The New Project Board

10/18

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:34:00 +0000

Writing was like pulling teeth today.

24 (new) pages into CH III after deleting 20 (old) pages because I didn't like the way the story was going.

Labor Day

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16:20:00 +0000

Thursday night I had a really good session. It flowed. I was able to get two or three pages done. It has been slow going since school started but I try to get in some work when I can.

21 pages into Chapter 3.

Thursday, August 20

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:56:00 +0000

I have been sidetracked by the beginning of school. Managed to get a little work done tonight.

@approximately 16k words

8/7

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:15:00 +0000

Slogging through Chapter III. Very important stuff is happening so it's not like I can fly through the writing like I'm writing a battle scene.

I'm going back to work next week. Now we'll see if I can keep up the production/quality.

Know what I've found out though? You can talk and plan and go to writing sites and writing conferences and read book on how to write but in the end you have to sit down and write for hours and days and months and maybe even years and then go through it all again and again until it's as right as it can be. It's an enormous amount of work for the possibility of very little payoff.

Writing is hard work and I love it. Curious.

Chapter II

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:00:00 +0000

I keep adding to Chapter II. 9.5k words now. But now, seriously, I think I'm ready to move on to Chapter III. Seriously. I'm gonna do it.

Chapter III

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:46:00 +0000

Chapter III is coming along.

Bumped up Chapter II to 8.6k words.

Made some good progress today.

Chapter II

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:51:00 +0000

Chapter II is done in 1st draft form! 6.5k words. Whew!

30 pages

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:41:00 +0000

Chapter one has been first drafted and now I am working hard on chapter two. Chapter one was only fifteen pages long. Chapter two is going to be quite a bit longer it seems. I am having a good time writing this up. I hope it does well.

Updizzle 5/16

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Sat, 16 May 2009 20:37:00 +0000

16 pages and counting. Doing a lot more editing as I go this time around. 4k words now.

Update 5/1

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Sat, 02 May 2009 02:22:00 +0000

Having tons of fun with the new project. Nearly 3k words done so far. Stay tuned.

Update

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 15:33:00 +0000

The new project is coming along nicely and I have already recieved favorable feedback.

New

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 15:29:00 +0000

I am working on a new project.

Where?

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 22:35:00 +0000

Been sharpening my skills over at Modara Crossroads and Sunderd Land.

BBL

The Redux Part II

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 02:32:00 +0000

This is the new manuscript. Same world. Some of the same characters. Different story. This is rough draft. It is unedited. Comments are welcome.
-matt

I was taken violently from my home world like so many others but I was ignorant as to why. I was unaware of the vast system of checks and balances that keeps the omniverse in a constant and tenuous state of equilibrium. I was merely currency, another flesh-coin from some out world forced to pay tribute to the mighty Telek.

