Not This Year

Well, it looks like I'll be putting off the Three H Foundation for yet another NaNoWriMo.

Instead, for 2006's NaNoWriMo, I'll be working on Escalating Descent - a sports analogy for what's going on with the U.S. and the Bush Administration. I'm actually very very excited about this. It's coming together very nicely.

Come join me and if you come from reading the Three H and would like to read more, please let me know and I'll get back to writing this.

Time to Roll Up the Sleeves

No, I don't mean like George Bush.

And Yes, this qualifies as Author's Notes. It's just been so long since I blogged here that I don't remember what color I used to do author's notes.

Okay. I LOVE the characters Tristan and Kat. Only I think I changed Tristan's name here for the Three H.

Three H Foundation as a concept works. Only, if I'm to do a story about the Three H Foundation, which I want to do one day, it's about the three ol' ladies that I have such a good time writing.

It should be about how THEY became the heads. It should be about why THEY created the foundation or was chosen to lead it. It should be about what trials and tribulations THEY went through to create a unified and united school.

Three H definitely ISN'T about Tristan and Kat. That was entirely the wrong approach.

SO! The big question facing me right now is, do I write about Tris and Kat? or do I write about Remy, Agatha and CeCe? I had to look up their names just now. But you know something?

The second I read those names, their faces popped into my head and grinned at me, as if to say, glad to have you back, Shair. So, is it us fun old three or you going to write about those two?

Dang it! Those three are fun!

Remy kinda looks like my dwarf on WoW. Agatha... she alternates between an old crone-like type, or worse, the plump witch in Sleeping Beauty. CeCe, of course she looks like Angelica Houston. Can anyone else be CeCe?

And the three of them, have this great twinkle in their eyes, as if they share a secret.

Oh yeah, the three of them want me to write about them.

This is ... joy.

You guys don't get what a wonder creating is, do you? What fun it is, to have people in your head that don't say much, just grin at you when you get it right, when you ask the right questions? I tell people, I am just a passenger hoping to be able to convey to the reader and do the scenes that play out before my eyes some justice.

I believe I am under their spell. The Three H Foundation it is.

And this time, it's about the Three.

Kat #2 - Author's Notes

[Author's Notes] Okay, it's been a while since I've written. Yes, I feel guilty. No, that hasn't stopped me from procastinating. Learned a life lesson. If you dangle a game about super-heroes in front of someone who has always wanted to be a super-hero, do not expect that person to be able to say no. I've been hooked on City of Heroes lately, an online MMORPG. First one I've ever forayed into. And oh man, the graphics are sweet. Right now, my goal is to fly... me, who can't even get on the third step of a ladder without heart palpitations. Man, living in today's world really is fantastic. I'll have more to say about this in Distorted Dreams, but now, I really should get to writing at leaast one paragraph before my girl and I start a new game of Civilization III. oh yeah, Christmas is horrible for writers. All these new games - and we all know anything will suffice as a rationale to not write.

Goddamnit. I was going to start writing and it hit me, how blank I am. I've literally sat here for 5 minutes trying to figure out where the next chapter starts. See, I was going to start a few weeks later, but then realized I should fill in some of those weeks, at least the routine, then realized I had NO idea what Kat's routine is. So, I was going to start six months down the road and realized I had NO idea what Kat would've been doing those six months. Why is that important you ask? Well, I don't remember which actor this was, but it was on Bravo's The Actor's Studio - a fantastic source of inspiration for story-telling by the way - and an actor said one of the things he/she does for preparation is to remember what the character was doing just before the character shows up. By this, the actor meant that though it's really invaluable to remember that the character is a misogynist who dresses in women's clothes, it's equally important to remember the character just finished eating oatmeal and hasn't wiped his face yet.

That is why I try and remember that though I might be setting the next chapter far away in time, I still have to do the hard work of realizing what that character did or didn't do during that time. For instance, if my character has been training hard (like Kat probably has been) then her now current state should reflect that. If she's been focusing on footwork as the previous chapter she should now be able to be more sure-footed. In fact, these are things I'd focus on in the next rewrite, progression of character.

