[SUM] - ...

"At least one, usually more silent part of my psyche used to suddenly speak up to me during the strangest of occasions. >>You need to enjoy this a bit more!<< it cried out fiercely without cause nor reason. What a twisted little remark it had been as I come to think of it. Something I never fully understood, at least not until the very end. At least not until now, the outlining of my face vaguely reflecting from the dulled puddle of curdling blood."

[SUM] - Getting to know your own Main Character

Who would have imagined that this is something rather difficult to get done? Especially as 'main characters' are usually so shiny and pristine or dominant and impulsive or at least so frail and useless (in the beginning) that you just have to remember them one way or the other.

But how to get your Average-Joe to be the hero of whatever you want to build up and stand out of the grey-ish lot?

The first response will typically be that this is a difficult process... and yeah it is. Why fool you and feed you a blatantly obvious lie? As with any person you will have to get to know him/her just as you'll have to with any human being you might meet out in the streets of wherever you're living. It takes a bit of time and mostly patience as you slowly build up trust.
Sure this sounds ludicrous at first, especially if you actively keep in mind that we are talking about a fictional person that YOU want to create, but you will soon enough begin to see the truth behind this one little sentence.  And quite understandably you don't want to model every last character after yourself or close friends/relatives (naturally those are the first people you'll think off trying to get a sudden inspiration - and I'll promise: in most cases it'll be more successful than looking at an orange).

BUT... this is a description of a long and complex process that's only scratching the surface. More interestingly this 'process' can go one as long as wish for it to last and about as deeply too. Aside to that it is something very personal, almost intimate (maybe a poor choice of words) because you are after all in the process of creating your own fake little human being (or non-human being).

Sadly this is also a bad topic to give people advice on, as everyone will experience this process very differently. We are all motivated, stimulated by different things and this easily carries over to being creative as well.

Yet as you see I'm mainly blabbering on without an actual lead or substance to it... so I might as well refer to the current character I'm working on.
At the moment he is most likely to be called: Michael Fields.
To make it easier on you and to actually create a suitable character you'd better know what kind of story you are interested in writing (and have a general idea of the plot) - in this case we would end up with something on the lines of: Angst, Paranormal, Horror(-Fantasy).
Going from there a profession also usually helps you out. Picking something too close to your own won't necessarily help you out as proper research will fill any gaps - though you might have to invest a good bit of time on that part. In this particular case we'll go with: Author.

These are (in my opinion) 2 of the core things (the name isn't really all that important) to set up the typical ways how your character would react to most situations. The profession usually gives your character a general direction to either follow or actively ignore and define him that way.

From this point onwards I usually get set on creating a physical setting in the back of my head - a small town e.g. whatever fits the general notion of your story as well as the social surrounding of this main character. Then go ahead and add some flavouring like a murder perhaps and connect it to your future protagonist. For instance you'll really want to know if this character is falsely accused of the crime at hand, or maybe even rightfully so... the 'how' doesn't matter too much at this point in time, though the 'why' might.

Either way... put all the ingredients together, mix 'em, blend 'em and you'll get an idea of where you are heading and most important of all: a feeling for how your protagonist will probably react to most of the things he'll have to face.

Now, if you've already come this far and you're not feeling ready yet to put down the whole story one by one, you probably should start writing down more or less short paragraphs of dialogue, or inner monologue your protagonist would/could/should use in the story. Maybe you'll end up actually using it! (Don't be afraid to edit or cut things from your drawing board.)

To get back to the first-hand examples - two quotes I took from mister Fields that will most likely both make it into the finished text/story:


*commenting on an old almost-ex-girlfriend of his*
"People usually wondered how long it would take for the two of us to finally get together. However my response to these ever-so-often only silently mouthed questions always remained to be the same, at least in essence. Changing over the years from me shouting 'NO! Girls are icky!' up to 'Cut the crap and shut the fuck up!' after one last rather harsh rejection I received from her at the start of our first term of College."


*his general way of introducing himself*
"Michael. Michael Fields, though you may call me Sebastian should you ever forget. Just don't expect me to take too kindly to that..."


Now after giving you these two quotes from my notes the really interesting question(s) start(s) to arise... how do you get the guy who said the stuff from above to voice something like:

"The land may melt, the sea may burn and the sky shall fall - but the mind remains to be eternal."

And only if you are able to answer this one question, how did this change occur - you will be able to create a being that actually seems believably realistic. The character you set out to create lives and thrives upon the task you present them with and/or the change(s) he will have to face.
Easier said than done and it would be too easy to be taken by the hand and walked through all of it without giving it your all. These are things you need to do for yourself, or it will never be truly 'your character'. But that is just my opinion.

