Spinwork Blog

I had to edit a peice of Endoflux Theory for class today. My mind’s been really far from the story lately, so I feel like what I wrote is slightly lacking. Nonetheless, I think its decent enough to share with the few of y’all who may read this. Just as long as y’all know, for the record, that this piece annoys the shit out of me. For those of you who read the original on SE,  this will be 100% new. Enjoy, if you can.

“Jump, Lucas.”

Lucas Sebring blinked. Below him sprawled a world shielded behind grey curtains, streaked with the white of slowly falling snow. He knew this place.

He’d had this dream before. It was always the same. The same thoughts. Same stimuli. Nothing was ever any different.

Somewhere behind him, the man who’d told him to jump stood, but Lucas knew that he would never see his face. He was transfixed, as always-rooted and staring into the oblivion below him with the suspicion that somewhere below destiny waited. Was it a chasm? A city? Hell? It was impossible to tell from the muted glow barely perceptible from the other side.

Lucas Sebring sighed. He’d had this dream before. His task was burned into his mind like a drug habit. Right now, he was tripping, repeating things he’d done a thousand times before. When he opened his eyes-or rather, found them open-everything would be gone. Not even the tatters of the dull tinge of this high would remain.

The voice behind him, repeated. “Jump, Lucas. Save yourself.”

Who the fuck are you? Lucas yelled in his mind. Irony told him it was his father, and this dream was post-traumatic stress. Of what, though? Why the hell would he associate that with his father? He couldn’t remember exactly. Something unpleasant. He evaporated the thought.

“You must save yourself!”

The voice had become urgent now. He’d had this dream before. Why did it want him to jump so badly? There were no answers-just orders. Jump. Save yourself. It was like being asked to lose all faith in order to regain it. Stupid shit-the sort of crap religious fundamentalists tell you to do when you meet them on the train. Take a leap. Take a word from someone who’s face he couldn’t see.

So did that mean this was the voice of God? Lucas was a biologist. He was raised in the Earthen tradition of Roman Catholicism. He went to church on Sundays-at least, when he didn’t have a hangover to recover from. That he attended at all was out of guilt, Lucas knew-for what, that was another thing he couldn’t remember. Why the hell did all his memories feel like distant road signs in this place?

The voice came again, this time its tone was reproachful. “Hesitation will not save you, Lucas. Only action.”

Even if the man behind the voice wasn’t his father, he sure as fuck sounded like him. Even the frustration was the same. Fine, Lucas hollered, remembering a time where he might have screamed this from the other side of a door, rather than on the edge of some precipice overlooking some nondescript place. I’ll fucking do it. Save myself-Whatever! Just stop telling me what to do!

Lucas took a shuddering breath and knew what came next. He would close his eyes. Then he would open them. Take in one more breath. Hold it. Jump. His final exhale would propel him to his death.
He’d had this dream before. It was always the same. The same thoughts. Same stimuli. Nothing was ever any different. Except for this time.

This time, Lucas found defiance lingering beneath the surface of his usual response. Where it had sprung from, he didn’t know. Perhaps one of the distant road signs had changed. Maybe it was less clear than usual or more so. Whatever the reason, when Lucas finally jumped, he didn’t let himself fall as he always did-turning in midair as he fell, so he wouldn’t see the ground coming up.  Instead he turned, twisting in mid air so that he faced the precipice, to gaze upon the face of the man giving the orders…

…But there was no face. No eyes. No nose. Or even a mouth or hair. Just a broad frame, the hands held behind its back expectantly, waiting for the command to be carried out.

Figures.

Allowing his back to turn to gravity, Lucas Sebring fell to his death.  An instant later, he found himself staring at the stucco ceiling of his apartment. The traffic light outside flashed yellow against the ceiling. The synchronized beats of his twin hearts echoed in his ears. The 36-hour time clock beside his bed red 9:55AM-five minutes before his alarm. For all he’d known, he hadn’t slept a wink all night.

Spinner Daily Blogging, Endoflux Theory, Short Works, Site-related Endoflux Theory, snippet

Not much new to report on the Lanternfly front, although its finally hitting me that I’m going to be wrapping up the book sometime in the next three weeks. I don’t know whats scarier–that this is the first novel I’ve finished in two years, or that I have to have it done in three weeks for my independent  study.

