A night (with)out (all the dreamy-weamy stuff)

Five days and roughly 10,000 to 11,000 words later I can say without feeling too lazy: 'Loner's Peak' is growing nicely. And I don't see this stopping anytime soon.
As the plot of the story develops ... and I end up with another night of insomnia, my head starts running off into different other directions, successfully keeping me from focusing too much onto one story, which is - in fact - a good thing.
I came up with a few lines for stories following up after the 'trilogy'. It's a shame I still don't have a name for them as a whole, but yeah... sooner or later I'll find one I like. It's only a matter of time.

But we can't just leave it all behind every time like this guy did last night, can we?

*~*

[..]

Shirley also was there later on. Had her usual shift with the usual people sitting at her bar.

She didn’t look quite as happy to see me at first, but as normally she opened up as the evening progressed. Even did her usual show after getting an over-the-edge tip from someone, raising the top. Sure gets people fired up, buying more, giving even larger tips... She knows she’ll get none from me though. And she stopped tryin’ on that a long while ago.

I don’t have the money...
[..]

*~*

But I guess this is a somewhat different and... well, more difficult case all in all when compared with the pathetic little insomniac streaks I sometimes have.

Something totally different: Now that the story progresses like this, it will be harder to find excerpts to post without including too many spoilers. I'll be trying to prevent this kind of "over-sharing" as good as possible, but still give a short peak onto the story from time to time.
Related to that I'm currently looking into getting a schedule started, trying to get this site here a little bit more organized and stuff, ya know? So look forward to that. My beloved 'short-update-madness' will definitely be a part of it.

But that's once again all for just now.
As always thanks for reading.
Marc, the Zealous.. not overzealous or under-zealous, just plainly zealous

P.S.: Kitteh incoming...

Apologies

Well yeah...
Over the last few days I felt like I have to apologize to the people reading this blog of mine for the enormous amount of (little and stupid) mistakes I made in the original upload of the 'excerpt' I offered in the last post. (That's the part when being an acoustic-type really screws you over...)
Hopefully it should be all sorted out by now.
As I said two times, the whole thing was initially taken from a rough draft I had made earlier - which had been polished up a bit - at least I said that... and I actually did, but yeah... I still did not get the mistakes...
Shows me I should be re-re-re-reading everything I want to post.
Nevertheless it just shouldn't have happened in the first place. I really really felt stupid for a lot of the stuff.
And please believe me, this was an exceptional case of personal rubbish-ness and non-thinking on my part.
It will not happen again.
 I hope you will accept my sincere apology for the inconvenience caused and I hope I did not scare you away ...

Unfortunately I don't have too much that I can offer to you right now, as I'm trying to make up for my latest mistake. But maybe I a continuation of the last excerpt will be okay? As the first step or so...


*~*

[..]

“Ah, yes... I didn’t mean to offend you by any means, but as you can probably guess my schedule is rather ... busy ... from time to time. So unfortunately I can’t always memorize all the names I come across from day to day.”

He chooses his words and the pace in which he speaks wisely, not being too slow or too hastily either whilst still making his way over towards his desk. Quickly he reached the middle of the room and goes on further to go straight passed me without even offering a handshake or whatsoever as a greeting.

Sure got a stick up his ass...

“So Mister... Mortinson. What paper did you work for? Please go ahead... remind me.” his words are somewhat pushing, but not over-exaggerative as he still is on his way, leaving me now only with the back of his head in my direct view, showing off the greasy looking black hair combed back and tucked tightly to his skull.  

“BioGEN” I reply without too much hesitation. “It’s still a small magazine which came up only recently. Forgive me being nervous, it’s their first job I’m on for them.” For a moment or two it actually sounds like I know what I’m talking ‘bout. But still...,

‘A small magazine which came up only recently’? Damn... the cover story’s so bad it hurts... It takes a cop to come up with something as lousy as this...