In any case... it's been a long one today after such a long while of... well... not much. And it even had a topic... gets better by the minute.

As always, thanks for reading and have a great day/weekend (it's not too far away anymore!)
Marc, currently part-time trainee

[SUM] - It's not much of a blog...

...if you don't update it regularly, is it now?
I know I've been slacking again, but what can I say? I'm a bit caught up with a couple of other things at the moment, a potential move being only one of many. But I'm not going to bore with that just now, at least not yet that is.
I'm just here to make clear that I, in fact, have not fallen off the face of the Earth and I'm pretty sure I haven't died - I believe the Internet is known for believing the strangest of things rather quickly (I lost count how many times Morgan Freeman has been declared dead by now), so... here I am!

Yeah, that's not really much, or well, anything at all to be honest, but what did you expect? Good news? I assume it's a bit too early for any of those. Damn you 6 week waiting time for a response!
On the other hand... you can't really blame the agencies for taking so long if you think about how many messages they get per day and all the stuff attached to them...

But so you don't go home completely empty handed, I have a couple of rather freshly taken down bits of text I'm looking forward to implement into the story 'Heavy Silence'. In which way or form, or if in this particular phrasing at all still undecided.


"It does naught matter as much to know what you want to be, rather than to know who you actually are."

"Funny people are often depressed, thought the depressed are not necessarily funny at all. Note the difference!"

"This world... It's all just beautiful lies and happy violence."


It's not necessarily what I'd say myself, but in a kind of way... yeah it is. Also note the pop-culture reference more or less pitifully hidden.

Anyways... I'm sorry that'll have to do for now. There will be a point in time, somewhen in the more or less distant future when I'll have a few actual bits of text to offer but that's still a good bit away (way to be unspecific, sheesh).
As always though, thanks for reading. Have a great weekend and a good start into the next week.
Marc, who the hell's that in the first place?


P.S.: I'll see what I can do 'bout a kitteh; also... had a glass of Japanese Whisky this evening... wow that stuff is surprisingly intense ...

[SUM] - Somnium Primum

So this is kind of a late update ... at least if you're living in Europe.

Somnium Primum, the title says it all - roughly translated we end up with "The First Dream"
(taking into account 'somnium' can mean a couple of things so you might also call it fever-dream - not too accurate though or well.. obviously 'nightmare')

What this means is that I'm actually doing what I wanted to do - re-editing Sleeptalking - again.
And as this part of the story can be found over on my page for Sleeptalking, I will get on updating that right away after I finished this post here. You want a new kitteh as well, you say? Well... maybe. Let me think about it.

As for today... you all will have to make due with this excerpt right here. Hope you'll enjoy it nevertheless.


*~*

Looking around she noticed that the trees were forming a kind of barrier around this place; they stood densely packed building this impenetrable wall. Was she not meant to be here, she asked herself under her voice? Was she an intruder on a sacred glade?

The wind picked up and grew stronger with every little step she took on her way closer to the pond.
The water appeared as clear as crystal, beautiful and enticing. Without doubt unusual, but why question? She clearly saw her image with the dark brown eyes and her skin as white as porcelain, there was nothing sinister about a natural mirror.  
The more time she spent in this place, even if it had been only mere minutes the more she could not help to think how beautiful all of this was and that some-when, as the opportunity might arise she should have to return here, best together with all her family. And still the feeling would not go away: something kept on telling her that she was not supposed to be here, something inside of her warned her that this was a dangerous place to linger about.
Just in this very second a strong gust of wind shot through the forest, bearing far more force than any before and Seraphine could not prevent herself from looking up to the wavering treetops above as her hair was thrown about wildly.
It took her breath away as she saw the hundreds of yellow glowing pairs of eyes looking down upon her. She could not make out what these creatures were but they seemed to reflect no light at all with their bodies. The only things visible were their bright yellow eyes.
In shock she made a few steps backwards away from the water without ever taking her eyes of the treetops and their pitch-black inhabitants. They were larger than bats, though probably not too much, little Seraphine had never seen a bat before.
Few seconds later she tripped on the slippery and wet grass losing her balance, gravity pulled her to a rest on the ground yet again, this time though amongst the wet blades.
Little did the girl care though, she was panicking again, looking around wildly for an opening between the smaller trees around her. She knew she would have to flee as there was no telling what those things above her might do to her, but nothing.
Not a single thing.


*~*


And there you go.
The editing has been going rather nicely over the course of the last few days, which actually doesn't mean anything to be fair so yeah... I'll be sticking to that for the next couple of days, weeks, hoping that it doesn't go all overboard like it did with MotT... damn that took me ages.

As always thanks for reading, hope you're having a great week.
Marc, not even a month left till the 15th of May - hurray!


