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Eldritch Thoughts Past News and Updates | ||
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News updates are the short news blurbs posted on the front page. If you're looking for writings sorted by story, I'd suggest the story archves or Scorpion's Hoard. Monday, August 11, 2003I've changed my mind again. I'm just going to take the rest of my vacation off. I've gotten out of the habit of writing regularly now and it's become something of a chore. Rather than get back into that habit, I'm just going to continue to relax. I do, however, hope to have at least minor updates available the next two Sundays. The Sunday after that marks the start of the new season of Circle of Scorpion, and Iridescent Dreams will begin the day after. I'm sorry, but that's the way it's going to be. Hopefully, Ross and I can use this time to get Circle of Scorpion prepared sufficiently for when it starts up. And to give me a little bit more leisure time before I head, inevitably, back to school. Monday, August 11, 2003I think I've found a use for my Sundays finally. Too bad there are only two of them left after today. I've never felt very comfortable writing traditional poetry. I can somewhat offset this failing with the music that sometimes creeps into my normal writing. The prose poem, therefore, is a genre at which I feel I excell. I'm considering opening a new section for them. I have a feeling there's going to be quite a few more. Iridescent Dreams will continue bright and early tomorrow morning. Friday, July 18, 2003How about another fun library story. One of our circulation workers found a kitten abandoned out near her home in the country, a tiny little gray thing with white paws that nearly fits in the palm of my hand. Poor thing couldn't have been weaned for more than a week or so. Anyway, the director of our library agrees to take the kitten to live with her, so the still-nameless kitten gets to make a trip to the library so that he can be given to his new owner. And, as most of my duties involve non-vital functions, I get elected to babysit this kitten for the rest of my shift (nearly two hours) so that he stays out of trouble and relatively quiet. The poor little guy had obviously been neglected. He must have eaten nearly his own weight in cat food when the director finally came back with some. And he can't be pet enough. All he wants is to be in contact with somebody. In all, it makes for a wholly adorable creature. One of his habits that the other librarians found particularly endearing was when he'd crawl up my shirt and root around the back of my neck. I wear my hair in a ponytail, so he may have associated tail with nipple and was trying to find food. It was a sensation that "ticklish" doesn't even begin to do justice to. But I endured. He was quiet while he was doing that. Amazingly loud for something that small. Chapter 5 ends today. Chapter 6 will begin on Monday barring catastophic Midwestern earthquakes or something. That would almost be completely bizarre enough to be enjoyable. Tuesday, July 15, 2003You may or may not have noticed that chapter five is spinning towards its ultimate demise. Regardless, this is the last week of chapter 5, and as I can't fill a whole week with what's left to be said, there are going to be empty days. Today is one such day, so enjoy the levity I've provided for you. Plan on Thursday being another such day. That's all for now. Thursday, July 10, 2003So get this. I work at the public library here in town. Anyway, today I'm in the history room, going over our collection of antique postcards and photographs. You know, reapplying labels, checking for duplicate pictures, making sure everything's in order. That kind of thing. So I'm going through all the folders that the photos are kept in, and they're all in numerical order by the arbitrary number assigned to the photo. Patrons can look up the subject in the index file, get the number, and come look at whatever they want to look at. But that's not the problem. I'm going through them, and as I'm working my way through them, I notice that I just counted from 49 to 55. Like, with nothing in between. There's an entire folder of antique photographs missing from the history room, not to mention all of the empty sleeves where there are supposed to be even more. So it's not just that people have stolen these photos from the library, they've walked off with an entire legal-size folder. From a room that's kept locked unless the librarian knows you're in there. And it's not like it's a book, though plenty of them get stolen too. (I think the current record holder for most times stolen--implying that we've reordered it every time it comes up missing--is Who Moved My Cheese? I think there's a grim sort of irony in people needing to steal a self-help book.) These are