Jameston’s finally at his desk, looking over it for a second or two then turning towards me again, leaning on to it. His eyes are rather small, but strictly focused on me. The other features of his face are strong, somewhat really reminding me of a lion, missing only the mane. As an addition to that he has a black mustache, neatly trimmed.

“If that is the case then ... you are quite the lucky one being here right now, you know? Especially after being this late to an appointment... Other journalists spend a life-time trying to get to see me for fifteen minutes and still don’t manage...”

Damn it... he’s seeing through already... I’d hoped it would have taken at least a few minutes longer.

“But... I would also be lying if I’d tell you that you are the first rookie standing here in front of me. Still... you are a rather old rookie, if you don’t mind me being this frank right away.” He adds whilst grinning brightly at me, displaying a few of his pure white teeth. A sleazy, treacherous kind of smile.

I can already tell... He’s playing with me.

“I’m on it part-time. Everybody needs a little money on the side, don’t they?” I reply forcing a light smile, though probably nobody would be able to tell that I’m smiling. I try to lighten the situation up a bit, hoping it would take his mind off the obvious flaws my cover has.

Taking me by surprise Jameston lets out a short burst of laughter before he continues. “YES, THEY DO!”
[..]

*~*

also: Tables ... yay

*~*

[..]

I’m still treading on the red carpet from outside the room. It’s leading directly towards a large desk at the far side of this place. Looks like it’s made of ebony... Should that be really the case, that fucking table’s worth a fortune all by itself...

[..]

*~*


There you go, I hope this is sufficient enough for a first down-payment after my slip up(s) last time.
Nevertheless I hope you enjoyed reading my stuff today - I promise to try and avoid such mistakes like last time.

As always, thanks for reading.
Marc, admitting mistakes.


P.S.: Still searching for a suitable kitteh.

A lion and a wolf in disguise!

Well hello there boys and girls. I'm glad that you all managed to be here today, or tomorrow... or maybe even yesterday already.
Let me tell you a tale full of wonder and excitement, but without actual content! So now gaze upon my prized possession ... my sacred wonder, clouded by a veil of secrecy... just... a ... moment. .. um... where did I put it?
Seems it got lost on the way. What way? Oh... uh... I forgot?

But I guess that's enough pointless rambling for one session, wouldn't you agree?

I had a bit of 'trouble' with the Blizzard Activision Community team during the last days, which pretty much took a lot of my time (and to be honest mostly my nerves) as a toll as I was trying to enter my story into their annual writing contest.
Everything looked fine first, you just have to accept the rules of said competition (which are kinda... yeah... no comment), fill in a web form, upload the document containing the text and you're off... at least that's the theory behind it all.
Shortly afterwards you receive an e-mail as a confirmation with the data you sent them. And that's were the fun started. Somethings not right... and now it's up to you to get in contact with Blizz if you don't want to get disqualified for giving false or incomplete information about yourself and/or the story.
Let's just say, it wasn't as easy as you'd hope for it to be, unfortunately above that the problem has not yet been resolved.  So I'm currently waiting on yet another email from Blizzard - this time from the US department - which will hopefully clear everything up ...
(On a side note - the whole contest thing is reason for me removing the 'preview'-parts from one of my earlier blog posts.)

For a bit more recent stuff - here is a short excerpt from 'Loner's Peak', although it is still merely a draft:

The doors somewhere behind me open, breaking up my stray thoughts.

Richard Jameston enters the room with quick, strong steps, displaying the strength and pride one would expect from him as the 'Lion of L.A.' although his black suit gives him more the appearance of a panther hunting its prey from the shadows. 

Everything on him is matched perfectly in the same color scheme I noticed before, black suit, red tie and golden cufflinks gleaming over towards me.
"Good day, Mister...?" he casually asks me from across the room without ever giving up his point of superiority as he comes closer. His voice is strong and clear, fitting perfectly for the archetype of a leader.
He barely looks any older than maybe 30, but the intel I got tells me he's heading straight for his 40's in the next two years.
"Mortinson", I reply cold, not too bothered about my cover. It'd be pointless hiding my name anyways.

