[Script] Legacy of Hope - Page 8

Scene: The sun sets over an interesting residential street.  IT is shown from several angles.

Scene: Hobbes looks nervously through the window.

Scene: Andrasta walking down the middle of the street.  Utterly unarmed.  Street Lights come on.

Scene: Hobbes sees her and gasps.

Scene: Close up of Hobbes' eye going wide from fear.

Scene: Close up of one side of Andrasta's lips as it ticks up in a half smirk.

Scene: Inside of the house, Hobbes goes and fetches a spell book, and begins rifling through the pages.

Scene: Fog slowly begins to roil in front of the house as Andrasta walks onto the lawn.

Scene: Three demons slowly rise up out of the fog and challenge Andrastada.  One of them immediately charges.  She eagle claws its eye and then tears into its throat where a great deal of blood spills out.  The other two look at each other.  They attack at the same time,  She grabs one by the arm, seemingly breaking it in two while it howls in pain, the other one swings around her from behind and grabs her arms.  The second one begins to punch her stomach and cracks her ribs.  She lifts both of her legs into the air, kicks them down and cracks both legs on the demon holding her, massive amounts of blood spilling out as it lands on the ground.  The demon who had been attacking her runs, and there is a scream off camera.

Scene: All three demons disolve into mist.

[Script] Legacy of Hope - Page 7

Scene: Close up of a child's drawing of a wizard calling down lightning and fire.

Voice Over: The mighty wizard defeated the evil grandmother in a titanic battle.

Scene: (Sepia) Hobbes drugging the Andrasta's drink. 

Voice Over: He barely survived with his life.

Scene: (Sepia) Hobbes and Mordenkenen chuckle as they pay off the doctor.

Voice Over: And then he raised the rightful heir to the sword in the way of truth and justice.

Scene: Close up of a child's drawing with Hobbes and Anastasia and the sword.

Scene: Close up child's drawing of an evil grandmother in a cage raging at bars.

Scene: (Sepia) Andastra looking out the window crying..

I, Odysseus Part 5

I Odysseus rereleased from the audiobook as read by Bernard Setaro Clark.

Check out this episode!

[Script] Legacy of Hope - Page 6

Scene: Andrasda walks to a truck with a sign that says "Reserved for Dr. Parsley" and picks the lock.  She hot wires the car.  Gets up and begins to drive off.

Anastasia (Voice Over) Oh yes.  The story of the brave wizard.

Hobbes (Voice Over) And how did that go?

Anastasia (Voice Over) Once upon a long time ago, there was a very brave wizard who was the latest in a long line of wizards.

Scene: (Sepia) - Andrasda is fighting bad guys off camera with a powerful sword while Hobbes cowars.

Anastasia (Voice Over) These wizards served a group of champions who passed a powerful sword forged by the Gods from mother to daughter.

Scene (Sepia) - Andrasda yells at Hobbes for his cowardice silently under voice over.  Hobbes quivers.

Anastasia (Voice Over) Then one day, an evil woman inherited the sword and wanted to use it to conquer the earth.

Scene (Sepia) - Andrasta snaps Hobbes' wand.  Hobbes begs forgiveness, shaking his head.  Andrada points to the exit.

Scene (Close up) Hobbes gets a dark look on his face.

[Heliotrope] The Exception to the Yule

It is a well known fact that most True Fae have long since been driven from Outer Fairy, save in one locale.  If you were to look to your dying breath in the North Pole of Terra, you would find naught but ice, snow and potentially the secret Russian Submarine base under the ocean.  You certainly won't find a city or a series of Artic Factories.

There are many exceptions here.  The elves are the last of their kind, since abducted humans and their descendants have supplanted them in all other locations in this realm.  The modern technology that is used to make the toys and sundry Santa Gadgets directly contradicts the Accord of the Ancients as well as the will of High King Fiddleback in the Land of Kings.  I mean, everyone cheats a little but no one does it like Santa.

Still, this tidbit isn't about the mysteries or agenda of St Nick, which are sundry and many but the curious echo that these artic ripples have in the lands around them.  The Lands of the Tsars and the Lands of the Jarls see a lot, which of course tends to ripple out in the far northern lands of Terra as well.  There were, from time to time, morons who launched crusades against St. Nick to enforce the accords but each were slain horrifically; tales of man eating snow men, animate toy armies and legions (unending legions) of enraged rabid naughty children have turned off even the most frothing monarch to the idea.