“Ted,” I whispered, “you there?” Stifled sobs echoed off of the cold metal walls.
“We’re dead man, dead.” A voice whispered in the darkness.
“Ted,” I whispered again, “Ted, you there?” Someone close by was mumbling what might have been a prayer. I felt along the wall whispering Ted’s name as I went.
“We’re dead. This is it. This is hell.” The voice was louder this time.
“We’re not dead you idiot. We’re in some kind of cell.” A soft voice from the black answered the morbid fellow. “This is some kind of holding tank.” Knuckles rang against metal.
“Stop it you fool,” a woman cried, pleading, “they’ll hear you.” Fear crept into my mind. Fear of what kept us trapped. Only once had the deep blackness been breached. A circle of light had formed and in that circle stood a creature out of nightmare, scales, claws and fangs. It had snatched a gibbering man from the floor and dragged the poor fellow screaming into the shining circle, the death circle. Then the light had winked out silencing the man’s pleas for help. Everyone began whispering after that.
The silence was palpable as I waited in the cold darkness, waiting for the death circle to shine down again like God’s wrath. Silence for an hour, then two. I renewed my voyage through the sea of bodies whispering for Ted. Listen, whisper, listen always keeping one hand on the solid metal wall. Despite the numbing sensation I experienced after only a few minutes contact with the freezing surface I refused to step away. The wall was the one remaining bastion of reality in the waking nightmare in which I found myself.
As I passed I could feel knots of bodies, people crouching in groups of three or four, whispering, crying, huddled together for warmth. Other travelers passed by me unseen whispering the names of friends or loved ones, groping through the blackness for a familiar touch, testing the air a lover’s perfume or the scent of a favorite soap.
The smell of stale alcohol announced Ted’s presence a full three seconds before his rasping whisper.
“Fin, over here.” Ted’s voice floated from the left, away from the wall. I reluctantly left the cold metal behind and blindly pushed off into the sea of bodies. As I waded through the press frightened whispers rose around me like fog, writhing in the cold air before being overtopped by uncontrolled whimpers and sniffling sobs. Ted’s smell grew stronger. It was the scent of a hopeless addict, a body that has become so saturated with alcohol that it exudes the smell of old liquor.
“Ted.” I ventured a whisper and the answer came from less that a foot away in the darkness. I crouched and shuffled over next to him. He was not alone. An unfamiliar grunt sounded in my ear as shoved in next to Ted.
“Hey old friend,” he whispered. I could see his sardonic smile in my mind as he spoke and even though the utter darkness kept me from seeing the genuine article I was reassuring knowing that Ted had kept his sanity in the face of the situation in which we found ourselves.
“Who’s there?” A female voice thick with fear called softly from my right. I thought it was the same woman who had begged for quiet earlier, but in my exhausted state it was hard to tell.
“He’s a friend, Jackie. Ted, meet Jackie. Jackie, this is my friend Fin.” Ted sounded like he was still drunk.
“Pleasure,” I whispered. Jackie grunted.
“Jackie thinks we have been abducted by aliens,” Ted whispered quietly in my ear.
“Well, the wall goes all the way around. There are no doors, or windows. There aren’t even any rivets or seems from what I could tell. It’s perfectly smooth.
“What about near the death circle?” Ted ventured. “There has to be some kind of doorway or hatch or something.”
“I’m not even sure where the circle was and even if I did know where it was I’m wouldn't going near that spot. Did you see what happened?”
“Yeah.” Ted suddenly sounded very sober.
“What do you think that thing was?” I asked.
“How should I know?” Frustration tinged with fear edged Ted’s response. I quickly changed the subject.
“O.K., what do you remember about how we got here?”
“Fin, we’ve been over this a hundred times already.”
“Let's make it one hundred and one.”
Ted sighed vodka. “I was at Julio’s. I called you to come pick me up because I was drunk and that red headed tart, what was her name? Wanda? Wilma?” Air moved around me as Ted shook his head in an attempt to clear his thoughts. “Whatever, that red headed tramp stole all my coin and my multi-pass and I needed a ride home. Next thing I know you’re there. I pass out and wake up in this freezing hole with a bunch of other people.”
His story sounded the same as the last two times I made him tell it. I had shown up at Julio’s in the pre-dawn hours to take him home. I was furious at the time. Ted was my friend, but I would have been furious about having to get out of bed at three in the morning to pick up my own mother, let alone a sloppy drunk who had vomited in my vehicle on more than one occasion. I had passed out as well, though I hadn’t had a drop to drink that night.

Chapter One Done

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 01:53:00 +0000

The Good: The first draft of a section I have tentatively titled Chapter One is finished and I am moving on.

The Bad: My already slow production (31 pages) will slow even more due to my going back to work.

The Ugly: I love writing. I hate writing. It's the best/worst thing I do. It is fulfilling and frustrating.

Things are going good, so far, and I may send out more manuscript soon to my lucky guinea pigs...I mean friends.

7/25-25 Pages In

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:01:00 +0000

I started on 6/25 and here we are a month later and I have 25 pages done. Considering I was gone in Michigan for a week over that time and also sick for a few days that trasnslates to about a page a day. And that translates to a long way until done. I estimate that this manuscript will be longer than Chosen and Chosen was 68,766 words long. This project is currently at 5,342 words so I have lots of work to do.

