Story: The Henchman

A long time ago, I had an idea for a story about a boy in a world where the word "hero" had lost its meaning. Everyone was a hero for doing something as small as throwing away litter, so the boy became an evil overlord to remind everyone what being a hero really meant.

Years later, the world morphed into a superhero universe where anyone could get powers. The story morphed and grew, and so did the world. A second superhero story insinuated itself in the lore. Then a third. The one story became a multi-generational saga. And then I rewatched The Incredibles. Still one of the best superhero movies out there, and that's coming from a die-hard Marvel fan.

I'll bet you just thought of one of two lines when I mentioned The Incredibles:

1) "Honey, where's my supersuit?"
or
2) "NO CAPES!"

Aah, Edna Mode. One of the most colorful characters in the whole movie, and completely and totally human. The common human who the heroes depended on, like Alfred and Lucius Fox. And this got me thinking: In all the superhero worlds we know, the story's 99% of the time about the heroes or maybe, rarely, their girlfriends. There's never any focus on the regular people affected by a world full of superheroes, and it's such a shame, because these characters just make the world so much richer. You don't see the obsessive teen fangirl who'll go to any lengths to meet her favorite superhero. You don't see the crooks coping with their captures. And you never, ever see the henchmen.

God, I love henchmen. Have you ever seen Venture Brothers? I cannot tell you how much I love that we actually got a close-up look on the lives of two of them. I love that they were major characters who had an effect on the lives of their villains instead of just being faceless cannonfodder. There are people behind those masks, men and women with lives and motivations and families and friends.

So when I got the idea for a short story about a henchman who meets his dream woman during speed dating and then discovers she's his boss, I had to write it. And now I've posted it as my first online writing sample for you to read. You can find it here on Wattpad. Please take a look, and I hope you enjoy it.

Brief Update

So hello! I'm not dead!

Sorry for the absence and silence. It has been a very busy year for me thus far, and will continue to be. I'm actually about to run out the door to cross the state for a comedy show, but I've known for weeks that I've owed you all an update.

What's coming, then? First off, I'm trundling along on edits to Business of Being Dead. I'm about to hit the point where the old stuff and the newer collide, after which edits should be easier. Less mess to clean up. I've cut a character completely and a lot of the work has been scrubbing him out. It's sad to see him go, but he became unnecessary with a few technical changes I made. He'll have a place elsewhere, eventually.

Next, I'm planning on moving this blog to Wordpress! Also eventually. I just need to get around to tweaking the site. And designing it. And doing anything except create a wordpress account. I've been busy!

Anyway, that's about all the update for now. I've got to rush out the door. You all have a lovely weekend, and I'll be back more soon!

Past, Present, and Future: 2015-2016

2015.

It's all done. Over. Finis. A memory to fade and eventually feel like it was just yesterday.

Actually, it was five days ago. Gosh. Where has the week gone?

Probably the same place the heat went. I'll admit I spent all Christmas complaining about the lack of cold. It just didn't feel like Christmas without being miserably curled up under five blankets. But Christmas happened anyway and now, with the new year, comes the chill and I'm wondering why I ever missed it.

So, what's the verdict on 2015?

It was... a year. Three hundred sixty-five days. Some good, some bad, nothing particularly spectacular, event wise. I'm a year older, my house is still in need of repairs, and I'm still unpublished.

However.

However.

I wrote five new short stories in 2015, and...

I actually reached my goal. I finished three novels. The End, Finis, First Draft Complete. I barely squeaked in under the bar, finishing the third one on the 31st, but I did it. For the first time, my Novels In Progress pile has gotten shorter and I have a Second Draft pile started. Sadly, it's just as intimidating as the WIP pile.