There you go, as I said it's just a short excerpt of whats currently going on in the story. I polished it a bit more whilst I was copying it onto here.
Edit(1): Sorry for all the random little mistakes that were(are?) in the excerpt - as I said it's just an draft from one of my notebooks and I was polishing it up a bit for the story. Basically I took it from a bunch of scrap-work without thinking too much about it. I'm sorting it all out at the moment.
Edit (2): Hopefully all sorted out now... Joke's on me... Sorry once again for the inconvenience caused.


Also the search for the Sleeptalking book cover continues! harhar! or rather... boohoo....

But that's all for just now, thanks for reading and heave a great day,
Marc, the flammable.

P.S.: Heeere kitteh, kitteh.... here kitteh

Arrr! YARRR! Arrr! Arrr!

Ahoy mateys!

Shiver me timbers, tha day 'as arrrived! Don' ya be loo'in'... join in or sleep with ye fishes a' Davey Jones lock'rrr!
Yarrr! Hoist ye sails, drank ye rum and by me beard, ge' me som' too!

Blimey, ye sure arrrr uninformed, it seems... Teday's Pirate Day (orrr Speak-like-a-Pirate-Day -- 19th September)
So ge' goin' an' join in on ye fun an' stirrr up ye surroundin' with a lil' pirate talk.
And no worries me hearties, I ain't gonna write ev'ryt'in' like this teday... bu' ya kno... most

Now where's me goddamn grog ye wench? *starrres at Beni*

Enjoy tha' day wit' all ye landluvers!
Marrrc, ye low-budget pirrrate

P.S.: Arrrr!
P.P.S.: Yarrrr!
P.P.P.S.: Kitteh! ARRR!

Finally, honey-toasted pizza!... Wait..., what?!?

Here I go on again blabbering about...

If I'm totally honest there isn't that much to talk about today, although there are a few things that have been going on lately.

First of all, I finally got back into my lil' fitness routine again. It's been a while since the last time I did the workouts from BodyRock.tv ... and wow... my arms and legs are sore already.. BUT .. I feel great otherwise! And I just love the phase of complete exhaustion directly after the workout followed by an incredible boost of energy! Makes me question myself why I stopped doing them in the first place.
Oh guilty conscience you so... uh yeah... probably right...

I also finally got my hands on a great board game by the simple name of  'Zombies!!!' ... yeah, following the personal hype of mine that I'm cultivating the moment. It's by the utterly great people of TwilightCreationsInc.
(luckily not THAT twilight... but I'll hold back and won't comment on that 'franchise' just yet)
It's a rather simple game with really fluent game-play where you build a city from randomly drawn tiles turn by turn and try to escape the zombie infested city via helicopter in the end.
I'd say give it a try, if you're into such kind of games (and zombies in that case ofc).

And... I FINALLY got back into 'Loner's Peak'... yeah I've been writing actual stuff for the story. Not that I'd been all lazy and didn't care for it anymore... I filled a good few pages in my notebooks with stuff for the story and the following two parts over the course of the past weeks.
And still I won't be able to concentrate on it 'full-time' just yet - there is still too many things that need sorting out along the side.
(I really need some help... too many things, too many ideas... sheesh. And just to keep you from worrying too much - I'm still confident that I'll manage to sort it all out quite nicely at some point.)
I wrote five (short-short) pieces of flash-fiction during the last week for example.
They might not be that long (roughly 500 words a piece) but coming up with a good idea for one also isn't too easy. Most things I come up with would be a better fit for longer stuff with maybe 5.000 words.
But yeah, five are already done - I'll start working on number six as soon as I'm done with this post right here - which means only six more to go. Yep, you read it right. Six more to come. The goal is to get twelve little stories done.