Not that I’m particularly worried. Things have been singing since explosion-chapter, and I’m realizing that although shit-hitting-fan parts 1 of 2 was longer than I thought, I don’t have to do as much stuff for the next to than I thought, meaning more fun for the last few bits. Yay! Downside? 26 hours at work this week, which while awesome for the money factor, sucks massive balls on the writing front (yes, 6 hours more really DOES make a massive fucking difference at this job). Something tells me I’m going to be drinking a LOT of espresso this week.

Like I said, not much to report, really. 4-5 chapters to go! =)

Thanks for reading!

Spinner Uncategorized

It took me 240 pages, but I finally got to blow something up in Lanternfly. I’m really proud I held out this long. Back when I was writing Salamander, I couldn’t got 50 pages without hitting up the awesome complex (of course, I’m about to draw heavily from that scene in Salamander, which pretty much involved someone catching fire for about 10 pages). Yeah.

Reading this blog sometimes, you’d think Lanternfly was this epically explosive adventure epic involving multiple bad guys and shit blowing up every five seconds (so much so, that I had to allude to it twice in one sentence). It really isn’t, though. At its core, the book really onto takes place in three principle settings and is more focused on the lives of the characters for the first 3/4ths. Not that I’m trying to be captain boring or anything–I just figured I’d write something where every other event isn’t quazinuclear. I just figured I’d save myself for this moment–4:30AM on a school night when I should NOT be writing at all and when I have tax shit to do. adorqhpawersld.

Weeee. I really didn’t have much to say other than dancing over the fact I finally got to blow something up. Chapter 20’s done–now onto 21 where I get to blow up even MORE things!

Thanks for blowing shit up reading!

Spinner Daily Blogging, Hellion, IS 2009 awesome complex, IS2009, Lanternfly

For those of you who visit the writing-void (WORKING ON THAT) that is my Spinwork portfolio, I updated a few of the pages, added an FAQ, cut the Endoflux page, and added more detailed sections and pictures for the Lanternfly and Shadower sections. Still working on the blog layout, and possibly, a forums (I have the stuff installed, I just need to skin it and actually figure out if there’s even a point/any time).

Backing up to the Endoflux thing for a second. Why’s Endoflux gone? I’m not cutting the story–but it’s just not on my list of in-progress projects right now. At the moment, Lanternfly is my 100% priority. Hopefully I’ll get to Shadower sometime before 2010. But Endoflux–I really don’t have time for it right now. It’s a great idea, and has a lot of potential. But I’ve got other stuff I want to write, so that’ll have to wait. And that’s that.

In other news, I got to change the water filters at work today. Seriously one of the most entertaining moments at Starbucks ever. First of all, it gave me every reason to never drink unfiltered water ever again. New York/Vermont water is fairly clean, but looking at a brownish water filter after three months of use and you’ll actually realize there IS shit floating around in there. Haha, fuck.

This is a lot later than I’ve been up in a while. Funny, I’ve actually been sleeping lately.

Back into Lanternfly tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

Spinner Daily Blogging, Endoflux Theory, Hellion, IS 2009, Shadower, Site-related Endoflux hiatus, FAQ, Lanternfly, Shadower, Spinwork, work

I’m very blessed to have the job that I do–any job, in this economy–but there are times where I really just want to make a really big Americano (read–like, 80 shots or so) and drown myself in it. It’s not that 20 or so hours a week of latte-making is particularly difficult. In fact, with the coworkers I have, its really a lot of fun. Where else can you make jokes about shaking babies when the song Twist and Shout comes on?

Because we all know the chorus really sounds like they’re saying: Shakin’ a baby now, shakin’ a baaaaybeh… twist and shout…

*is promptly evicted from the internet*

Anyway–what’s been annoying is the toss between writing and work. Yeah, I like my job. But I like writing more. A lot more. Even if sometimes it makes me want to make a cats cradle out of my intestines while pillaging my brain with ice tea. And now that I’ve got the deadline thing going down… yeah.

It’s really shocking that I have under 100 pages of Lanternfly left to go and a little over a month (30 days abouts) to get it all done in. It really hit me today when I finally got around to the final set up of “that scene” I’ve been harping about on my twitter for the last week or so and I realized that my procrastination to understand a character had developed a yawning chasm in the story. Nothing a second draft couldn’t fix, but obviously you want to get as much as you can right the first time. So here’s me, running in circles, guzzling tea until my bladder beats me to death with a giant inflatable middle finger, and I realize I need a break.