See, my biggest problem with Kat is that she's such a fully realized adult in my mind, because she meets up with Tristan pretty much as a fully evolved adult, I've no concept of how she is at this age. Here, she's probably around 10-12. Rorga is fashioned after Sparta and obviously, that kind of environment is difficult for someone like her. The other thing about her is she's really taciturn, and obviously from my previous chapters about Tristan, my strength lies in showing through dialogue (which is the reason why people tell me I should write screenplays or plays. But I do love the flow of words, which is why I tend to write in prose form even for comics.

Yes, I'm obviously delaying here as I ponder the life that is Kat's prior to the meeting with Tristan. However, this tells me what I've suspected all along. Kat is a two-dimensional character. *sighs* Perhaps all the cool characters are two-dimensional. Perhaps I'm just blowing smoke up my own ass. (no perhaps about that!) Kat is a high concept right now. How to flesh her out then? What incident can make her real to me and my readers? I've got to come up with a name for that creature too. That creature, by the way, came out of nowhere. It just showed up and said put me in, you need a tie-in with the fantasy part of the epic. So I did and now I'm stuck with it, a nameless green thing, sitting there in the middle of my story laughing at me, daring me to do something innovative with it.

Current thoughts/questions are: 1) Is the creature good or bad or neither? 2) THE DAMN NAME! 3) How is it magical besides it's appearance 4) how is it tied into the fantasy side? 5) Is it related to ... Tak or... hmm Klystra... hmm What about Klystra's familiar? or did the Queen send it? Or should I leave this question unanswered? I mean I should answer it but I should let the readers know this yet.

I am so stuck it's unbelievable. I should somehow bring Tak or.... HEY!!!!! I think I just figured out who this creature is, what it's doing, why it's in Rorga, how Kat ends up meeting Tristan ..... I have to work this out. Okay, thanks for listening (reading) and all I have to do right now, now that I've figured out a big piece of the puzzle, is figure out how to get the story to that point.

Kat #1 - Part B

[Author's Notes] Okay, I've been spending a lot of time creating some background for Kat. We'll see what goes on here since most of what I've been working on takes place a little while from where I started. I've come up with many ways to tie Kat to Tristan. Oh, and an admission here. I watched a documentary on the Carpenters last night. For some reason, I felt I had to write, to finish what I've started here, partially in tribute to Karen Carpenter. It's hard to explain.

Rorga was a military town. It was known throughout the realm as the place that produced the fiercest, most organized and most feared soldiers. Rorgans, male and female, were proud of their reputation, and did their utmost to upkeep the traditions that gave them the reputation. This, however, precluded training of females. In the past, if females wanted to learn to fight, they usually left Rorga for the wild tribes of Ibinia and Oliver had been expecting Kat to run off any day. Yet, Kat, though truly unhappy with the future Rorga held for her, showed little sign of wanting to run off. He wondered if he should broach the subject.

Arriving home, Oliver lifted Kat off his broad shoulders and set her down in the kitchen where his wife had been muttering over a cauldron of hot soup. Pecking Pertha's cheek, he dipped a finger into the soup only to have a spoon sharply rap his knuckles.

"I thought officers were supposed to display discipline and patience?" chided Pertha. "Alexandrios hasn't come home yet from his training. I suspect that he and his buddies found out about Lanka's new acquisition and they've gone to investigate. You two want to go find him?"

Shrugs were the responses so out came the broom and Pertha chased them out. Laughing, father and daughter raced to Lanka's dwelling and sure enough, a passle of boys stood around a miserable creature, all poking it with sticks.

"What's going on here boys?" Oliver's voice boomed out and three of the five boys jumped back, trying to hide their sticks behind their backs. "Nothing" was the chorus echoed about.

One tiny boy stood up slowly, beaming at them. "Papa, come look! It's real slimy! Kat, grab a stick."

Kat looked at the creature and glaring at her brother, she stormed over and snatched the stick out of his hands. "Alex! This is a living creature! How dare you and your friends...." Kat sputtered. She broke the stick in half then knelt down to peer into the creature's eyes. What she saw surprised her; there was intelligence behind those eyes - for a moment. A blink, and blankness shuttered the window into the creature's soul.

