicked and improvised at a moment’s notice...even if you spent the better part of a week planning out every crucial detail to fit it together in a smooth motion where everything feels hectic and unplanned, even if it isn’t. Give it a look. There is a rhythm to this scene that keeps audiences on the edge of their seats, and if you take the time to write the details out just right, the impact is breathtaking. The fun of being an author is that you’ve been given the magical ability to not only conduct all of the actions in your imaginary workspace...but you can also reveal the frantic thoughts of your characters as well. Dive into that. Let your characters thoughts help you to direct the action as it’s happening. My feet begin to slip! I’ve got to save the kid! If we don’t get out of here soon...we’re toast! Another second and I probably would have lost a leg! By getting your characters involved, you are also getting your readers involved. And that is always a bonus, because the immediate threat coming after your characters feels as if it’s coming for your readers as well. It helps to heighten the tension of the moment. Also...and I know you’ve heard me talk about this before, but it will be more important when it comes to writing action than it will be anywhere else...shorter sentences speed up the scene. It’s an illusion, of course, but it really does work. Most people take a moment or two longer to fully absorb a longer, fully detailed, sentence. And you can toss a few of them out there if you want to flush out a particular motion or situation for a nice touch of flair here and there. But when the sentences are short are to the point...your audience will most like rush through it and get to the next sentence. And then the next, and the next, and so on. It creates this adrenaline rush in the scene that feels like a heavy train gaining momentum, all while giving the impression that it will be nearly impossible to stop once it hits a certain speed. Your readers should feel that and start looking for something to hold on to just they don’t end up flying off to the side somewhere and left behind in the dust. It’s an effective tactic keeps everyone locked in. Give it a try some time if that’s the kind of story you’re interested in writing. I doubt you could find anyone better at creating a combination of everything that I’ve written about above than Jackie Chan! How he’s even ABLE to conceive to pull off half of the stuff that he does in his movies is an absolute mystery to me. Hehehe, when I write a lot of fighting scenes in my own fiction...it’s stuff like this that I’m picturing in my head. The kind of stuff that I don’t have words for. (And his older stuff is even more mind-blowing than anything he’s done in Hollywood!) You have danger, speed, tension, high stakes, comedy, near superhuman stunt work, and precision, all going on at once. Everything works with that impeccable rhythm and flow that any fan of his will have already come to expect, and yet it all still feels like he doesn’t really know what he’s doing. He just happens to be a badass who can use the whole world around him at a second’s notice, where everything is a weapon, every move is just as unpredictable to him as it is to the audience, and nobody can think fast enough to keep up with him. Even if they have the advantage. Duck! Jump! Omigod, look out! Watch your footing! Don’t fall! Gah! Hehehe! Action at its finest... What I love about Jackie Chan’s work when I watch and study the way everything is put together and choreographed with such finesse...is the feeling that you’re actually being pulled along the whole time. This is that ‘train gaining momentum’ feeling that I was talking about. As fast as it is happening, it never feels confusing. There are transitions from one part of the scene to another. If you watch closely, it’s like one part of the scene ends with him setting up the next scene. He might be fighting three guys at once and taking hits...and then he backs up against a wall and accidentally bumps into a fire hose. You may not notice it right away...but once he feels out for it and gets the idea, he picks his moment of attack and then turns it on to go wild and do some of the work for him. Then he moves towards the next scene flawlessly before you really have a chance to fully recover from the last one. And you can do the same thing with the words you use in your story to paint a vivid picture and create a feeling of movement. Plan these things out ahead of time, put them in order, and pull the audience along as excited spectators the whole way through. Last, but certainly not least... As I said when we were first beginning...’action’ doesn’t always have to mean a physical confrontation. That’s ust the easiest way to sort of have the concept stick out far enough for me to get the point across. Action can also be two boys suddenly hearing the rattle of their parent’s keys at the back door as they’re both completely naked and caught by surprise. Now forced to scramble around for their clothes and fix their hair and make sure to wipe that guilty look off of their faces before they get in trouble. Action can be lightly pushed forward to talk to that really cute new guy at work, and taking those first few tense steps towards their desk while desperately trying to come up with something clever to say so you can break the ice and maybe start up a conversation. It could be a protagonist who has finally had enough of being pushed around by an older sibling and deciding to speak up and tell them that you’re simply not going to take it anymore. Whether it’s a character stealing something that doesn’t belong to them, attempting to overcome stage fright during an audition, or being forced to break someone’s heart by telling them that they’re just not interested...the same rule applies. The language is different, but the techniques you use are the same. ‘Pull’ the audience along with your main character. Create a sense of momentum. Display a series of immediate choices that have to be made without any sense of what the outcome might be. Get in your character’s thoughts and allow your readers to feel their confusion and anxiety by describing the stakes involved. And combine that by having possible obstacles tossed in the way that could cause everything to go horribly wrong if they aren’t effectively dealt with or avoided completely. See? Action. Make sense? Already, I’ve run my mouth for long enough now! Hehehe! Just use anything that you read here to your benefit if you can. And I hope it helps! As always, thank you for reading! Love you lots! And I’ll seezya soon with more!