I’m kind of new to this whole deadline thing with my writing. Looking back at high school, where the average homework load was eight hours a night, I’m used to pushing myself and insanity. But I’m also used to unwarrented attacks of epic freak out. So when you realize you need to reexamine something potentially serious and your short on time, thats about what went down. It wasn’t even poor planning on my part–just something I had to see when the idea translated from brain to binary. Ah well. Its something to fix on Saturday night then.

That’s more or less my update for now. Thanks for reading.

Spinner Daily Blogging, Hellion, IS 2009 deadline, IS2009, Lanternfly, work, work-load

Every day or so, I sign online, or go into a Rite Aide or book shop and see a sign in the back of a magazine stating “LAST PRINT ISSUE–GOING DIGITAL *insert date here*.” Today I signed on CNN to see that another newspaper (this one in Seattle) is packing up its printing press.

Regardless on which side of the creative process your on–creating or enjoying–you have to wonder about this sudden shift, and what role the internet and other digital medium–like Kindles, for example, play in the future of reading and writing. I’m personally not sure what it means, but I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Comment, or feel free to tweet me.

Thanks for reading!

Spinner Daily Blogging digital, newspapers, online publication

I didn’t want to say it before in fear of jynxing myself to a gruesome death, but looks like things are finally hitting their stride with Lanternfly. And by hitting stride, I mean 18 pages since Sunday, a chapter and a third, and a few realizations about characters and themes. On top of having a lot to tackle between work and school, I’m pretty proud of that figure. I’ll stop breakdancing in joy now.

You know, I’d always been fairly proud of my weekly output, but after this project, I don’t think I’m ever going to take my daily/weekly goals as seriously as I have been ever again, unless I’m either terminal or on some kind of epic deadline. While the stuff I’m pumping out feels pretty decent, there’s a part of me that hates this feeling of flying by the seat of my pants. Whats good about now is that I’m actually actively working on things in spare minutes. I somehow managed 250 words between my breaks at work, which aside from probably conjuring really awkward mental images of some manically laughing dude in a Starbucks apron hunched over a Macbook, really shows I’m back to my late-2005, early-2006 interest levels in my writing.

For the last three odd years, those are the days I’m most nostalgic about. I mean, who doesn’t like to remember the days of being so prolific that their Spanish teacher used to shit on them for writing a fight scene in class? Where every free period was spent in the library kicking out edits? Jeez, I remember when final projects rolled around, the librarian, who was my advisor, had to take my manuscript away so I’d actually do the work. Back in 2007 during my whole “FUCK LIFE CANNOT WRITE” thing, I always looked back on that as my golden time.

Ah, those were the days. Good to see em’ again. ^_^

I think one of the best parts of what I’m writing now is the ideas and material from the old Hellion that have crept in. Like, OLD, OLD, 2004-2005 style stuff. For those unfamiliar with the history, Aura was the title of the first book in the Hellion story and had many of the same characters (Lionel, Danielle, Kit, Beuran, among others) as Lanternfly does. In fact, I think about 90% of the major characters from the original make an appearance in the books at some point–not that anyone will know when they read. Only two people ever read substantial portions of the original (and have since been killed). I suppose it’ll just be a nice in-joke to share with their–um… souls.

Eee. Excited writer! ^_^

Thanks for reading!

Spinner Daily Blogging, Hellion, IS 2009 2005, 2006, 2007, Lanternfly, old Hellion

After a lovely trip involving spending a night in Chicago O’Hare airport, I’m back in snowy, fresh Burlington, Vermont with a full imagination and keyboard-ready fingers.

I’m slowly reaching that point in Lanternfly where I start tying up loose ends and getting ready to conclude the book. I still only have a general of how things are going to turn out, but I’m pretty confident in where things sit right now. All that’s really needed is a power-drive right through til’ the end. Hopefully things will even out then! ^_^

On a more personal note, the trip to New Mexico did a great deal to restore my energy, both creatively and mentally.  Meeting my birth-mother and sister for the first time was one hell of a surreal experience. There’s nothing like walking into a ski lodge after 9 and a half hours of straight travel to see two people whose resemblance to you is at once vague and striking (in the case of my sister, it was like looking into a mirror). I’ll try to spare you the sappy details, but long story short, the trip went very well and we all walked away feeling quite satisfied and comfortable with each other.

That’s pretty much all I can say for now. While stranded in Chicago I did start work on a short story. Murphy permitting, I’ll hopefully finish it and throw it together for your eyes soon.

Thanks for reading.

Spinner Daily Blogging, Short Works Lanternfly, Rants, short stories