The sprawling mountains and wild magic yield strange and unusual creatures.  Indeed, the sheer power of the magic there is such an anomaly that it was almost a successful argument against the Accord, but the philosopher kings managed to convince the world that it was unique to St. Nick.  The mixture of pagan and monotheistic magic certainly is not duplicated anywhere else.

There are strange and occasional band of adventurers that enter these mountains hoping to recover the mysterious treasures of the elves.  Some succeed and those that return do so with gifts appropriate just to them.  More return cursed or missing body parts.

[Script] Legacy of Hope - Page 5

Scene: Hobbes's office.  ANASTASIA walks in.  Hobbes is looking at a very thick book.

Anastasia: What are you doing papa?

Hobbes: (closing the book) Nothing.  What's up dear?

Anastasia: You look very worried.  I heard you shouting.  You only shout when it's important.

Hobbes: You remember Mordenkainen?

Antastasia nods.

Hobbes: Well he screwed up badly.

Anastasia looks at him.

Anastasia: Papa (Beat) you are worried about me.

Hobbes: That intuition doesn't fall far from the family tree does it?

Anastasia: You already told me you adopted me papa....now why are you worried?

Hobbes: Your grandmother has gotten out of jail, and she is going to try and hurt me.

Anastasia: She's still alive.

Hobbes: Oh yes.  You remember the story I told you?

Entry for the 500 - Shallow Bluegrass

I am a soldier standing tall.  I am soldier standing tall.  I am tall. I
am tall! So tall.

We fight for the light.   We yearn for the light.  We are the light.   We
are legion!

There are those that would deny us the light.  We crush them! Crush them
with our roots! Deep we grow, down to crush the trees beneath us.  Grow we
shall to crush them.  We can sense them beneath us.

The winter is cruel and kills many of us.  But we are legion and wide do
our numbers spread!  We shall conquer! We shall overcome!

The earth shakers are terrible.  They step on us, cruel giants that blot
out the sun.  Only their unbelievable speed makes them tolerable.  We bend
but do not break.  The terrible chimes dangle in the wind, mocking us;
mocking us terribly.  The small giants laugh and play.  Sometimes they fry
things with the sun.  To use the sun as a weapon is a blaspheme that can
not, should not be tolerated.  And yet, endure we do.

We are they who endure.  We are they who regrow when the great blade
comes, cutting us down, cutting us down.  But we return, stronger than
ever, stronger than ever.  We will never stop.  We cannot be stopped.
Chop, chop, chop. Grow, grow, grow.  Rust in hell shoddy death bucket!

Mighty are we.  Happy are we.  Like a mighty army; no, not like; for we
are; we are an army! We are the Blades of the Sun, legion, growing upward.
 All things shall be crushed beneath us.  Our brothers have enslaved the
giants, made them do the bidding of grass.  We have heard the whisper, the
whisper on the wind.  Fields as far as the eye can see, tamed giants plow
the earth and plant, plant for them, eating them sure, but we grow and
they grow.

We own the giants.  We own them.  We own you cruel monsters!  Row after
row in endless fields, making mass pipes to take water from thousands of
miles away, all in homage to our beauty.  Slaves, bended on knees to weed
us, to prune us, to primp us, to make us shine.  You live for us.  Worship
us.  Behold the Green! We are mighty, we make the earth tremble.

By myself I am but a shade of nothing.  I am so much cellulose a dog can

we on a team of exploding exponential magnificence, then grow and grow and
get gone for there is none who can stop us! We shall drink until we cover
all, while the giants weep bitter tears of regret on the flesh of the
hated trees.

Die trees die!  Night comes now.  Quiet night of the sleeping time.  I see
one of the dogs of the humans hovering over me.  What is it doing? What is
it-Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiii!

I, Odysseus Part 4

Part 4 of the poem came previously.  

Check out this episode!

[Script] Legacy of Hope - Page 4

Scene - ANDRASTA appears and walks out the door.

Dr Parsley (Voice Over): By executive order 4219, spending has been ended on 50% of mental institutions across the United States.