antique photographs of people and places from around our area. If they're gone, they're gone. We can't go online and just order a new copy. Not that we'd have the money to do that anyway, but that's beside the point. You know, something like this would never happen in a story. The protagonists would look at what they need and leave them on the table for the librarian to put back in proper order. The antagonists would just burn the building to the ground. Only in real life would something like this happen. Only in real life. Tuesday, July 8, 2003I blame Ross for today's lack of two pages, and he graciously accepted full responsibility for interrupting my writing. He was attempting to sell me this new project of his, one which I grudgingly added to my already oversized list of things that I need to do related to my writings alone. He was totally unaware of my dilemma over The Caldovan Chronicles and readily admitted to not reading anything here in quite some time. So not only does he want me to do more work, he doesn't even keep up with the work that I'm already doing. It could be said I agreed to his project that he doesn't even want me to talk about here just to get him off my back for the night. It's obvious that my loser coauthor is totally out of touch with what exactly we do here. It's also readily apparant that I can libel his name with impunity because he doesn't even bother to read the site and won't see anything I post here, leaving me with a clean, guilt-free way to call him all sorts of names. You know, my dictionary says libel can be used as a verb like that, but I think it sounds stupid. And, from experience, I know that when I start to disagree with good old New Oxford American, it's time to go to bed. Two pages tomorrow, granted no further interruptions from insane friends and coauthors. See you then. Monday, July 7, 2003I honestly never believed I'd be saying something quite like this, but that just shows why I decided against pursuing a career as a prophet. The Caldovan Chronicles isn't working. Or rather, based on the experience I've accumulated in writing Iridescent Dreams and Circle of Scorpion, it's not going to work. At least not as it's sketched out in all my notes right now. Realize that this is an old story summary that I unearthed and tried to run with, but it turns out that wasn't such a hot idea. It still looks good in my head, but it doesn't survive the translation to text. And frankly, this is still my website, so if I'm not happy with it, it's not going up, deadline or no. This leaves me in a bit of a dilemma. I definitely do not want to go back to Circle of Scorpion until Ross and I are back in school, but I'd also like to keep doing something for the Sunday updates. There's another story I unearthed in the excavation of my bedroom, one which I truly believe would survive the move to actual writing. I set it aside, however, because a single summer would be insufficient to do it justice. I don't know. I need more time to think over what to do. Why didn't I do this thinking in the time I was supposed to be writing yesterday's Caldovan Chronicles or today's Iridescent Dreams you ask? Well, that's a good question. See, I spent most of the time that I had working on the incorrigible Chronicles, and I'm still a bit incensed that I've been unable to find a way to fix it. Add that to the fact that I'm a bit uncertain about who's going to be narrating the next section of Iridescent Dreams (makes a big difference in the story that gets told, trust me), and we all end up with an absolutely wasted weekend. I'll work out the direction that story will take today and have two pages ready for you tomorrow. Right now, I'm going to bed. I almost wish I could burn the sections of hard drive that the Chronicles were stored on. I'll just have to settle for the hard copies. Monday, June 30, 2003The Caldovan Chronicles begins today. This is my vacation project, so you'll find that, while being longer than the standard Iridia update, it's not quite so lengthy as what you might be used to from Circle of Scorpion, which will be continuing after Caldovan's nine week run. Just think of it like the off-season for a TV series except that you have unlimited access to the reruns. Sunday, June 29, 2003As much as I may hate doing this so soon after a major lapse in updates, today's scheduled story will be posted tomorrow along with the normal Iridescent Dreams installment. Depending on your point of view, I may have a very good reason for this delay. See, all week I had been planning how exactly I wanted to introduce the story I wanted to tell, planning on getting it all written Saturday. Then Friday arrives, and in the mail is a rather hefty package from Barne's & Noble. Upon arriving home from work, I wondered briefly why a book claiming to deal with phoenixes would have a midnight blue