2014/2015 Goals:

Goal 1: Finish the next step of all four short stories for the Aces collection by Dec 31st, 2014. Two to finish editing, two to finish writing and edit. Completed 12/31/14

Goal 2: Write and edit this year's Sekrit Solstice Science-Fiction Fantasy Story Swap (a holiday short story exchange) by Feb 14th, 2015. Completed 2/15/15
Goal 3: Plot and write the main story #1's shorts tie in to. Plotting by Feb 28th, written by May 31st. (Abject failure. I wrote half the story and dropped it because I realized it wasn't turning out perfect.)
Goal 4: Finally finish the edits on my one complete novel by June 30th. (Didn't even try after realizing it's not actually a complete novel in a trilogy but 1/3rd of a long book)
Goal 5: Replot and finish three of my five incomplete novels by Dec 31st, 2015. Color me astounded, I did it. Completed 12/31/15

Grand total: 3 goals out of 5 finished. Not amazing, but considering goal 5 was the big one, I'm content. The schedule more than half worked, which is why I made myself set ANOTHER set of goals for 2016. And this time, I'm going in armed with three complete novels, about a dozen short stories, and a Duotrope subscription.

2016 Writing Goals:
Goal 1: Write and edit this year's Sekrit Solstice Story Swap by 2/29/2016 (Yes, I'm doing this again. It's fun.)
Goal 2: Edit at least 1 of the completed novels to submission ready by 6/1/2016. (I'm anticipating The Business of Being Dead for this one. It's the most complete, longest, and cleanest currently.)
Goal 3: Edit the other two completed novels one draft by 8/1/2016. (No lazing around letting them sit in the Draft Box.)
Goal 4: Submit or self-publish at least 1 short story a month.
Goal 5: Submit Goal #2 to agents.

I've also set my Goodreads Reading Challenge to 50 books this year. On top of that, we've got contractors starting work on our house and I turn 30 in April. 2015 may have been a slow year of a lot of crawling towards goals, but here, at the beginning of 2016, I feel like I'm standing at the top of my hill, and there's so much I can finally see in front of me. A finished, fully-functional house, an acceptance letter, a LOT of rejection letters. Let's see what I can grab on my way down.

Happy New Year.

NaNoWriMo 2015: Conclusion

I don't like to lose.

I am driven by competition. It explains the sheer number of board games I had growing up. It doesn't explain why I was terrible at sports.

It's what makes NaNoWriMo so useful to me year after year. I can say to myself, "I want to accomplish X by Y date," but if I stumble along the way, I'll usually sit down and give up because I feel like I've got nothing to lose. When I sit down for NaNo and see that I and thousands of others have 50k to write by November 30th, well then, bring on the words. I want that purple bar and the winners prizes that I never use anyway. In the past, that motivation's gotten me five half-finished novels. I was worried about this year though. You may recall my goal was just to finish two novels, no matter how short it left me.

So, the verdict?

Aww yiss. I was close on my guess for how many words were left in BoBD and TG. I finished the second one at 37,000. At that point, with only 13,000 left to write and still on schedule, well, why not keep going?

Starting goal: Finish The Business of Being Dead and Trickster's Gambit (estimated completion: 30k)
End point:
The Business of Being Dead - Finished 11/17 (NaNoWC: 29,466)
Trickster's Gambit - Finished 11/22 (NaNoWC: 37,160)
The Henchman, planned but unwritten short story - Finished 11/25 (NaNoWC: 42,524)
Queen of Bones - In Progress (NaNoWC: 52,372)

Two finished novels, one finished short story, and a third novel on the last scene. I can actually finish three novels this year. I still have to remove the excess and see what the final word counts are. At least one will probably end up in "novella" length. I'm sure I'm going to need a lot of buffing on all three. Plus I realized a lot of plotholes while finishing Trickster's Gambit that made my planned ending not work. But you know what? I still finished it. I wrote the planned ending knowing it didn't make sense. It was... freeing. All this time I thought I'd given myself permission to write badly, but I hadn't. I had permission to write bad sentences, but I had never let myself write bad scenes. That was my stopping block. I had to fix the plotholes RIGHT THEN NO CONTINUING UNTIL FIXED DO IT NOW. But I wouldn't know how to do it, so I'd give up. Or I was missing scenes I needed, but wasn't sure how to write, so I'd give up. Or I'd write myself into a corner and didn't know how to get out of it, so I'd give up.

This time, with my goal of finishing, I let myself back up and restart. I let myself continue knowing I'd have to cut what I was doing in the next draft. I made myself shove through it so I could write "The End" and mean it. And now I have almost three first drafts to clean up. It feels incredible. And terrifying. Very terrifying. I can't wait to get started.