P.S.:... Yeah you got me, I'll put up another kitty.

[SUM] - One year down

And a lot more to go, hopefully that is.

On this day, one year ago I first created this blog here. At the time it looked a good bit different compared to now, mostly a lot less kittehs though. But yeah... one year, already looking back into the past? Nah... that's no good! I'll have to be looking forward to get things done, not backwards. And that's exactly what we'll do!

It's short-update-madness-time, as I have oh-so randomly decided just now!

Thirst things first - I spent a lot of today's time with creating a second blog. No worries though - I won't bore you to death with my ramblings on that one too. That blog is meant to be somewhat special: As you all should know I finished my re-editing, re-visioning of 'Bloodstained Shadows' not too awfully long ago and since that moment I tried to find another way to host it on my blog and not solely rely on fanfiction.net and well... fan fiction sites in general. So... here it is!


http://bloodstainedshadows.blogspot.de/


I tried to keep it as clean and clearly arranged as possible. Personally I like this design more than the one of e.g. fanfiction.net
The site is set up with bloggers "new" dynamic templates and is probably best viewed with the Sidebar version. Feel free to give them all a try if you so desire, but you will find some of them to be fairly pointless given the content.
It should - SHOULD - run on any browser by now, but you never know, do you? IE, chrome and FireFox seem stable though - which is a good start.

As usual, feel free to give the story a go, leave a comment (or review on any other sites containing BS-CoaLS)


Only thing unfortunately being I had to switch to blogger's new layout to get this new blog running, it's only a minor thing, still I don't really like it... at least it's current color-scheme isn't as pain-inducing as the earlier versions were.

Ah well... in other news, Sleeptalking is getting somewhere too... but it's still too early to go into any detail concerning that.

As always, thanks for reading, I hope you're having a great week. I, for my part will be travelling back to Bremen, most likely tomorrow, so expect a new post somewhat around Sunday.
Marc, bloggish

P.S.: New Kitteh uploaded, not necessarily an anniversary kitty, but it fits the general mood... yeah... something along those lines

[SUM] - 'Recap'

It's just a title for a post, don't worry too much about it. Honestly: Don't.

And so you all feel better, I haven't forgotten about the lot of you, but it just so happens that I had to change locations yet again ("had to" = visiting the rest of the family over the Easter Holidays. Weeeee bunnehs!)
And so I'm now sitting on this sofa already relocated to Saxony, the train ride long behind me and slowly getting less productive by the minute. But I did manage to finally find a use for my largest (up to this day unused) notebook on my way here as I had to somehow fill those 5 hours of mind numbing sitting around.
Hence the title for this post.

Therefor: the update for today is: I'm away, or rather "I'm here" which means just about as much as "I'm away."

Anyways... thanks for reading, yep this is only a short one and more to come, probably as the week progresses. Even though we might "see" each other till then: Happy Easter holidays nevertheless.

Marc, under the spell of the bunnehs!

[SUM] - Fighting Habits and/or finding alternatives

Fighting Hobbits might turn out to be more interesting in a strange kind of way, but yes - I'm actually going on about habits as in "bad" and/or "good".

First off - what you all came here for: the updates.
Well... I'm planning a lot of things... really... when I say a lot I mean a LOT. But as most of the stuff is spread out rather wildly over the course of this year, I shall begin with the few more recent ones.

Most important of those probably being me looking into somehow getting Bloodstained Shadows onto this very site. Unfortunately the biggest problem remains - the how.

Second in line is the editing of Sleeptalking (oh god how often did I announce that up to this point? I'm loosing count...)

Aaand the third... hum, what was the third thing on the list? I'm not really sure anymore. Surely it wasn't about training a Beedrill, that would be lunacy...

But to onto the topic of 'habits and finding one's true self' for a short while:
I'd just like you to know that I found something out about myself I did not fully notice until now. Something I do feel foolish for in all honesty spoken.
Over the last few years, it seems, a schedule spanning over the course of a year had evolved concerning my abilities and more so the intensity and amount of work I put into writing. I usually began forming the first ideas for a project over springtime, refine those and create an outlining in the summer (yay's for working outside on stuffs) and getting the actual writing done in autumn/fall and winter. Well... what is the reason behind that?
I never really posed this question on myself, but now as the skies begin clearing up and sun caresses the still leafless trees the answer I sought for struck me like a bolt of lightning...
You can't really write all the dark stuff when it's sunny outside.
Now... I'm sure there are a lot of people who can and therefore a lot of people who would disagree with me on that point, but quite frankly: I'm not those people. And as it seems - I'm not capable of, well... spacing out that much. (You could btw start arguing with me on that part as BS-CoaLS was finished over the course of a summer - more trivia for you non-interested lot.)
Anyhow what does this tell me?
In the end I'm left with two options: overcome or succumb (as D. Mograine once said to a certain deathknight) - or in other words - dominate or adapt.
I could surely just jack up my diurnal rhythm and become nocturnal, but I'm not too sure if that's too healthy for me and my health is something I'm quite fond of in all honesty. Or on the other hand I could take this 'discovery' as something far more valuable: the opportunity it presents.
That being said I'm still left with the decision whether to break the existing schedule by going all "to-hell-with-it" and force myself to write all the dark stuff I've still got up my sleeves OR if I might just try and find a change of pace and style. It would be the perfect opportunity to get going on a few more 'happy' projects, stuff that most people tried to recommend to me - that I'd just start writing a comedy, something that brings out my over-the-top sense of humor and puts it to use.


