Tag Archives: storytelling

The Return of the Kitsune

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Direlda has returned to his den in an attempt to rescue his ramblings from the clutches of Jabber the Procrastinator.

Little does Direlda know that the MUNDANE EMPIRE has secretly begun construction on a new ironclad routine even more powerful than the first dreaded Class Schedule.

When completed, this ultimate program will spell certain doom for the small band of storytellers struggling to restore insanity to the Library…

What that tells you is true, from a certain point of view. :p

For today does mark the return of this kitsune to his den. :D   It has been a long while, but I have grown in my time wandering.  I am armed now with a cork board, index cards, pushpins, and pens and markers of various colours.  So I should be able to work out a system and hold myself to it.

Today also marks the completion of another orientation session for the Master in Library and Information Science program that I have started.  The Chair of the department said, “You’re all going to be librarians, but you’re not all going to work in a library” and that part of my job is to “make humanity more human.”  I think I’m going to like it here.

This program may also give me the tools needed to finally get my den looking the way I want it to.  Or at least give enough of a kick to the tail to send my scampering to the resources to teach myself how.  The Chair made a spontaneous example for how career paths change of a person who wanted to do storytelling ending up in web design.  And that has got me thinking on how to integrate the two.  Because I do want the appearance of my den to convey a story as much as my ramblings do.  Stories are everywhere.

Speaking of stories, I have a short story being published in the Rainfurrest 2014 convention anthology! Whooo! :D   One of my artist friends, NovaWuff, did an illustration to go along with it that should also be in the anthology.

My story is called Neural Enrichment.  Here is a blurb-in-progress:

After saving for months on his hagwon English teacher’s salary, John finally had enough to afford a cybernetic implant.  He had hoped that his new Rycorp implant would allow him to fully enjoy all that the Korean Technocracy had to offer.  Instead it turned him into an anthropomorphic fox and now bombards his mind with adverts.  John is desperate to shut the world out of his head and is willing to seize any opportunity to do so even if it risks what humanity he has left.

I don’t know the cost of the anthology, but I do know that all proceeds will be going towards a charity of sorts (I think it’s the Clouded Leopard Project, but it could be the Cougar Mountain Zoo).  I also don’t know the content of the other stories aside from all being cyberpunk, but I do know that the anthology I’m in has a content rating of G to PG-13.  Come the evening of September 25 I will be able to give you more information.

That is all the exciting news I have for you today!  But I will be around more now. :)

Count the shadows.

A Summer Shelter

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Wymond the Fox shifted on the stump as he finished cooking a trout over the coals.  “I can’t believe that Avalonian painter tried to adjust the way those elk were holding their heads.  I have enough to worry about without needing to save painters from their absurdities.”  He inspected the trout and decided it was ready.

As he was tearing into the cooked fish, Wymond heard the cracking of twigs and labored breathing.  He stamped out his fire.  Before Wymond could crawl into his shelter a portly man crashed through the underbrush.

“It better snow early this year,” Wymond muttered, “I can’t stand any more painters.”

The painter, oblivious to what Wymond was saying, began setting up an easel.  Wymond put on his best grimace.  The more frightening he looked in the paintings sold in Avalonia, the fewer painters would come looking for him; at least, that was his hope.

The Hobbit and Les Miserables: My Thoughts on the Films

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I watched The Hobbit on the morning of December 16th (and then a second time in January) and Les Misérables on the evening of December 23rd.  I enjoyed both movies! :D   However, there were aspects of each that I did not like.  This is by no means to say I hated the movies for what they did to stories I care about.  I understand that in adapting a story from one medium to another it is necessary to make changes.  Ever since I watched The Fellowship of the Ring and realized that Tom Bombadil wasn’t included my need for adaptations to be true to what they adapt has diminished.  (But how could they do that!  He’s such an awesome character and the scene with the barrow wights explains why Merry’s sword is so deadly to the Witch King—the sword was forged by men who fought against the Witch King—not to mention his songs and the fact the One Ring doesn’t affect him.)  So rather than being in a rage, I enjoyed both of these films as adaptations.

As you have probably figured by now, there will be spoilers.  Hopefully my vulpine helpers have edited away any big ones.  If you haven’t read The Hobbit, then do so—it’s short and I recommend it—and if you haven’t seen Les Misérables, then I encourage you to see it.  Because from here on out it will be hard not to reveal info about them.  I may be able to hide major plot points, but aside from putting all of what follows in a spoiler box, there isn’t much I can do to hide all the details.

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Are There Posts Ahead?

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If there are, we’ll all be dead.  But only if you collide head-on. For then your life would be gone.  I’ll stop this rhyming, I mean it.  Could you interest me in a peanut?

:p

Anyways… Riffing off a favorite movie aside, I am here to inform you of the many ramblings I have planned.  Inconceivable, right?  Rest assured, there will be R.O.U.S.’s (Ramblings Of Unusual Size) aplenty in the days ahead.