Moments of the week: Florida and Alzheimers

Hello everyone! Are you still here? 'Cause I totally understand if you're not. It's been a few weeks. I don't even remember what my last post was. Hold on.

*goes back and rereads*

Okay. Wow, it's been longer than I thought. My bad. To say I've been extremely busy is an understatement. On top of NaNoWriMo (update on that to come), I had Thanksgiving traveling to two different states two weeks ago and a trip to Florida last weekend. Driving. Whee, 10-12 hours in a car. But I got to see old friends, make new ones, and have a fantastic time.

I also got to see my grandparents, which was difficult. My grandfather is 92 or 93 and in excellent health, but my grandmother... she's nearing 89 and has Alzheimers. Or something. Some kind of degenerative disease that's taken my grandmother away from me. They don't like doctors, so I don't think she has a diagnosis. All I know is that the woman I grew up with, the woman who loved nothing more than reminiscing, is mostly gone. She's still happy, still physically healthy, all giggles and smiles, but she didn't recognize me. It's the hardest thing in the world to sit down across from a woman who held you as a baby and have her say how nice it is to meet someone new.

But there's still something of her there. Grandpa and Dad insist that she's gone, but that's impossible. I know it's impossible, because while she babbled asking us if we were just looking in the neighborhood or were we moving in, when she said how nice it was to meet someone new, she hesitated. Like she knew something was wrong. She said we looked healthy, something she always worried about with me. And she kept saying how today was the best day in a long time. Maybe she says that every day, which would be nice. If every day can be the best day for her now. But I kind of hope it was because, somewhere, somehow, she knew her granddaughter had come to see her and was happy.

And then, just before we left, she looked at me. "I remember we used to play when you were little. Do you remember?" Then a smile. "Say hi to your mother for me." For just a moment, I think she remembered me. She knew who I was. She remembered me and Mom, her daughter-in-law. It was gone a moment later. Maybe it was just something in her mind running on autopilot because those were two things she always said to me, but that still means something in her mind recognized me. I broke down sobbing as we left the driveway. I hate goodbyes, but knowing that I will probably never see her again, that it's probably our last goodbye, it's the worst.

*honks nose*

Sorry. Emotions.

Anyway.

Other Moments in Florida:
The Altamonte Mall was busy, but we still made a stop by it. Lucky for me, because it was stuffed full of little moments.

• A woman with a preteen daughter stepped onto an escalator going down. The girl hesitated, her face terrified, and stepped away while the woman went down. She noticed her daughter wasn't following after a few steps and turned to get back to her, but she couldn't climb against the stairs fast enough. Meanwhile, a woman perhaps in her late sixties came up behind the girl. She gave her a warm smile and said, "I'll go down with you, dear." she took the girl's hand and stepped onto the escalator with her. "Do you know how to get off when we get to the bottom?" the sixties woman asked. I couldn't hear the girl's answer, but when they reached the bottom, the girl was safely reunited with her mother, who thanked the stranger profusely.
• A shaggy-haired man walking through Sears singing "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me." 
• Outside of the Santa photography area, a mother looked down at her son in his stroller and said, "How come you ain't scared of the Easter Bunny but you're scared of Santa?"

I'll be back in a bit with a NaNoWriMo update! Only, you know, ten days late...

Confessions of a Writer

It's only fair, I suppose. These tag posts go around. I hit someone up with a homework assignment of a blog post, it's only fair for them to return the favor. And talk about homework, this one's a doozy!

Courtesy of Anna Humphrey at The Muse's Lair, here's a little (a lot) about me.

When did you first start writing? Was being a writer something you always aspired to be?
I started writing in the 2nd grade. It wasn't intentional. Luck, really, is what did it. I loved books, was the first kid to read in Kindergarten, but I never thought about making my own story. Now, in Florida, we have a state standardized test called the FCAT, taken in 10th grade, but practiced every two years starting in 2nd to get us used to it. At least, that was how we did it then. You can't ask 2nd graders to write anything too complicated, though. They just don't know enough of the world to do an essay on economics or politics. "What I Did My Summer Vacation" is about the limit of 7 to 8 year old creativity. So we children were given one random prompt: a nonfiction one about vegetables or a fiction one about a door in the middle of nowhere. By the grace of where I was sitting, I got the fiction one, and I fell in love. After that, I knew all I wanted to do with my life was write.