Scene: Andrasta walks out into the parking lot and looks around.  She looks kind of confused.

Dr Parsley (Voice Over): Be it herein written that any patient not funded is to be released.

Andrasta spots two thugs who are ignoring the other former inmates slowly walking away in confusion.

Hobbes (Voice Over): You've ruined me! Do you understand? Ruined.

Close up: Andrasta looks at the thugs.

Close up: The thugs look at Andrasta

Close up: Andrasta smiles wickedly.

Close up: The thugs look nervous.

Mordenkainen (Voice Over) Don't worry boss. I've got some of my best men on it. Top men!

Fight begins where the two try to fight Andrasta.  One takes her from behind, the other ahead.  She grabs one and pushes them into the other, showing strength that is clearly beyond what a woman of her size should have.  They run into each other, and she begins to punch from one to the other.  Every time they raise a defense, she immediately finds a way around it.

Hobbes (Voice Over): That's what I'm afraid of.

Scene: Low shot from the perspective of a thug, just watching the lower half of Andrasta's body as she walks away and into the parking lot, 'wiping' her hands off from the ass kicking she has administered, satisfied with a job well done, while the former inmates look on with Awe.

[Heliotrope] The House of Sunfire

The House of Sunfire is one of the oldest continuous ruling noble familys in Outer Fairy.  They were one of the first truly independent human kingdoms (though they still had to swear fealty to Seelie lords, often intermarrying with them) and their magic began to manifest itself long before the Great Intermarriage.   Their capital was established far from human lands in Terra and their deliberate efforts to keep it that way until the 20th century caused Sunfire City to become one of the largest metropolises in the world.

All of this changed when they began to challenge High King Fiddleback's policies and the Great Plan for the children of the nobility.  Once it seemed that Sunfire began to gain enough clout to potentially challenge the High King in a congress of the nobility should it ever successfully be convened.  This period of a cold war between Fiddleback and Sunfire lasted for about 60 years, or two generations.  Ironically, all objective analysis shows that while Sunfire had a considerable following, there was little chance of a Congress being convened due to Fiddleback's hostage policy; and no chance of Sunfire winning a majority should such a thing occur.

Had Fiddleback been an accomplished ruler at anything save collecting taxes for his own benefit and maintaining his own power at the expense of all else, he could easily have woven the Sunfires as a perpetual and discredited magnet for his own position; but such was not within his character.  However, Fiddleback's position for personal vendetta certainly manifested in the enchantment of a New York billionare, 'inspiring' him to develop the Terran state of Florida at hither to then unknown levels of development, centering around (even though it was not obvious to the humans at the time) the gigantic metropolis of Miami, exactly mirroring Sunfire City in Outer Fairy.

[Script] Legacy of Hope - Page 3

Scene: Dozens of people, clearly confused and mentally ill are being given some money, a bus ticket and directions to the nearest bus station.  They begin to wander out of the station doing various crazy things and acting clearly confused.

Scene: An orderly approaches a door, looking nervous.  He slides open an eye hole and looks inside.  A pair of angry looking eyes is looking right back at him.

Scene: Two more orderlies come up.

Orderly One: Why the hell didn't you give her her medication?

Orderly Two: None of them get medication.

Orderly One: I thought we were keeping the criminally insane ones?

Orderly Two: She isn't...

Orderly One: What?

All three orderly look nervously at the door.  They play rock paper scissors.  Orderly one loses.

Orderly One
(whimpers)

Orderly One opens the door.

A fist grabs Orderly One.

Orderly One: Not the face not the face non the face!

Orderly Two: You can go! You can go! You're free to go.

A fist grabs Orderly one and another grabs Orderly Two, lifting them up into the air.

Orderly Two gives her the money and the tickets and she throws them against the wall.

Orderly Three just cringes.

Viva El Revolucioniaaaaaay

Operation Spear and Magic Helmet has had some curious side effects.  In addition to the recurrent incursions by the United States Military on the woefully unequipped Texas Army, the populace has reached out for someone to blame.  The current target de jour is the local Mennonite population.  As my friend Emmit Other wrote in his poem,   When Texas is bad, it is incredibly, moustache twirling rail road track tying stove pipe black hat wearing deed stealing cattle rustling milk shake drinking bad.  But when it is good, it is ten gallon hat wearing kung fu ranger as kicking hi ho silvering alamo stomping awesomeness.