cover, and then was promptly lost to the rest of the world. I should have this remarkable work of writing done by tomorrow (by which I mean Sunday), which I can then spend doing the writing I had originally planned to do today (Saturday, just in case you aren't following that I write these updates before they get posted). To clear up any confusion, yes, I do read quickly, and no, I haven't done much else. Monday, June 23, 2003Look! Look! It's here! Like, on time, even. I'll be skipping one day this week, likely tomorrow, but besides that, we'll be back on a daily update schedule. I just like having Fridays be pages that are multiples of five. And if Monday is a two, that's not going to work out right. And no, yesterday's Circle of Scorpion was not another dream. I can see where you might think that, though. Sunday, June 22, 2003And here it is as promised. Graduation via Transcendence. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled writings starting tomorrow. Wednesday, June 18, 2003Okay, here's the deal. Not that you have much reason to trust me I suppose. But this time's different. I promised somebody that there would be an update today. Who I promised really isn't at issue. My conscience, my priestess, take your pick. It's still the woman with the warhammer, and I've learned it's invariably a very bad idea to cross them. With or without the warhammer. Anyway, stories will resume again on Sunday with Graduation via Transcendence, the final installment of Book I of Circle of Scorpion. Iridescent Dreams will then start up with the real page 2 of chapter 5. Tentative plans put new installments every weekday, just as you're used to. The following Sunday will mark the beginning of a new story, filling in for CoS for the remainder of the summer. The Caldovan Chronicles will run for 9 weeks, hopefully completing its first chapter by that point. Iridia will, of course, be updated regularly during this time period. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Warhammers just put me on edge.
I'm alive, really, and I have no intention of stopping anything for the course of the summer. At the moment. I suppose I'd be dishonest if I swore to maintain a normal schedule from here on out. I'm just finding it more and more difficult to find time to sit down and write. Time as a luxury I no longer have access to is a strange thing. Been a long time since I didn't have more free time than I knew what to do with. I'm hoping to get plenty done this weekend, including a Saturday update. And no, I've got nothing much for you today. Just these scant words of misplaced hope and anything with a 6/5/03 over in the right column. I'm trying. That's about all I can do at the moment. Monday, June 2, 2003Chapter 5 of Iridescent Dreams starts today. For those of you longing for your Circle of Scorpion fix for the week, it will be available tomorrow. Promise. Graduation will be on time for next Sunday, I swear. I may be able to slip by with a late update this week, but I'm likely to have many sharp and dangerous things in my future if graduation is late.
Just a short Iridescent Dreams update today as chapter 4 reaches its conclusion. Be prepared for frequent narration shifts as all of our characters begin to collide when chapter 5 takes off on Monday. Things are rapidly coming to a head, both in Iridia and Sangren High. Quicker for Sangren, granted, but Iridia has its troubles coming. I'm excited about what both stories have planned for their future. Sunday, May 25, 2003And here it is, the Circle of Scorpion installment you've been waiting for so patiently: prom. I know this was supposed to be up a week ago and wasn't, but there are no plans to make up the difference. I took a week off, and now Ross is enjoying the same. It's only fair. The story will move forward otherwise on schedule. Next landmark for Sangren High: graduation, June 8. Mark your calendars. But make sure to stop by next Sunday; our Circle still has a few hurdles to clear before completely escaping the halls of Sangren. Also added some additional structural breaks in the story archives, as well as title pages for anyone reading straight those archives. Nothing major, just a bit more organization.
If you came looking for last week's Circle of Scorpion, then I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed. I'm having the strangest difficulty working my way through it. (I'm also having the strangest difficulty getting my own computer attached to the internet, but that's a separate problem and can be worked around.) If, however, you came to see if my hiatus from writing has ended at last, then you're in luck. It ended with yesterday's late update, so you have two installments of Iridescent Dreams to read. If you already knew that and just want to read today's update, then proceed as normal. Your patronage is much appreciated.
