KaninZ

I'd attend a Church that serves a good Mimosa!

There's no limit to our imagination, but there are limits on originality. Describe one modern story to a group of power-readers and you'll get all sorts of "Oh, that reminds me of a book/story by Blah...." There are several recurring themes out there, love, war, betrayal, redemption, etc. that are recycled endlessly in our storytelling throughout the ages and that does show when the creative ether is flooded with stories of a similar theme. Authors are human beings (hotly debated at times by editors, I know) and they tend to emulate what they like. Don't believe me, watch for the upswing in BDSM themes in the Romance genre now that 50 Shades is out. Some emulation is even healthy for our storytelling in that it allows for different views, different takes on a theme. An example that comes to mind is "High Noon" a venerable Gary Cooper movie about honor, duty, cowardice, courage and a man facing overwhelming odds to triumph in the end, great themes that resonate through the entire story. Now go watch "Outland" with Sean Connery, a movie that was pitched with the sentence "It's High Noon in space" and produced with that in mind. Same themes, same resonance and another good film. All it took was some writer looking at something that had already been done and asking "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if...?"

The only time I ever went to brunch was the occasional NCO call that was held at the post NCO/Officers mixed facility in Hohenfels, Germany. They put out a nice spread, some of the best SOS I've ever eaten!

Feelin' gritty: https://youtu.be/85aCbRjtV9w?list=RDS5YQ8aEdQEI

Almost got the chance to meet him when I was a young fan at my first Trek Con. Unfortunately, as I approached, the lunch plans for him, Nichelle and Walter happened to reach consensus and I got a great view of his back. He said over his shoulder "I have to grab a limo or they'll all be gone..." I'd like to think that was at least tangentially thrown in my direction. Being rather hungry myself at the time, I certainly understood. I did get to meet George and James and managed to shock Mr Doohan when I mentioned his service in WW2. That got me a hug

I get a concept and jot down a few notes or a scene. I break out a yellow legal pad and start what I call the free-ballin' phase where I just throw down everything that comes to mind about the idea. This usually results in new characters, bits of dialogue, plot tangents, sub-text, characterizations and world building notes. Most of it is non-sequential and some of it never makes it into the final edition. Out of this word hash, I pull my main characters and produce a story arc. I decide (loosely at this point) if the story looks like a short, a novel, would be better seved as a script or if it would be better as a serial. I do a basic outline in three parts, beginning, middle and end and that outline is filled in, deconstructed and reconstructed many times from this point until I type "The End." Once I have that, I concentrate on character bios, world building and start finding the "voice" of those characters and how it's shaped by the world I've built for them to live in. By this point, the story arc and outline have evolved to the point that I start the actual writing process. Please note that an outline is kind of like the "Rules of Piracy" set down by Henry Morgan (ya'ar). It's more of a guideline, really. NEVER let the outline stop you from exploring a tasty tangent. It's there to provide structure, a set of bones to flesh out...not as a Holy Writ delivered from on high. Once there's a rough draft and it's gone through spellcheck three times, then the dreaded red highlighter comes out. What works, what doesn't, what rocks, what drags its little feet, did I make the characters do anything against their nature, did I screw up the continuity or voice? Rewrite Give it to my mate (Obersturmbanfuhrer of the Grammar Nazi's) and rewrite again. Listen to several lectures on proper use of the comma and ellipses. Rewrite again. At this point, I'll either have another set of eyes give it a look or I'll publish and wait for someone to point out a typo or other goof that managed to survive.

I was a Sergeant in the Infantry and even served as a DI for a while. I soon realized that the Drill Instructors I most looked up to and felt were most effective trainers had one thing in common, they rarely cursed. They would hold that as their "Nuclear" option and when they used it you could almost hear the scrotal tightening effect on every poor recruit in the blast area. If you have a character in your story who you want to portray as "common" or paint in a bad light, giving them a serious case of potty mouth is one way to go about that. Doing it to come of as "cool" or "gritty" as a writer? No...just, no.

KZ's Asian Chicken: 3 Tbsp peanut oil (I also like to throw in a splash or two of Sesame chili oil for kick) 1 tsp Chinese 5-spice powder 1 tsp red pepper flakes 1 tsp ground/powdered ginger 1 tsp sugar or (my favorite) a healthy drizzle of raw honey 2 Tbsp minced/chunked garlic 1 onion, diced 1 package boneless chicken (you can use breasts, but I'm a thigh man myself, more flavor) Soy sauce, Kentucky windage measurements (about a 1/3-1/2 of a cup should do) Rinse, pat dry chicken with paper towels, trim any excess fat (leave some for flavor and seasoning) I usually use a gallon sized Zip lock to marinate meats. Drop the chicken in, mix the other ingerdients together and dump it all over the chicken. Add enough soy sauce to fully cover the chicken. Secure the zip lock and make sure all of the contents are coated. Refrigerate overnight (Of you're in a rush, a couple of hours will do but your won't get as full a flavoring) I usually prepare this on a grill but it can be prepared in a casserole dish or pan in the oven as well. Just dump marinade and all into the dish (I've used a Pyrex casserole to good effect) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and cook chicken for about an hour ( a meat thermometer comes in quite handy here) until done. Baste/turn chicken at least twice. Garnish with chopped green onion and serve over rice or, if fresh off the grill, throw it on a plate, serve it up and step back...keep all fingers and toes clear of the plate as the predatory types pounce ^..^

"I got the way the biological parts functioned, that was simple biomechanics. But why the snork did he want to engage in all of the lip mashing afterwards? Ew!"

Corporate werewolves? Yeah, I've met a few

NSFW Wunderland Express By KaninZ The food was over-spiced, but the beer was excellent. That was the best thing that Zander could say about the Weingarten, the somewhat seedy Inn where he was staying while he met prospective clients. The Wunderland Express, his privately owned freighter, had a payment due and a serious need for a quick consignment. One of the large, corporate owned freighters had been through recently and he’d wasted three days so far trying to scrou

This is a fanfic set in the "Known Universe" created by Larry Niven. This is offered as a free homage to the cool concepts and races that have sprung from Mr. Niven’s neurons. In other words, Larry, if this poor shade doth offend, please don’t sue my furry ass.

Hi all! I'm an independent author/screenwriter who is just getting started in his third career path. Prior to this I was a soldier for ten years and a technophrenologist ( PC Tech) for a dozen more. I'm living in the Pacific NW with my partner of over a decade. So far I have two novels and two shorts out on the market and one script under consideration by a production studio. Fiction is my usual genre with a strong anthropomorphic theme (my first novel was about a pack of gay biker werewolves), but I do intend to produce some non-fiction, military history themed work in the near future.