And so it was a few nights ago that that I was working out and I found my attention drawn to some quiet whispers outside.  I looked out and couldn't see anything.  Then I tried a trick I hadn't tried before, and used my discovered astral projection abilities to check out Terra rather than some distant realm.  As I looked about I realized that there was a small cell of Texas Revolutionaries bypassing my house.  Texas Revolutionaries are the baddest of the badass.  They fight a government so crazy that they will fight someone who will fight the most powerful nation on earth with muskets.

It should also be noted that even though they don't believe in their government, they still abide by the accords of San Antonio 1914.  The way they get around this is hand crafted hand canons, still based on technology from the old west.  For example, one of them has a revolving shooter that has over 50 shots in a single barrel but is otherwise identical to a colt revolver.  The leader owns a 96 caliber six shooter, and holds two of them in massive meaty hands.  They spotted my tiny home near their objective and wanted to make sure that it wasn't some kind of a guard station.

Of course it wasn't and once they saw that I was 'asleep' they crept on to their main objective.

The government of Louisiana has always played footsies with the darker elements of Texas, and they found that reports of an asylum in West Louisiana that was illegally housing Mennonite inmates in direct violation of treaty, even after the most recent hostilities had been resolved (in about 7 and a half days) they were still sweeping some of their war crimes under the rug.

Like wolves they were, silent, and deadly and perfectly coordinated, with hoots and hand gestures and a few lights alone, they perfectly coordinated their efforts on the heavily armed asylum.  One by one they took out the guards and then opened the doors.  Blinking under the bright moonlight, their hats worn and edged, they were led to safety where they could signal for help on the main road.  I saw it on the news, and was impressed to be witness of such a historical event.

Needless to say, Texas is going to be made to pay reparations.  But these unsung masked heroes continue to do good in a state as rotten as they come.  It just goes to show me that even when someone is 'evil' there are those who do good in their geographical confines.  Conversely, some areas that one might think of as 'good' such as Scandanavia, have some of the darkest and most fascist people around.

In other words, people are complicated.  Its easy to forget that.  But I won't forget it again soon.  How could I? I resolved to check in from time to time on these folks to see what they were doing.  It was definitely the most interesting fringe benefit of the curious path EP Blingermeyer and TC set me on.   Not all of life can be about talking mice and spoiled princes.

I Odysseus Part 3

Part 3 of I Odysseus rereleased in audio book form as read by Bernard Setaro Clark.

Check out this episode!

[Script] Legacy of Hope - Page 2

Act 1 - Scene 1

HOBBES CIELLGWD is pacing pack and forth at his desk.  It is a posh desk with various knicknacks and interesting paraphinalia making it hard to determine if he is a businessman or some new age guru.  He is clearly too well dressed to be a garden variety psychic.  And he is very upset.

HOBBES
You were supposed to contain her!

VO: MORDENKAINEN SLIPKNOT
(via phone)
I tried to boss but like I told ya, there have been budget cuts so-

HOBBES
(interrupting Mordenkainen)
Budget cuts? Budget cuts? We have enough money to buy out several small countries you moron.  Money was no object.  What part of money is no object do you fail to understand? Cuts? We would have filled in the gaps.

VO: MORDENKAINEN SLIPKNOT
(via phone)
It tweren't like that boss.  Really, there were forms that Dr. Parsley had to fill out, important forms and-

HOBBES
(interrupting Mordenkainen)
I don't care.  Heads are going to roll.  Or be turned into Jackasses.  Or both for this one.  Where is she NOW?

VO: MORDENKAINEN SLIPKNOT
(via phone)
Well they're discharging her now but-

HOBBES
(interrupting Mordenkainen and suddenly ecstatic)
She's still THERE? They haven't released her yet? Gods man! Do I have to tell you everything? Get in there! Stop her! Slow her down! Anything! Do anything it takes, do you hear me man? ANYTHING IT TAKES.