:o

First up on the course of ramblings shall be my thoughts on the movie adaptions of The Hobbit and Les Miserables.  I enjoyed them, but… I’ll leave that for my rambling.  In conjunction with this I shall be uploading a piece to dA concerning my thoughts on adaptations.  Rather inconceivable that I should do so, I know.

:D

Following that shall be a look back at 2012.  I’ve had quite the year from food poisoning to a friend’s mawage, that bwessed awangment, that dweam wifin a dweam.  I’ve been through heat and cold with some typhoons for good measure.  So you are welcome to join me in my reminiscing on the eve of a new year.  Expect some mention of hopes for the new year.

And then shall follow a six-fingered rambling.  Or is it six ramblings–one for each of the days of my recent adventure?  Either way writing them will take a miracle!  Such things as eating spicy fried chicken wings with chopsticks, Spain’s anvitions, climbing up the Winding Stair into Narnia, magnetic soap, “escaping” the rain in a lava tube, and a dragon trying to eat a Ramada Hotel will be presented for your enjoyment! Inconceivable?  I think not!

After that I shall work on resuming a regular schedule and sticking to it.  I may finally use my round tuit to talk about my novel progress or do some more re-imagining. :creative:

As a parting gift, I leave you with a link to The Red Wheelbarrow, the poem my friends in high school used to send me over the edge of the cliffs of insanity (and yes, I’ve been to the actual cliffs, but it was foggy that day, so that’s one more reason to return to Ireland).  So much depends… ;)

Blessings and peace!
~Direlda

Quest Completed: Write Second Novel in 30 Days

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So I did it! :D

I wrote the first draft of my second novel!  It sits at 51,449 words.  Now to set it aside for a while and work on revising my first novel… :creative:

I decided to do it this way because it would mean that I would have a better idea of the world, the characters, and where things were heading.  What I really need to figure out, though, is how many books long the story arc will be.  Will this be a trilogy or will it go on longer?  Or maybe this will be a trilogy and then I’ll write other stories dealing with the world afterwards.  I’m not really sure.  I think this is because of how massive the ideas I had back in high school were for the world that morphed into this one.  I will have to figure out how much exploration we will have into this world.  Perhaps it will be several novels and then many short stories.  In any case, it’s something I need to think more on.

Writing the ending for this one was rather hard.  I won’t say why because that would spoil things, since to explain the why I would have to give details and then those details would give away several things that I don’t want given away. :p   The ending also needs work, but that will be made easier once I figure out whether this is the second of three or of many.

Right now I’m taking a break from writing. (No you’re not!)  Fine, I’m taking a break from writing novels and scripts.  It’ll probably be only for a few days, but just long enough for me to recuperate.  So maybe I’ll get around to drawing and posting what I end up drawing.  Still, my characters are in my ears, are in my eyes, here among the novel writing tries.

Hmmm…. I suppose I should mention that I’ll be in the States for a few weeks so that I may be a groomsman at the wedding of one of my good friends (who happens to have been one of my groomsmen).  I’m rather excited to be a part of that! :D   And not so excited to be away from my lovely wife for several weeks. T.T

Since I’ve basically been cloistered here in my apartment this month writing, I don’t really have much else of note to write about.  So until next time!

Blessings and peace!
~Direlda

NaNoWriMo in October?

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National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo is a most wonderful event that I was introduced to a few years ago.  It is held annually in November.  The goal of this is event is to see if you can write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days!  The first time I tried it, I didn’t make it because of circumstances that arose (a late start among them).  The second time, I managed to meet the goal! :D

Because I will be participating in a friend’s wedding in November, I realized that it would be rather hard to write a novel around all of that.  So I decided to write my NaNoWriMo novel for thirty days in October (well, two of the days were at the end of September due to travel plans at the end of October, but it’s basically October).

So I won’t really be around too much this month.  Sorry about that!  Lord willing I will have a second novel to work on editing and revising by the end of October 28th!

According to MS Word, my current word count is 11,924 words.  While I’m a little ahead of where I need to be today, I haven’t done much writing today, so I really need to get back to it! :creative:   Cheers!

Where’d I Put my Adventurer’s Kit…?

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The random piles of belongings spread out before me hide the various components and tools I need to succeed and thrive on my latest adventure.  It doesn’t feel that strange, though, that in a little more than a week I will be living in another country.  What does feel strange is that I will finally have a standard long-term job.  I’ve taught before – archery to Cub Scouts and creative writing to the homeless – and I am certified in TESOL, but it just feels weird that I will be teaching English to Koreans as my job.

This is the start of this part of my adventure and I hope to share it with you.  I’m still working out how often I’ll ramble (though I’m leaning toward once a week with exceptions for special occurrences) and on what day (probably around the weekend).  But since my den is still being reconstructed after Derrida passed through (always a danger for storytellers, those literary critics…), you might catch glimpses of this elusive fox digging out tunnels to new locations and might overhear me rambling more than I will in the future.

So go about your merry way for now.  Just be sure to visit and perhaps sit back to hear a tale or two.

Blessings!
~Direlda