All that tl;dr later I come to the conclusion that I found a chance to break through an old-ish habit of mine, to tread on a new path and maybe even 'evolve' concerning my writing. How it pans out is still pretty much wide open, but you'll never know.
That being said I found the glitch in my personal Matrix and I promise I'll try to work on that. Let's take this one as number three on the list and forget about the Beedrill for now, alright? (Not asking Beni...)

As always thanks for reading and your patience with me as I try to figure out which way to go.
Marc, a bit confused because of sudden clarity; also: Knight of Pentacles!

  

[SUM] Bloodstained Shadows Update Inc

No no no... not an incorporation. It's nothing like that - it stands for 'incoming'. Yes incoming and you should exactly know what that's all about:
Aye - I'm finally done with the editing of Bloodstained Shadows - Chronicles of a Lost Souls! Yay!

Now what exactly does that mean for you, for me, for all of the interwebz?
I shall tell you.
First off - for myself it means more work up ahead. I'll be busy separating the text into bits according to the chapters and with that get it ready for uploading to e.g. FanFiction.net, hopefully by tomorrow.
Keeping the delay of the site in mind - which is something between 8 and 24 hours (sometimes not even a single one but I'm not sure how the site will react to the mass edit/upload spree I'm preparing) the updated version of BS - CoaLS should theoretically be available for reading by Thursday. I'll be posting a separate 'announcement' on that once it's all up though.
The only thing else really of note would probably be that it's going to be available over the same link, so I'm just editing the whole thing, which also should keep all reviews etc. Which, come to think of it, would be nice if the story managed to get a few more ... hrhr... so please, feel free - once it's been re-uploaded to give me a review (no need to register or anything for that) and yeah, enjoy the ride as you read it.

But that is already all I have on that subject and well, in general for today's post.

As always thanks for reading and have yourself a great day.
Marc, the fluffy brained
 

[SUM] - And this is where we are at right now:

It's Tuesday and that means it's short-update-madness day for me, for you ... for all of us so to speak.

First on the list of many things: 'Loner's Peak' and it's ongoing series.
   During my holiday last month I decided on a couple of things. First of which being the name of the series will be 'Omnivore' for the time being, hopefully only subject to change if a publisher subjects to the name. That being said - I'm still waiting for that one reply to my queries telling me 'Yes this agency is in fact offering you representation for your work.'
Though not all queries have been replied to yet, but the thing to do will be mostlikely sending out another heap of those in the near future.

Second on the list: 'Bloodstained Shadows' - my fan-fiction
   I've been going on about this project for a while now and the editing has been going surprisingly slowly until now, but just as expected it took up a lot of speed with part three of the four. And as of right now there is roughly a fifth of the whole text still to be done. Expect that to get finished up soon/-ish.

Third: 'Sleeptalking' - the Victorian horror
   Editing run number four, which was originally announced to happen parallel to the editing of 'Bloodstained Shadows' will pick up as soon as I'm done with BS - CoaLS. That should put it on par with Loner's Peak.

Forth: 'The Bamboo Labyrinth' - the short-short short
    We be finished as my schedule allows me to... there are a couple of things I need to address myself to that are just simply more important. Take it as unfinished for the time being, although there isn't that much that still has to be added to complete the picture.

Fifth: Project 'Nightingale' and 'Kaleidoscope'
    Both of which have been subject to a lot of thinking over the one short week that was my holiday in the U.A.E. Most important thing to note is that there will be a name-swap for the two.
The story formerly know as "Nightingale" will be renamed to 'Heavy Silence' for now (although I'm not completely happy with it yet) and "Kaleidoscope" will be - much to anybody's confusion renamed to 'Nightingale'. Also... the prologue I had posted on this site for 'Nightingale' - now referred to as 'Heavy Silence' is heavily outdated and might as well be re-posted in the future.