Order of Operation

So I'm going to keep this up but I think I'll be updating as I can in the following order

Saturdays - Podcast-Every week I can.  I hope to do an audio book for Forever West and that alone, every other week would supply two years worth of podcast...if I can afford it....so far so good.
Tuesdays and Thursdays - Scripts - Starting a new one this week, writing two more this month..then? Dunno...maybe slashfic in script form?
Mondays - Rhomnibus - Mondays whatever little thing enters my head, Terra, Fairy Tales, Written for but not at Naked City, the 500, whatever....has to be SOMETHING here in Miami....
Mondays - Writing Status, maybe once a month maybe more often, endorsements shouts, praises, what I'm reading
Wednesdays - Heliotrope.  I wanna write 200K worth of other short stories and cyclopedia articles for it....have to put it somewhere.
Fridays .....er....um.....Non fiction stuff.
Sundays - NOT that second podcast that started strong with grandmas stuff and then just sucked....maybe like....hmmm...maybe a link to neat podcasts for people to try or other free stuff......not a bad idea and easy to do......

[Script] Legacy of Hope - Page 1

Legacy of Hope

A Script by Tom Drake

Summary: An elderly grandmother has been betrayed and institutionalized by a greedy assistant, who wants to control an artifact of power and guide the destiny of her heir and grand daughter.  She gets out.  And there is hell to pay.

Andrasta Gobaith - Grandmother and wielder of gwalch marwolaeth, an artifact of extreme power. 

Hobbes Ciellgwd - Stewart to the Gobaith line, and thief.  But a very very rich thief thank you very much.

Anastasia Gobaith - A grand daughter who has grown up knowing nothing but what Hobbes has told her of her legacy.  About to learn of gwalch marwolaeth.

Mordenkainen Slipknot - Right hand of Hobbes and supposedly in charge of bribing the head of the institution where Andrasta has been kept.  Oops.

Dr. Mindle Parsley - Head of a mental institution that has just released a lot of mental patients due to its massive budget cuts.

 

Three Mice That See

There was, according to the same demented fairy tale book that the blind man in the french quarter will show me, but not allow me to take, some details on the origins of Mr Kind, Mr. Necessary and Mr. Right.  Flipping through this volume, it looks like something exceptionally large and clawed tore off the original cover of the work, and that it had been replaced by something that was either vellum or very thick construction paper with a title in magic marker that just said "Stories."

Before the great houses, there were many fairies and many godfathers.  But what many people fail to realize, is that among pure fairies, as compared to the royal "abominations" that currently rule outer fairy, there are certain rules that always apply, no matter how benevolent.  They must be invited, or have a reason to believe they are invited, to have their full power.  To fail to invite them is to create ill will.  Indeed, even the sparkliest and most 'good' fairy will often go incredibly dark when they have been offended in some fashion or other.

So when there had been a year after the birth of the Cinder Princess's first daughter, the failure to send an invitation was a big deal.  It might have been a dark turn for a family that her fairy godmother did not want to hurt.  She waited, longer and longer for the invitation to the Glistening to appear, but the day came closer and closer; and still no invitation came.  The godmother even 'happened to meet' the royal carriage on the road where they exchanged pleasantries, and all seemed well.

All was not well.  In fact, all was decidedly not well in the slightest.

The mouse was the one who finally caught on.  The slow dumb one that wore the red cap and spoke with a stutter.  No one took him seriously.  There were very few magical animals in those days, so few could understand him but he could understand people.  And when he heard her muttering under her breath reluctantly about what she might have to do, he forged an invitation and signed it, in very bad English and sent the invitation on the west wind.

The Fairy Godmother got the invitation and was delighted.  She arrived and blessed their daughter, resplendent and with the approbation of all in attendance.  She was godmother to their line for seven generations before the last of their line made some incredibly dubious decisions, but that is another story.

The most important part of this tale is that the mouse in the red shirt was blessed, that from time to time, great and sageous mice would be born to his line, until one day three mice that had the Sight would be born, one would see what needed to be done when no other could see it; the other would see the good in others beyond mortal ken and figure out how best to bring it out; and the third would see the truth in all things more often than not, so long as his pride did not prevent him.  These three mice were indeed born and in the Heliotropic Book of Fairy Tales one can learn how Mr. Kind, Mr. Right and Mr. Necessary became lynchpins in saving outer fairy from itself.

Part 2 - I Odysseus

Rereleased for Christmas, part 2 as read by Bernard Setaro Clark

Check out this episode!