What genre do you write?
I started in fantasy, and twenty years later, I still write fantasy. I also write science fiction and have ideas for horrors and thrillers, but the majority of what I do is some kind of fantasy.

Can you tell us a little about your current work in progress? When did you start working on this project?
I started my current WIP, The Business of Being Dead, for NaNoWriMo 2012. The idea came from a dream about being a grim reaper helping people pass on. Additionally, I'd always wanted to start a story with "I woke up dead this morning." I combined the two and ended up with a story about a girl who wakes up dead and is told by a sock-eating bogeyman that she's a grim reaper. Not The, just one of many meant to assist the Big D with the business of being dead: supplying blood for vampire, body parts for Frankstein monsters, keeping zombies from overrunning the Earth, that sort of thing. Unfortunately for her, she's arrived at a time of undead political upheaval, where the other undead are tired of being told what to do and where to hide. Caught on the wrong side of a revolution, she's going to have to run for her afterlife and figure out a way to save the world from the lich who would be the new Death.

What was your first piece that you can remember writing? What was it about?
I still remember that first prompt about the door (girl ran from bullies and escaped into Candyland), but after that, I wrote a two or three page story about a girl named Clarinet who was basically Cinderella but instead of going to a ball, she wanted to be a gymnast.

What’s the best part about writing?
The creating something from nothing. When you craft something, like building a clock, you have all the parts that will become the whole. When you write, it's just you and a blank sheet of paper, and it could become anything.

What’s the worst part about writing?
Having to clean it up when you're done. Being objective with your creation enough to slice it apart, find what's wrong, remove the darlings, and make it into something actually sensible and legible is difficult.


What’s the name of your favorite character and why?
Pick just one of my babies? Geez. Making me play favorites here.

I'm gonna have to go with Dave, the sock-eating bogeyman. His story is tragic; bogeymen are only formed when a person dies a gruesome, painful death. They're meant to be creatures of hatred and agony who feed on fear and children. But Dave's goodheartedness in life carried over despite his agonizing death. Despite living an afterlife of pain, persecution, and lots of hunger, he sees the good in the world around him and can't bring himself to give in to his animalistic nature. He's noble, loyal, creative, goofy, and kind, and god bless him, he tries so hard despite being a creature of nightmares. I love him.

How much time a day/week do you get to write? When is the best time for you to write (morning or night)?
I can write any time, although I prefer doing it during the day so I can have my evenings free. I do it where and when I can. It's difficult since I have a day job, but I just keep my WIP open in a Google Doc and if I have ten minutes during lunch, I do what I can.


Did you go to college for writing?
I did not. My major was in computer information systems with minors in graphic design and philosophy.

What bothers you more: spelling errors, punctuation errors or grammar errors?
Um, all of the above? Anything that disrupts the flow of the story bothers me.


What is the best writing advice that anyone has given you?
An online secret santa sent me a copy of Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman's How Not To Write a Novel. It's been the best writing book I've ever read. The advice in it has helped me become a better writer and a more observant reader.

What advice would you give to another writer?
Don't give up. When it feels like the story's crap and doesn't deserve to be finished, keep going. When it feels like YOU are crap and don't deserve to be a writer, keep going. When you haven't written in months and sit down and write that first bit of utter dreck, keep going. You can polish crap into a shiny diamond, but you have to get that crap on paper first. As long as you're trying to write, you're making progress, even if it's crap.

I'm sorry for saying 'crap' so much there. But I think I made my point.

What are your favorite writing sites or blogs that you turn to for help, tips or encouragement?
The Absolute Write forum, which has educated me in ways I never imagined. Through the people I've met there, I've started to complete and submit short stories, learned about all the behind-the-scenes stuff I never knew about, the things to look for and avoid when picking a publisher or agent, and in general become a more educated writer. Add that on with the support group of friends I've made in the chat threads, the world updates from the Politics & Current Events forum, the thousands of pages of general writing advice, and the Share Your Work section to practice critiquing query letters and chapters, I can't imagine a better place for a writer.