And last but not least - a short scribble from my notebook taken from the notes to 'Heavy Silence' so you see I haven't solely been sitting at the beach or pool the whole time (which in fact I did :s) :


*~*


'My name? You'll find it to be utterly pointless but if you so desire to know...
Michael - it's the mashed potatoes of name seeking: no matter how you turn it or try to spice it up, it never changes. Helplessly bland, boring and not even the shot of milk, or in my case whisky, added anything to the mix.'


*~*


No offense to the Michael's of this world btw... it's not my opinion but that of the main character.

Aaaaand there you go... Short-update-madness successfully uploaded. Enjoy the overload of information.
As always thanks for reading and have a great week.
Marc, now quickly back to editing again - maybe I'll get that part done today. (Editz: Yays... only one part left to go!)

[RBSUM] So... uhm what to type?

First post of the month about nine days in? Yeah... beast mode engaged.
I'm trying really hard not to repeat myself from my last post but it's still kinda the same. I've been wrapping my brain around the whole editing business ever since and I'm coming along fairly consistently. For what it's worth I already knew the second part of Bloodstained Shadows would be rather harrowing so I'll just have to put up with it I guess.
But no worries! Everything will be done sooner or later. Just have a little bit more patience with me. (And I'm well aware of the fact that pleading for 'patience' in the Internet equals to something like 'Please throw a rock at my face.') Anyhow with all the unfortunate distractions about and around, like for instance - studying or looking into the whole teacher thing again or flying to Dubai, it'll take just a little bit longer.
On the plus side of things I'm really happy with how the story turned out so far and I can't wait to upload the proper finished version. (God I feel stupid for uploading the first one.)

Scheduled updates or at least something on the likes of that will commence again in March, as I'm more or less out of reach of my laptop for a good while from next week onwards. All that leaving the country stuff.

And I'll upload a bunch of kitties once I'll get to my ma's place or well... at least at some point over the weekend. Sounds like a deal? Hm... why am I asking? Sure it does... You'll just have to take it anyways...

But that's all from me for the moment. As always thanks for reading (and your patience with me).
Marc, slowly advancing forward.

[RBSUM] - Yeah, I'm falling behind

... on the schedule. I know I know, I'll make it up to you somehow.
But today's post is not about making those excuses but rather giving the reason. I'm feeling sick as of lately (and I didn't sleep too well last night) so getting even the few things edited today was a no-go. My minds going on a rampage and concentrating seems next to impossible. Not that this would particularly get on my nerves or make me feel "sick" in any way or form, it's actually the other way round. Concerning my personal life... not so much with what I'd like to call "work".
I'm just blabbering about pointless stuff most of the time, which is especially funny and a bit stressful if three people want to talk to me at the same time about totally different things... as if that wouldn't be hard enough clear-minded.
So that's the hard life of Marc Winter, aspiring author for you... but for real ... I'm kinda under the weather right now and I didn't get much done because of 683 Marc's somewhere up there, each roaring his head into a different direction, all pulling on different strings. I did manage to get over to editing a few pages of Bloodstained Shadows and will continue on with that, once I feel better again I'm sure the pace will also pick up... deadlline's pretty much the 10th of february for me so I'll aim for that... should not be too much of a problem all in all. The most strain part is without doubt part II: Memories of the Twilight, and I'm about halfway through that already... part III and IV will be quite fun I think. I'm really looking forward to those.
But for as of right now I'll better get myself to sleep so I'll hopefully feel a lot fitter by tomorrow already.

As always, thanks for listening to my whining, good night or 'good day' to each of you,
Marc... always with the sickness

[RBSUM] - Happy New Year ... again!

I know, I know. I'm repeating myself. Quite frankly I'm well aware of that, be sure about that.
Nevertheless... Happy New Year everybody!
I'm pretty sure a lot of you out there will already know, but for those who didn't: Today's the Chinese new year, so they'll be celebrating this now for the next 15(!) days - party on! But more importantly - it's a year of the dragon. And as a dragon myself this means for me not only that I'm turning 24 in September, but yeah a few other things as well.
Especially as the past has shown to me, rabbit-years (in this most recent case: the major part of 2011) are usually filled by quite the bunch of negative events, only to be followed by the highly prosperous dragon-year.

Right about now, directly after stating this, I'm sure a few, maybe even a lot of you are thinking "to hell with these superstitions" and I'd just like to say that I don't necessarily believe in them either.
Yet what I do believe in are two other things.
First of which being human willpower. You have to really want something to be able to achieve it and this strong willpower will be able to create paths for you that you never would have imagined to exist. Your own imaginations sets the limits to your success!
And the other one, directly relating to number one - if you really believe in something, are talking yourself into it... it's gonna become true.
Really... it's the way all sorts of horoscopes work. Usually they are vaguely written enough so that almost everything would fit the prediction and it's never gonna be wrong. A lot of people see that as something bad... but truth be told - it's more about what you make of it than the actual wording of one little scrap of text. If you believe in the horoscope and wanted for it to turn into reality and the usual stuff kicks in... well... it worked out, didn't it? For you and the person who wrote the whatever.
Of course I understand that this point of view isn't for a lot of people and I'm okay with that. I'm not even trying to argue. Only thing I'm saying is: this one's mine and I like it if it works out (and hey..., it did for me so far.)