Why I'm doing stuff like that when I could be getting on with a story that needs to be finished, which I promised to people online that I don't know personally a few times already?
Well... that's a good question indeed. To put it simple: I have a plan with them, they'll all find use eventually.

And finally another 'finally'! Yesterday I found a real nice letter inside my mailbox downstairs. It's from a good friend of mine from back in the days. (His name's Benjamin. I'll refer to him like that on here - don't confuse him with Beni though! The plush bear might get angry.)
He is a really gifted artist, who decided to study law.
Yep...
But back to topic. He finished a great drawing for my other story, 'Sleeptalking' in the style of a copper engraving (or etching - whatever word you want to use for it, English-German translations aren't very clear on that, seen dozens of different variations on what is supposed to be right). The only thing I'm not totally sure about is how to use it most effectively, because I think it is a bit too bright for the outside-cover of the book as such. So I face a bit of thinking that has to be done in that regard.
I might put it up onto site at some point, but not yet .. that would be too sooooooon.


And just for your delight, a new excerpt only for you!

“MITCH! MOVE YOUR ASS OVER HERE!” he yells at me.

Why on earth... couldn’t he have told me whatever it is when he was still sitting next to me? With a sigh I make my way over to the partition’s door dividing the place into a large open spac and one smaller room.

“One more thing.” he says looking at me while sitting in his chair leaning back.

“What is it Barry...?” my impatience is flowing through the words I speak.

“Did I ever tell you the story of the little swallow searching for its place in life?”

This question hits me right out of the blue. I’ve got no idea on how to respond to it properly.

“Uh... No?” I stammer after a short while.

“It didn’t fucking care! THE END! Now get out of my freakin’ warehouse and DO YOUR GODDAMN JOB!”


Yeah I know... I already used the thing with the swallow on this page before. But I wanted to show you how it looks like implemented into the actual story.

Sheesh all that bloggy stuff today. But yeah... those were my four 'finally's' of the day.
As always thanks for reading and have a great day,
Marc, finally the final finally

P.S.: New Kitteh already up.
P.P.S.: Some day you'll might have the pleasure to read the story about Camilla the butterfly and Bertha the bumblebee... if you're nice enough to deserve such a treatment!

Moonlight's Flashing Flash

Right now I'm sitting here on my bed writing a post for my blog, at a time when I actually should be sleeping rather than staring at the monitor of my laptop.
Yay for updating in the middle of the night ... yaaay... (at least it's the middle of the night in Germany - around 4 a.m. to be precise)

So what's the big deal with this? It seems I've got a bit 'insomniatic' again for a change so I figured I could as well go ahead and do a bit of work on this site of mine. I've been updating a few parts of this site with new content - mainly the random stuff. There is a new kitteh up as well. And I've been ironing out a few other things here and there, basically all over the place.
Also I'm still a bit hesitant to let Beni write his own blog-posts on the main site... who knows what he'd come up with...

There you go ... you call yourself an 'author' for once and immediately the cliche stuff kicks in..., now I just need to become an alcoholic and I'm all set... not that I'd actually be intending on going down that step slope. On the contrary - I'm trying to get away from the stuff completely.


But this post isn't solely about my pointless ramblings - I brought nice little piece of Flash-fiction along for you, my dearest readers. The whole thing is pretty self-explanatory so I don't plan on saying too much about it, except for: Enjoy!

*~*

Stray  Memories

Have you ever experienced a dream so vivid and life-like that you confused it with reality?

Each night a normal, ordinary person has countless dreams, fractions and scraps of memories, thoughts and illusions, not even meant to be remembered past sunrise.

Yet only a scarce number of those might ever have such an effect on you.

Nights tend to be lonely when you’re on your own and in a city not even the stars will keep you company. 

It was in one of those nights that I was sitting on my bed doing nothing, not even really sleeping, except for maybe admiring the darkness around me for its relentless obscurity. 