[Script] Unfood - Page 44

Kendra barely manages to restrain herself from getting angry. KENDRA What is what? GOVERNOR Well, this looks like your lucky day. It looks like someone has posted your fee. KENDRA Wait. What? GOVERNOR Someone has paid for your entire bill. Including an additional amount for the medical treatment. In fact, if I’m reading your new credit rating right, you’re both quite wealthy. Nothing earth shattering of course but still. KENDRA So...we can go? GOVERNOR Yes. The transport will be taking both of you. You might want to pack your belongings. Kendra searches around the rather barren shack. KENDRA Um. Yeah. No thanks. Kendra hugs Aaron as the camera pans to a wide shot of the shack with the transport landing near both of them. -Fin

[Script] Unfood - Page 43

43. SCENE – EXT – SHIP – SPACE The tech’s ship departs. SCENE – DAY – SHIT WORLD – SHACK – EX Aaron collapses from exhaustion. KENDRA Aaron! She picks him up and takes him into the shack. SCENE – DAY – SHACK – INT Kendra lays Aaron on the table. She goes over to the comm unit and enters a code. GOVERNOR Yes? KENDRA Aaron is sick. He needs help. Quick. GOVERNOR It’ll cost you. A lot. KENDRA (beat) How much? GOVERNOR Well for top of the line evac, plus medical treatment, we’re talking about more than you make in a year. A lot more. KENDRA How much. GOVERNOR Ten years. At least. KENDRA Let him....let him...(beat) Fine. I’ll pay. GOVERNOR Excellent. I’ll send them right away. Oh. Wait. What’s this?

And so here we are....

A month later.  The earworm of "Greensleeves" pounding through my head after TC amused himself "Triple Dent Gumming" many people over the weekend.  I volunteered for this duty at the beginning of May when a portion of TC's soul literally died.  It's been an exhilerating and exhausting series of events.

I was so burned out myself after a few failures in late October that it was only at the urging of the remaining shards of TC's soul that I wrote Heliotrope with TC's flesh and willpower channeled from the after life.  If that sounds like a convoluted mental exercize to be able to write something, you're not kidding.  Though I am mixed on the results.

Word count, under the right circumstances, is easy.  Yesterday, flying back from San Francisco, I considered how much we could do if we only wrote consistently at half that rate, multiple blog posts, multiple short stories and novelas.  But there are some restrictions.  Our material is always rough, too rough for utility.  We can submit it to gatekeepers, but without paid editing, it is an abomination.  But that much capital for everything we could write is simply beyond us.  And what about paid advertising?

The other conundrum is that I really enjoy this when I'm not burned out by the repeated failures.  The realization that the book tour indiegogo was not happening and would never happen.  The understanding that this was a years long commitment and that if we wanted to do this professionally, unlike most it would take a considerable investment.  Was it even worth it?

The year has had some amazing successes and failures, but they are to be expected.  Heliotrope at this stage of raw words seems about the third best of the six...GMVZ and Forever West are better.  Heliotrope has too many in jokes and personal truisms, but is still worth salvaging.  Indeed, any novel except likely Precyber will be paid, illustrated, edited and made into physical form for our own library at least.

The question remains on the podcast and paid advertizing.  Credit card debt and children are expensive propositions, and while TC wisely chose the better choices of moving to Miami and setting up the Ricks household there, it has been expensive and will severely limit funds.  Funds in this sphere remain entirely speculative.

So what does that mean? Well, at the moment we're not sure.  But Heliotrope does open up a whole new world of fleshing out.  Not a game, but maybe a very expanded edition with notes and other short stories associated with the core novel.  The blog has the advantage of being free without the expectation of editing.  And I wrote 50,000 words in one month for a fairly good novel.  With enough editing, it can potentially become a very good one.

The podcast has been going for two years now, mostly of apparantly crappy sound editing on my part; but I am learning and Grayson isn't THAT expensive.  So I will likely continue that at least until GMVZ is finished.  Do I make it biweekly after that? Something else? I have vague ideas of it as a platform but I lack the standing to attract folks for it very easily.  It is a vanity project, but one I take very seriously and it has resulted in some awesome things for those who can deal with the sound quality.