[Author's Notes] Okay, that was a nice turn of a phrase. When I come up with these, I can't help it, I'm proud. Too bad, these little gems of phrases only show up once in a while. I am not focused on the language right now. This first draft is meant to deliver plot and character development. I'll work on the language and pacing on the second draft but that is so different from what I usually do. Reason why I can rarely finish a story is because I try and get these kinds of phrasing in on the first draft. Makes it really hard to finish when you keep reworking and reworking the same part. Oh, and usually to get into the mood for writing phrases like this, I read Truman Capote's Music for Chameleons. In that collection of short stories, Capote really tries to pack as much description, emotion, movement, plot and character development into as few words as possible. And that's what I strive for.

The creature was a thin, wispy thing, green and yes, her brother's description was apt, slimy. It seemed to be neither male nor female, and not a hair graced the body anywhere, not on the head, nor torso nor limbs. It blinked its huge eyes about, throwing each person a blank look, but the stiffness of the body indicated it was braced for more pokes.

Riveted, Kat tried a small smile but there was no reaction. She threw a look that pleaded with her father, and Oliver snapped out of his astonishment to sweep the boys out of the room. "But Papa..." Alex resisted, but Oliver was insistant. "Come on, son. Let's go find Lanka to see where he got this creature." Howls of agreement greeted this.

Alone with the creature, Kat sat down before it in silence, just smiling a little and trying to show that she meant no harm. The creature's eyes darted about still, as if expecting the others to return. She shook her head. "Papa understood that you didn't like what they were doing. They won't be back today."

The creature's eyes betrayed a hint of relief, showing Kat that it understood her words. "I'm Kat. I'm sorry my brother and his friends are such melonheads. If you don't mind, I'd like to come back to visit you." The creature seemed to realize that it had betrayed its comprehension and dropped the facade, nodding. With a quick grin, Kat stood up and left.

Kat #1

The heat surrounding Rorga was stifling but Katrina loved it. She could feel streams of sweat pouring down her as she lifted up the heavy sopping cloth she was washing. Glancing over at the boys, she could see them wiltering under the heat as they practiced stances.

Damnit, why can't Papa see that I'm better than boys? Her resentment grew as she thwapped the cloth with a bamboo racket, swatting out dirt. She looked over at boys and saw that they were practicing the spread stance. It was rumored that some of the old-timers could stand like that for days and the burliest of men couldn't knock them off the stance. She had heard and seen her father countless times yelling at the boys her age, then walking up to some and with a hard blow, knock them over only to have them stand like that for another four hours.

Looking around, she confirmed that no one was paying attention to her and she stood with her feet spread apart, knees somewhat together in emulation of the boys, then swatted the heavy cloth hanging in front of her. It was harder than it looked. After a few minutes, her thighs were screaming at her to stop but she continued for an hour. When she finally unlocked her legs out of that position, she could hardly move them.

Gathering all the washings she had done, she turned to leave but felt a heavy hand drop onto her shoulder. She looked up; it was Papa.

"Well, you looked a sight, Kitten," he smirked.

Katrina shuffle her feet sheepishly, then said, "I was just copying the boys, Papa. No harm done." She looked up at her gigantic father who towered over her. Strange that both her and her brother turned out to be rather scrawny but one look at their mother told everyone where the kids got their bodies from. Her father had graying black hair, tied loosely in a ponytail. His beard where his mustache met on either side were grey, the rest was black. Since he had been coaching the youngsters, his beard was tied together in a loose knot as well to keep out of his way.

"Come on, I'll give you a ride." Without waiting for an answer, he scooped her up onto his shoulders, his arms carrying the wet cloths easily. "Well, Kitten. You know Rorga's rules. We're not allowed to teach the martial arts to the women; however, next time? Don't spread your feet so far apart."

A hug around his head that partially obstructed his view, told Oliver that his daughter understood. It was really a shame that they couldn't teach Katrina. She had been a natural athlete since she was born, unlike his son Alexandrios. He loved to tell the tale of when she had been born, she landed on all limbs, then snarled at him. An exaggeration, to be sure, but there was something different about her. That was why he had chosen the name Katrina and called her Kitten. The feline grace had been with her since birth.