Then I started to hear her voice. 

It seemed clear yet distant, with a mechanical undertone to it just like on the phone.

At first I just listened to her, but then we quickly started to talk about all kinds of things.

We kept going on for hours and hours.

Suddenly she was quiet again and the haze around me started to lighten up. 

In an outburst of panic I searched for the telephone on the nightstand. I barely got a hold of it.

I held it to my ear, asking if everything was alright. But the only answer I received was the monotone dialling tone, waiting for me to enter a number.

The bitter realization... we've never talked since we put an end to it. 
A dillusion from the past haunting me in a moment of rest. 

Have you ever experienced such a thing?

No?

Then I guess this won’t matter to you...

*~*


The one thing I will admit and I'm sure most of you will have guessed it already, is that this whole thing is based on something that happened to me a while go in a similar fashion.
The short lil' text was originally intended for a contest - yet I withdrew it from the project as it was ... well... still too long and cutting even more would only cripple it in my opinion.

Concerning the recent events - I'm starting to come to terms with the development of the whole situation and I'm starting to accept what happened, so I'm also slowly leaving the lethargy of the last week behind me.
It's getting better again.

On a different - totally random note - I'm currently on the look-out for a good game with zombies in it that is available for a reasonable price... (And I want to mention that I don't like the Left 4 Dead series that much - just doesn't appeal to me)
Yeah - I know it's somewhat cruel - and I see the "irony" in the situation myself, but I got caught up on the whole Dead Island hype that started during the last week or two.
I probably would have jumped for it, could I actually get it via Steam... but nope... the German FSK decided that the game is not suitable distribution in our country (admittedly it is kind of nasty). Maybe, just maybe I could get my hands on a copy somehow but then again... it is still kinda expensive.
So I'm currently getting my fix of Dead Island thanks to Youtube by watching 2 Let's Play's of it - One solo playthrough with some random co-op-ness  (Thanks for keeping it rad Mr. Brad :>) - and another, different one on 4-Player Co-op.

So there you go.
I hope you enjoyed my randomness as I lack sleep and the Flash-fiction I hereby offered for your entertainment.Have a great day - all of you.

As always thanks for reading,
Marc, Chosen by the Moon

P.S.: New stuff everywhere \o/ Oh snap... already mentioned that... erm.. Bazinga?

The End of an Era

This might sound strange for most people out there (hopefully only at the first glance), but yes ... today an era came to an end for me personally... unfortunately not in the positive way.

Today afternoon at approximately 4 p.m. my cat passed away.
I mentioned it in earlier posts of this blog, what had happened during the summer and how she tried to starve herself to death plus how she recovered from it, but soon afterwards her kidneys as well as her liver brought up a lot of new problems. Of course we took her to the vet (to several different ones in fact) but all of them seemed to agree on one point, that this whole thing must have been dragging on for a while now. It's kinda strange hearing something like this especially when you did not notice the slightest change in her behaviour, health or anything during said time.
Nevertheless... it changes nothing about the outcome of it all.

And life's only sweet as long as it can end, isn't it like that?

My relationship to the little furball has always been special in many ways. She was a member of the family, a friend when needed and maybe even a sister for me - and I don't care if somebody thinks this sounds awkward...
I grew up together with her. She was "dropped" into our little family when I was 8 years old and it immediately 'clicked' between the two of us. An almost perfect-match made by fate. (I still think she sometimes thought she was married to me.)
For the last 15 years she was always there for me and my mother with her feline charm and grace - a kitten to cuddle or a fur to cry into.
But now...
She has her well deserved rest. She was always a very proud individual and now the humiliation she must have felt during the last week(s) of her dwindling strength and energy are finally over.

Rest in peace my sweetheart, you will be missed.

This is the second loss my family suffered this year - first my grandfather died in April and now her.
I'm sorry if any of the above sounds somewhat cold-hearted or strangely out of focus - I'm no good in expressing such feelings, neither in spoken nor in form of written words.