I'd better go write.

Update

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:29:00 +0000

I'm 20 pages into the new manuscript and things are going well.

Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:30:00 +0000

Please let me know your thoughts/comments/critiques on the manuscript in the comments section of this post.

I know that you only had a small amount of text to review but your thoughts are appreciated.

Manuscript

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:11:00 +0000

I know I said I wasn't going to start on the manuscript until I had the whole story mapped out and I do, mostly. I started on it anyway and got about five pages of draft done over the last couple of days along with some good editing. Yuisa and I went over the manuscript so far yesterday evening and she had some good comments.

If you would like a sample of the manuscript (those of you who have requested my work in the past) I will happily e-mail the work out to you.

THE ROAN MARSHES

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:22:00 +0000

Once residents of the lush grasslands, the Roan tribe fled to the marshes during the occupation. The Roan, formerly farmers, adapted quickly to their new home and, along with the Ebresh, were a powerful fighting force against the occupation. The mists which cloud the marshes conceal the Roan’s submersible homes which float just beneath the surface of the black marsh water. Still, the marshes are more accessible than the Vinewall and battles erupt daily over the dark, reed-choked, waterways.

Notable denizens of the Roan Marshes:

Rake: The leathery winged rake, though slow and clumsy on land is a strong flier and an agile swimmer. Trained by the Roan as mounts, many a Roan aquanaut has been saved from the cluster missiles of an attacking Star Striker by a quick-diving rake.

THE VINEWALL

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:12:00 +0000

Myriad fast growing plants make up the Vinewall, a dark, near impenetrable jungle and home to the Ebresh. During the Great War many battles were fought in the Vinewall with the natural predators and diseases taking their toll on both armies (though with the help of the Ebresh the Eladii fared far better than the Shogar). Due to the resilience and rapid growth of the plant life, deforestation effects used during the war proved to be ineffective. Vegetation that was chemically or biologically destroyed replaced itself within days.

Notable residents of the Vinewall:

Tuntrox: Gigantic herbivores, the tuntrox is the species predominantly responsible for keeping the Vinewall from choking off all life in its verdant embrace. Tuntrox browse in large herds beneath the bows of the great trees and are the path makers of the forest. Legless, the tuntrox slither through the Vinewall stretching their immense bulk into the canopy where they feed. Tuntrox roam in extended family units usually led by an old bull. Newborn young are sometimes taken by tiger hawks and other large predators but an adult tuntrox has no natural enemies. They are a water loving species and family groups are often seen near rivers wallowing in the mire or swimming in the deeps.

Black Stinger: A peril to any forest dweller, black stingers swarm after the Vinewall’s frequent rain storms sucking the fluids from any creature unlucky enough to be caught in the writhing mass. Black stingers have no mouth parts but ingest all their food through the long stinger on their abdomen. They feed by constantly stinging their victim until all liquid has been removed from the body. On occasion the Ebresh have reported swarms large enough to overwhelm even the gigantic tuntrox.

Exodus

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:14:00 +0000

“The phenomenon known as the Great Conversion remains unprecedented in the history of the Empire. It is not known how the entire Eladii race became followers of Olo or how they managed to hide their presence from the vengeful Telek for millennia after their exodus. All scholars agree on one point however, the initial separation of the Eladii Nation from the Telek Confederacy was nothing if not bloody.

-Lida Sestono from Histories

Revelation

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:00:00 +0000

“When the word of Olo came to us we scoffed at first. But when we studied Olo’s ways our eyes were opened and we forsook our life of war.”

-Celic of House Rinn, Eladii Farwarden and First Speaker of Olo

Rebellion

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:40:00 +0000

"The Telek, the Shogar and the Eladii, these are the heads of the beast that devours uncounted realms. These are the names of the murderers that rape our world."

-Yur'tik, Hand of Yune from Desecration

The Triumvirate Complete

noreply@blogger.com (MWVK) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:40:00 +0000

“How many did we kill? All of them. Everything. Nothing breathes on Odrion.”

-Freyak Gilganus, Shogar Heavy Infantry