Besides writing, what else do you enjoy doing? What are your hobbies?
Video games, mostly. I'd like to pick up a more physical creative hobby, but I'm lazy and overly busy. When I have the time, though, I enjoy cooking, and I've always been fascinated by dollhouse props and furniture. I don't think I have the patience for it, though. I'm too much of an impatient perfectionist, not very good when you want to work with small, delicate objects.


What’s the best thing you’re watching on television?
I don't watch television, actually. Not Netflix either. The last thing I watched from TV was a few episodes of Agents of SHIELD, which rules. 

What’s the best book you’ve read this year?
Oh geez, I've read so many. Let's go with a non-Discworld book, since most of my latest reading has been that. Did I ever mention I finished? Yeah, October 5th, I finished The Shepherd's Crown. I might've cried. A lot.

Best this year, it's hard to pick one. I've read a lot of excellent books by my AW friends, like S. L. Huang's Zero Sum Game and Joshua Roots' Summoned Chaos (unsubtle plugs) but I think the winner for best this year will have to be Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I just absolutely loved it, if you couldn't tell by the blog post I made about it.


What is the best movie you’ve seen this year?
Another hard one. It's been a good year for movies. I'd have to say either Ant-Man (come on, I gotta pick at least ONE Marvel movie, and I think I liked Ant-Man just a wee bit better than Age of Ultron) or Mad Max: Fury Road. But oh, The Martian is so good too! I'm hoping, though, optimistically, that Star Wars: The Force Awakens will blow them all out of the water. Guess we'll see.


What is your favorite book or series of all time?
The Discworld series. Every single one of them.

Who is your favorite author?
Terry Pratchett

What are your plans for the rest of the year in terms of your writing?
Not much left for the rest of the year! Like I said before, I'm hoping to finish NaNo with two completed novels. They'll need to sit, soak up the new stuff in preparation for editing. After that, it's preparing for the annual Absolute Write Secret Solstice Science Fiction/Fantasy Story Swap, the short story gift exchange! We'll receive our prompts on Dec 25th, and then it's time to get writing.

Where else can we find you online?
Where CAN'T you find me online? Well, not on Facebook. I'm waiting to have something published before I make a FB page. And I have a Wattpad account, but nothing on it yet. I'll add it to the list once I do. For now, you can find me at any of the links on the upper right of this blog.

I'm guessing you all abandoned ship 17 questions ago. It'll be safe to come back next week. I promise it'll be shorter. Maybe I'll have more con pictures from this year's NC Comic-con.

Oh right, I'm supposed to tag people. Hm, who to victimize this time?

M. J. Ravenhill!
Lillith!
JR!
PK Baxter!

Y'all're it. And if anyone wants a tag and a link, please leave a comment! Happy Friday!

Just to make it easier on you, here are the questions:
When did you first start writing? Was being a writer something you always aspired to be?
What genre do you write?
Can you tell us a little about your current work in progress? When did you start working on this project?
What was your first piece that you can remember writing? What was it about?
What’s the best part about writing?
What’s the worst part about writing?
What’s the name of your favorite character and why?
How much time a day/week do you get to write? When is the best time for you to write (morning or night)?
Did you go to college for writing?
What bothers you more: spelling errors, punctuation errors or grammar errors?
What is the best writing advice that anyone has given you?
What advice would you give to another writer?
What are your favorite writing sites or blogs that you turn to for help, tips or encouragement?
Besides writing, what else do you enjoy doing? What are your hobbies?
What’s the best thing you’re watching on television?
What’s the best book you’ve read this year?
What is the best movie you’ve seen this year?
What is your favorite book or series of all time?
Who is your favorite author?
What are your plans for the rest of the year in terms of your writing?
Where else can we find you online?

Brief NaNo Update

So far so good. Six days in and, after a slow start, I've caught up to my daily 2k goal. I'll likely loose some of that tomorrow when my mother comes to visit. Sunday and Monday will be catch-up days. Whether I'll hit 50k or not is still up in the air, but the story is moving, at least. Current project is The Business of Being Dead and I'm enjoying the new direction a lot more. The characters are growing better as people. They've hit rock bottom. Now to start pulling them out of the hole they dug.

I'm having a slow wordage day, so no big posts today. Next week, look for a huge post about my writing on a tag challenge from my friend A. F. Humphrey. If you take a look and want to take part, leave me a comment and I'll hit you up!