But enough about all the controversial aspects of this new year (and I didn't even mention that aliens are apparently going to kill us all by the end of the year just because the CYCLICAL calender of the Mayan doesn't switch into its next cycle but rather tells us all to go die in a fire, err by water... yeah right) let's make the best of it, no matter which calendar you are following. It's gonna be a busy year, I already know that much.
I already said it before, but I just like the sound of it:
Let's shoot for the stars and even manage to get there, because: why the hell not?

On a side note - first part of Bloodstained Shadows is done with the re-editing. And Scarlet Dawn is now 11 pages with roughly 8.000 words longer. And I didn't even change a thing concerning the actual story, as it will be left untouched, just as mentioned. Next up is part two - Memories of the Twilight. I'll probably start on that as soon as this blog post goes live.
I'd also like to point you guys to -> over here <- where you will find a 4.400 (4.800?) long short concerning the same topic. Again... just read it as fantasy if you're not into the WoW business, believe me, it's worth it - and leave a review if you'd be so kind.

As always, thank you very much for your attention.
Marc, Dovahkiin by general norms of speaking

[SUM] - Wolves again

Yes I know it's Friday and I know it's not time for stuff like this and that I'm ignoring the time table I set up by myself... Well actually, that's the good part about it... it's MINE... so I can alter it.

Anyways.. hear me out on this one, as mentioned a couple of times already. I've been doing a lot of re-editing currently to keep me busy whilst waiting for all the wonderful responses to my queries - if I get any...
And so it came to be that something a bit out of the way attracted my attention and here I am now writing my blog post. Well, not exactly... something's still missing in the line-up. But where's the fun with going all into dry details if can just give you ... THIS:

*insert link here*

Once you've clicked on it, you will find yourself on fan fiction.net right at the start of my latest upload (happened today) - the one-shot short The Howl of Blood. It's a mere 4.400 words long. Again it is a World of Warcraft FanFiction ... yes it is, BUT just read it as fantasy? please? can you do me this favor? It's not too heavy on any story driven fact you'd have to know to get it.
But ... to be on the safe side: rated M for mature.

There you go... I guess you can consider it a Storytime all in all though not within the blog post itself.
Feel free to check it out, it's not too long after all and leave me a review over there if you think I deserve a good one... or well... a bad one too I guess. Those pesky review can be posted even without an account - yays for anonymity!

As always, thanks for reading.
Marc - actively starving at the moment

P.S.: Oh and btw... I'm not sure how fanfiction.net is counting the words, but they say the story is about 4.800 words long... Not much of a diffence in my eyes but yeah.

[SUM] - Yeah this time it definitely isn't Sunday anymore anywhere

But let's make the best of it and call Sunday's one a ninja-update. That would surely be most suiting its appearance.

In other news, I finally managed to put up two pics of Mauzi III, the little princess that declared my mom's house her new kingdom, which now governs with a plushy paw of cuteness and way too much energy.
Concerning the writing stuff I should be actually talking about: I right in the middle of editing Bloodstained Shadows, just as mentioned last time and frankly I'm quite positive on the fact that it will take me a while to get down with it. It's basically a complete overhaul, updating the story-telling mechanics from version 1.0 to 3.5. Which, it turns out, also adds quite a bit of length. I'm not even done with the first part of it ("book"?) and it already grew by about 3.000 words, only by taking my time re-reading it and killing off some of the repetition in the phrases... I also already removed the Eredrun glossary in the end for reading comfort. It's a neat little thingamajig to have when you hold it in your hands as an actual printed book, but online? Well... not so much. So people who were hating me for this choice in layout will no longer have a reason to ... well, hate me that much.
The whole thing will go up on fanfiction.net as soon as it's done and no, I won't be posting it as a separate story. It will take the place of the old one.
I'll get you updated on all that good stuff once it's done and all uploaded. Any reviews, ratings are appreciated, whether of the old version (over here) or the new one (ETA: ??)

Also... tomorrow is blackout day! Go interwebs companies against SOPA! Stop that bill from ever being discussed ever again.

And to end today's post with something completely off topic: I finally got my passport! That means I'd actually be allowed to enter the US. Wouldn't it be swell if there were a reason for that to be of importance?