It's a bit difficult for me to write about something else right now, but I guess I have a promise to keep:


*~*

[..]

Un-fucking-fortunately today would have been moderately important.

It would have been a once in a life-time opportunity for me to catch up on the recent events. To get actual information about the killings of last night. But the few names that were spit out, quickly turned into a pulp of digested words as the killing intent in each and every one of us grew by the second. For a short moment it even threatened to overthrow me and my elsewise unbreakable calm.

It was just us and our thirst for blood.

A fuckin’ strange night...

A hand full of new guys joined in on the fun after maybe an hour had passed. They were just like all the scrubs that they collect from the streets. Pathetic idiots, homeless, junkies and even murderers. Too dumb to know the sharp end of a knife let alone the killing end of a gun and too hot-headed to know what they’d be in for.

[..]

*~*


There you go.
As always thanks for reading. I hope you are having a better day than I am.
'till next time,
Marc, the Mourning One


P.S.:Oh and yeah... i don't think too many people are interested in the whole thing but - as I mentioned my birthday in the last post - it was on Saturday the 3rd of September (as can be also taken from my blogger.com profile).

Oh wow...

So it's September already... my my... time flies by indeed. But isn't this one of the many things that makes life so sweet? Knowing that you only have one and that it passes by. The flow of time... as much a blessing as it is a curse.

But enough of my pointless ramblings, not that anything I say actually has a meaning to it, or does it?

I finally gave in to buying Minecraft... yes... consider me one of the addicted. I've spent my free-time of the past two day with building some basic stuff, only to burn it down again soon after, still in search for the perfect world to settle down.
(For the extra thrill -> Winnie the Pooh skin and Beni sitting next to the laptop... oh, I'm such a child...)

Story-wise - I started working on the Short stories and texts that I'm writing for the textbook. I brought the first one onto (virtual) paper, started toying around with various others and got down to making a rough grid for all twelve of them.
Concerning my fiction I'm starting to get entangled in the many ideas I have - I seriously need somebody to help me write all of those books stored in my head - but that would be cheating, wouldn't it?
I even had another idea - yes even more to write down. It's getting a bit out of hand and I'm still not at the point where I would give in to cutting on any of them. Though this 'idea' I got there is somewhat of a neck-breaker. Yeah... admittedly it seems to be a bit overkill - despite it being nothing too fancy when you think about it a bit more in depth. But for you guys (and garrrls) out there I'll leave you with just a hunch for now - Kaleidoscope.
Anyhow - expect any work on this project in maybe... a year or two? If I decide on starting to work on it as early as this. First of all I need to get finished with 'Loner's Peak' and the two other parts following its storyline. And after that next in line would be 'Nightingale', at least if I don't decide on changing that.
Yet I'll stop whining about getting nothing done for now - it's not that easy all that studying, part-time-jobbing, writing and living the life of a 'pseudo-normal' student with all his social liabilities ... if you get my drift. But what better point in time to start changing some of the old ways and habits in my life than now?
Especially as my birthday is coming rushing towards me.

Nevertheless I'd feel better if I had some new excerpts to show you, but in all honesty, there is none this time (that I really wanted to show off..., that is). But I'll promise you, the next time I'll post on this here blog of mine, I'll have something new and shiny for you to read.

Btw: Ouch! ... burnt my right hand on the inside of the oven yesterday ... kinda hurts (and looks... well let's not talk about that...)

That's all for now - as always thanks for reading, and have a great day / week.
Marc, the... block-y

P.S.: New Kitteh coming soon
P.P.S.: New Kitteh up and online... A "Get-Well-Kitty"-Picture of my own, still sick kitty. Why did you do something so stupid, sweetheart?
P.P.P.S.: The "Get-Well-Kitty"-Picture seemingly did not have any positive effect... it will be re-captioned.