And with the touch of the publish button, my summer vacation officially reaches its end. My apologies for lack of updates without any warning the past week. Between finals and moving home and getting settled in, I've been a wee bit out of it. And enjoying the sudden exapanse of free time. But that's all over now, as I'm back at work in the public library and looking for another part time job. Since life moves on in every other circle, it needs to continue here as well. I know the update for today is a wee bit late, but here it is. The Circle of Scorpion for last Sunday will be up tomorrow along with the Iridescent Dreams installment for that day. Things will then move forward just as they have in the past. Step-by-step towards some literary goal that is still shrouded by the impenetrable haze of the ever-approaching, never-appearing future.
As promised, there are two days worth of Iridescent Dreams available for you today, both presented in order on the page bearing that name. In related news, I thought I might want to clarify a certain aspect of the world that includes such nations as Iridia, Ocilla, and Serindeli H'Eluldor. Particularly that aspect that pertains to the creatures commonly referred to as gnomes. So, for the enlightenment of the masses, I've begun a search for an essay, drafted by our own Galaramir Astynnor, that describes the nature of these adorable, diminutive humanoids in detail. I'll hopefully manage to procure a copy of it for your perusal by tomorrow. Wednesday, May 7, 2003Have you ever had one of those days where you lay back and relax for half a second and when you open your eyes its three hours later? No update today, because my body seems to be telling me to go to bed on pain of total system failure. I'll probably wake up tomorrow morning and realize that what I do have written isn't even coherent, so it'll just stay nice and safe and unpublished until I get a chance to go over it again. But since some of it is done, the rest of the world may luck out and, goddess willing, get two updates tomorrow. And to think that exams haven't even started yet. Maybe I'll be able to relax some then...
Not knowing quite where I want to go with Rock's story, I branched off a bit. I was also getting tired of writing for Rock and Matt exclusively, and poor Jerten couldn't alleviate that quite to the extent that I wanted him to. Don't worry, though, all three of them will be back. But for now, enjoy the antics of the three enforcers introduced today. Any resemblence to previously used characters, living or dead, is purely intentional. And before any of you start getting ideas, Iridians have perfectly normal sized foreheads. (*stares sternly at a certain priestess* You know who you are...) Sunday, May 4, 2003Still working a bit with some site reoganization. Circle of Scorpion now holds its own link in the navigation bar, and the old Current Installment page has been renamed for Iridescent Dreams, since that's what's really there and there are two things that will always have current installments. Update bar to the right has been altered to reflect this. Small changes, but they hopefully make getting around a bit easier.
And Iridescent Dreams returns to its typical, gloomy self today. Oh well, yesterday was fun. Also note that I've decided that today's update makes a much better ending for Chapter 3, so I went ahead and renumbered all the pages and reorganized the archives. Chapter 4 begins for the second time on Monday. I also started a fresh page for the news archives. I figure four months is enough news for one page. The January through April updates can be accessed in the archives. I didn't just get rid of them all. Even if they are mostly useless. *shrug*
Happy May Day! I'm sure everyone will forgive me if I don't update Iridia today and instead irrevocably shatter the continuity of Circle of Scorpion with this bit of fun in celebration of Beltane. You haven't met all of the characters presented, of course, and it sort of gives away who's going to be joining the Circle, but it was too much fun to pass up. So relax, laugh a bit (hopefully...), and enjoy yourselves. Today's the beginning of summer (by my calendar, anyway) and a celebration of fertility. Speaking of which, I endured a bit of fun at my expense from my best friend and coauthor, Ross Griffith last night since I'm likely to be pretty frivolous and light-hearted at his expense for much of the coming month. Anyway, the conversation went something like, "Or are you going to be all lusty in May? You fox, you!" My response was a bit belated as I searched for the web page that this jab reminded me of, but went something along the lines of "Lusty foxes, huh?" He enjoyed the comparison, and the conversation quickly degenerated into how sexy us librarians are (which I was forced to disagree with out of modesty; not all of us librarians can be perfect, of course), but we don't need to go into that here. Anyway, if you see a general tendency towards lightness and humor in the coming month, you know why. |