Anyways... as always thanks for reading, enjoy your week and we'll see each other Friday - I hope.
Marc, dreaming crazy stuff involving the storyline of Crisis 2 and lightsabers (please don't sue me for using the word Mr. Lucas)

[SUM] - In the middle of somewhere

Heyhooo ladies and gents.

Here I am hoping you've been having a good day so far as I take my short rest from creativity and gathering favor in the name of the Empire whilst standing idly in Kaas City in the background.
So, I am rupturing my connection to the force - or rather the connection of the force to Beni James Honeypaw - because I made a promise to give you a short preview of 'Fool's Flight' this Tuesday...
Well guess what - here it comes.
And, oh wait, it gets even better... I said something about putting up an excerpt from the prologue, didn't I? So, yeah - I changed my opinion on that. But instead you will get to read the whole(!) first Interval!
For those wondering - an "interval" will be somewhat of the equivalent to what you'd normally simply call "chapter".

But enough of my usual ramblings - enjoy the first interval of the second part of my little series piloted by Loner's Peak - which will most likely be called the 'Omnivore' series.


*~*

Interval 01

...

*Beep*

...

*~*

As always, thanks for reading.
Come back Friday for the next part of the Bamboo Labyrinth. It's getting closer to its end.
Marc, bowing in the name of Emperor Beni James Palpatine

[SUM] - I'm really starting to hate that word...

Good evening if you're from Europe, good afternoon and/or good morning to any international reader.
I just got done with my little workout routine for the day so I'm good to go on possibly just falling asleep as I'm typing this. Hopefully feeling like this after the workout will ease up sometime soon.

Anyways, it's Tuesday and here I am, giving you what I promised to you. I hope the new year has gone easy on you during these first three days and everything's fine.

The word in question is without a doubt 'synopsis' - contrary to writing a query letter - which finds itself between quite challenging and actual fun whilst playing around with the first couple of sentences (despite the somewhat harrowing nature it takes on in later stages) writing a synopsis is something I personally ... well, hate - to put it this blunt. Something in my mind just doesn't like distilling those roughly 100 pages of work in font size 10 down to four, three or even better, 2 pages of nothing but information and names (keep in mind - a frequent tip I used to get concerning the query is to try and keep the style of the novel ... now have fun with that on two pages).
But... no matter how much you start nagging and cursing about it, it's always something you have to do... no way around it, so just bite the bullet and get on working. And that's precisely what I did during these first few days of the year. I'm quite happy with the outcome so far and it should serve its purpose sufficiently without doubt. Only thing now to hope for is that there are agents out there who think the same way.
Let's go conquer a world! May the query-ing being!

... Yeah, I had to butcher that word.

No excerpts for the moment. I highly doubt you want to read any of the spoiler ridden synopsis right now. Though I might publish any 'rescoursses' affiliated to 'Loner's Peak' at some point in time IF they should prove successful. But that's still a good bit of time ahead of ourselves.

As always, thanks for reading!
Marc, apparently an 'Omega-deadbeat'

[SUM] - Some mixed up world we have here

So, here's the deal... originally I had planned on letting you all have part in on some crazy, dark place in the back of my head and how it works, maybe even explain how it comes up with all those shenanigans and whatnot... buuut... as Sunday was more of a content update ... or at least a content-filler... I'll switch it up for you and give you something else entirely.

Apples.

You may now wonder... apples?

Uhm.... that's why -> Apples

Do yourself a favor though and turn down the volume ... its rather loud... and might be disturbing for ... uhm... younger audience(?)


In any case... enjoy your apples...
And as always thanks for reading,
Marc, nope... not a bro-nie

P.S.: For those of you who might actually be wondering and waiting for some actual stuff..., fear not, there will be more, and you might want to check out Sunday's post on all that, if you haven't already.

[SUM] - Crushing some Space

Aw yeah... And no, please don't ask. Just don't. Not much to be seen or to be known anyhow.

As for today and as far as short updates in my utter madness go ... I found a chocolate Santa in front of door to my apartment this morning... Yeah! And not even one of those puny, small ones... but noooo, a big one!
Apparently somebody who moved in to the empty apartment a couple of floors below me only recently wanted to say hello to the rest of the house that way. Good to see there are still a couple of nice people out there.

Anyways..., a new novel isn't a real novel if it doesn't get rejected at least once when searching for an agent, right?

Back to the drawing board for now! Or... writing board... or the PC ... or... just... whatever.

I'm already going to leave you for today, need to get a few things sorted out in my head. Hopefully that'll work out while chillaxing. If not, then I've got not much of a choice but to focus.

As a last piece of info you probably did not care about at all... a few sole snowflakes seem able to make their way down to earth in my general vicinity, although mostly followed or even directly accompanied by rain.