Rorga was a military town. It was known throughout the realm as the place that produced the fiercest, most organized and most feared soldiers. Rorgans, male and female, were proud of their reputation, and did their utmost to upkeep the traditions that gave them the reputation. This, however, precluded training of females. In the past, if females wanted to learn to fight, they usually left Rorga for the wild tribes of Ibinia and Oliver had been expecting Kat to run off any day. Yet, Kat, though truly unhappy with the future Rorga held for her, showed little sign of wanting to run off. He wondered if he should broach the subject.

Arriving home, Oliver lifted Kat off his broad shoulders and set her down in the kitchen where his wife had been muttering over a cauldron of hot soup. Pecking Pertha's cheek, he dipped a finger into the soup only to have a spoon sharply rap his knuckles.

"I thought officers were supposed to display discipline and patience?" chided Pertha. "Alexandrios hasn't come home yet from his training. I suspect that he and his buddies found out about Lanka's new acquisition and they've gone to investigate. You two want to go find him?"

Shrugs were the responses so out came the broom and Pertha chased them out. Laughing, father and daughter raced to Lanka's dwelling and sure enough, a passle of boys stood around a miserable creature, all poking it with sticks.

"What's going on here boys?" Oliver's voice boomed out and three of the five boys jumped back, trying to hide their sticks behind their backs. "Nothing" was the chorus echoed about.

One tiny boy stood up slowly, beaming at them. "Papa, come look! It's real slimy! Kat, grab a stick."

Kat looked at the creature and glaring at her brother, she stormed over and snatched the stick out of his hands. "Alex! This is a living creature! How dare you and your friends...." Kat sputtered. She broke the stick in half then knelt down to peer into the creature's eyes. What she saw surprised her; there was intelligence behind those eyes - for a moment. A blink, and blankness shuttered the window into the creature's soul.

The creature was a thin, wispy thing, green and yes, her brother's description was apt, slimy. It seemed to be neither male nor female, and not a hair graced the body anywhere, not on the head, nor torso nor limbs. It blinked its huge eyes about, throwing each person a blank look, but the stiffness of the body indicated it was braced for more pokes.

Riveted, Kat tried a small smile but there was no reaction. She threw a look that pleaded with her father, and Oliver snapped out of his astonishment to sweep the boys out of the room. "But Papa..." Alex resisted, but Oliver was insistant. "Come on, son. Let's go find Lanka to see where he got this creature." Howls of agreement greeted this.

Alone with the creature, Kat sat down before it in silence, just smiling a little and trying to show that she meant no harm. The creature's eyes darted about still, as if expecting the others to return. She shook her head. "Papa understood that you didn't like what they were doing. They won't be back today."

The creature was a thin, wispy thing, green and yes, her brother's description was apt, slimy. It seemed to be neither male nor female, and not a hair graced the body anywhere, not on the head, nor torso nor limbs. It blinked its huge eyes about, throwing each person a blank look, but the stiffness of the body indicated it was braced for more pokes.

The creature's eyes betrayed a hint of relief, showing Kat that it understood her words. "I'm Kat. I'm sorry my brother and his friends are such melonheads. If you don't mind, I'd like to come back to visit you." The creature seemed to realize that it had betrayed its comprehension and dropped the facade, nodding. With a quick grin, Kat stood up and left.

Author's notes 12.15.04

[Author's Notes] Writing a novel from two different computers is hard. Blogging it is even harder. Plus, I can't seem to write long hand nor can I write first then post later. Pretty much what you see spewed here is just that... spewed out.

The last two weeks have been an exercise in repairs and construction. I'm talking about my personal life where due to many different reasons, conflicts that were simmering boiled over.

The outlook here now is clear, due to a long process of talking, listening and trying really really hard not to get angry. My other and I are stronger than ever (thank the stars) and we've shored up the foundation and am ready to build on it more.

Of course, the process wreaked havoc on Kat's story - lol. Kat is still there patiently waiting for me to tell what happens next. A good thing that came out of this recess, is that Kat's story is more developed, albeit in a overall way. I knew things in the future, but the question was, how do I bring it about from the past and how do I make it NOT contrite. I hate plot devices that are glaringly plot devices.

It shan't be long now before I put fingers to keyboard and eke out a few thousands words so our mysterious protagonist will be less mysterious. Then after that, Tristan's mid-teen years, then Kat's late teens, early 20's and THEN finally the two shall meet. Again, why can't I be ambitious with money?

Take care!