But as always... thanks for reading.
Marc, owner and friend to Beni James Honeypaw - probably happiest plush bear on the planet

P.S.: New Kitteh going up soon.
P.S.S. addet 3 1/2 hours later: Oops... forgot about the Kitteh... but its up now ... My bad.

[SUM] - Man's not really supposed to be flying

What sounds like a campaign against larger flight companies or well... flying in general is but a little hint on what I'll be working on as the year slowly draws to an end.

Anyways... the Skyrim mania slowly leaves my mind and body behind... after completing the main quest, reaching level 52 (of 81) with my main character and forging a weapon, something nice and to my liking, suiting myself better than those pitiful presents the daedric princes left me with.
But now I feel the urge to focus on a few, well..., more important things again... But it sure was a hell of a time! I so love the snow storms in that game.

But back to what I wanted to talk about... I'm currently trying to get into 'Fool's Flight' at the moment. Just got done writing my prologue for it, or well... the thingy that I want to call prologue. Let's just say it's not your average opening for a story, though I'm pretty sure somebody, sometime, somewhere already did a thing like that... After all, it's always like that. Or well, at least most of the time.
I also edited a few things on the first 5 'intervals' that I already wrote during my summer holiday, giving them a nice little overhaul.
For clarification means - an interval in this story will basically be what you'd normally call a 'chapter', but then again not really.
I can tell you this much: there will most likely be 14 intervals all together (plus one prologue and maybe something similar to an epilogue) and one interval is - you surely guessed it - a means of measuring a certain amount of time that passes/has passed.
I'll try to loosen the whole chapter concept up a bit after the straight forward 20 chapters plus the prologue of Loner's Peak. Yeah... I'm full of wonky ideas like that.
But for now... you should just look at them as chapters, though their length should vary considerably. As time and my work on this project progresses I will probably come back to this and clarify a few things concerning the whole topic.

Come to think of it. Loner's Peak will not have what you'd call an Epilogue (I'm not sure if I ever referred to it as that), despite my personal cravings for such things... BUT I plan on having a little tidbit at the end, a one-page thingy giving a bit of additional inside... for those able to read it. It's nothing mandatory and won't give any info on stuff you don't get from just reading the story but I think it's a nice addition to it.

I'll try to get something of a page up for Fool's Flight during the next week or so, or... come to think of it. There already is a link to said page at the very end of the Loner's Peak page... feel free to check that out - but don't expect too much just now. But it should at least make clear why I chose this headline.

The writing-stuff commences once more.

And just to have it said at least once. I'm not sure what I'll post of the things I've written so far, if anything at all (at least right now)... It's kinda hard not to spoil anything, it being the second part of the series and all. Though I'm rather sure I'll find something.

But that's all for today... Now I got to rest a bit as I'm feeling like something's growing on me. I don't really want to be sick so... yeah... better take it slow for a day or two. Maybe drink a whisky or something like that.
As always, thanks for reading.
Marc, Probably-soon-without-the-cough-again

[SUM] Time flies when you're having fun.

Indeed it does...

After announcing I'd keep it short on Sunday and as per usually not giving a damn about it afterwards I'll try to cut it today...
Skyrim's taking it's toll on my mind and boy *MUST PLAY... MUST SLAY DRAGONS* etc pp. Nothing too out of the ordinary.

For the actual topic of Short-Update-Madness before I completely forget about it: Pretty much nothing. There's not much to be said honestly. I've been thinking about on how I could continue on with the storyline introduced via Loner's Peak and thanks to a few third party ideas coming from mah family something completely new opened up for me in my mind, now waiting to be explored and evaluated by my bad-idea sensors.
Aside from that, oddly enough I got a few more lines for Nightingale ready to be taken down on digital paper. Not that it'd help out a whole lot right now but I guess it's still better than nothing, right?

On the skyrim part of my life... I invested the last night into becoming a great and strong viking - falling for various daedra princes as they started to seduce me and I think I'm ready to go ingame crazy and just say to hell with it all.
But that could also only be actual-me as I grow more and more tired.
Gotta love those days when you've got the chance to do nothing else but essentially killing yourself with clichées.
Anyways... as I continue to barter with myself whether or not I can add a second day just like this one to this already completely screwed up week I'll try not to keel over from exhaustion as addmittedly I am kinda tired. But I'm not Korean ... no offence.

And before you head back off the site - if you want a quality read for a change - check out last Friday's Storytime with the first part of 'The Bamboo Labyrinth'. The second part will of course follow this weeks Friday.

As always, thanks for reading... more info on all the stuff to come ... worst case szenario: next week. Just look at it as vacation, or something like that...
Marc, Sheogorath's disciple