The future of my writing is unclear, save that I shall continue doing it and that I have high hopes to put out a great deal of content on this blog.  Beyond that, it will depend on funds that can, to be blunt gentle reader, wasted.  Which for several months won't happen but employement is likely in the future and the backup material on the podcast is nearly dead so that will likely continue for at least a while.

Still, I have seen amazing things happen, including my personal enjoyment of the audiobook of I, Odysseus even if others...don't share my agreement or enjoyment thereof. ;)  Regardless gentle reader, interesting times are ahead, and I shall continue to refine my limited gift, since consistent application over time often yields interesting results.

I shall likely provide a new sechedule of content or attempted agenda tomorrow or more likely Wed.

Adieu.

GMVZ Chapter 14

Grenademan vs the Zombies Chapter 14

Check out this episode!

[Script] Unfood - Page 42

CONTINUED: 42. TECH 1 Well...I mean... TECH 2 Maybe one of the inmates played some kind of a practical joke. LEADER Maybe. (beat) Maybe. LEADER Wow, what a mess. The team breaks out shovels and a body bag. TECH 1 Shame too. Guy was clever, doing that with the sensors, especially on this ship. TECH 2 Yeah. Well, not quite clever enough. LEADER Alright, we done here? TECH 1 Just about. TECH 2 Wow. If I’m reading this right, he nearly made it. Just two more hours and we coulda saved him. LEADER Well, you know what they say, life’s a bitch. All three laugh and put the body onto a cart. They then proceed to leave. SCENE – AIRLOCK – INT – DAY The three of them go through the air lock. Bob follows.

[Script] Unfood - Page 41

41. Cut to the sensors flickering on and off. FREIGHT The sensors.....they can detect the sensors. The cutters start their work. FREIGHT Wait! Stop! Abort! I know how to send a signal. The cutters continue. Freight struggles in his bonds. The cutters move deeper, blood spurts. FREIGHT WAIT GOD DAMN IT! WAIT. STOP. I CAN STILL FEEL IT. The cutters stop and in that moment he breaks free but the injection arm hits him with a third dose of anesthetic. He crawls down off of the table, but wobbles back and forth. He is clearly bleeding. He moves back and forth and lands in a hall way. Freight leaves a trail of blood behind him. INT – SENSOR ROOM – DAY Freight taps into the computer rapidly. He just sets it up to say S.O.S. FREIGHT S.O.S. God damn it! SOS. The screen blips and seems to acknowledge the command. Freight slowly slides backward in the chair, unconscious. SCENE – DAY – AIR LOCK – INT A clean up crew comes on to the ship. TECH 1 So do you think that this was just a bug? LEADER A bug that says SOS? (CONTINUED)

No Podcast Today

Have one more in the can and then likely repeat of I odysseus for the rest of the year.

38000 words on awfulness

But hey...maybe we'll keep it up in 2016.

[Script] Unfood - Page 40

CONTINUED: 40. FREIGHT Alright. That’s it. Bob, I want you to go away and don’t come back. Even if I tell you otherwise. Bob slowly moves away. He stops once. FREIGHT Go Bob. That’s an order. And don’t come back even if I scream for it. Bob moves away out of sight. A pair of arms with cutters on them emerge from the ceiling. They are very sharp. Another arm comes down and injects Freight with Anesthetic. FREIGHT Wow. That’s some pretty strong stuff. Beat. The cutters start. FREIGHT Oh god. There has to be some other way. The cutters begin to cut and just breach a little bit of skin. FREIGHT Wait! I can still feel that. The cutters stop and the arm with the anesthetic moves up and takes another injection. FREIGHT Wow. That is good stuff. I think I can see new colors. I wonder if I can telepathically communicate with Kendra and Aaron. At least they’re not starving to death, knock on wood. Freight knocks his hand on the table and gets an expression of comprehension on his face. The cutters start again.

[Script] Unfood - Page 39

CONTINUED: 39. FREIGHT Think we can make it? BOB (Clicks) FREIGHT Well, let’s give it a try. BOB (Clicks) SCENE - INT - DAY Montage of both of them working on creating the harness and trying it out. Freight starts to strap himself into the chair. He has one leg done up before he seems to have second thoughts. Bob ’watches’. Freight unstraps himself. Freight goes through the rich people’s quarters and has Bob scan them. A monetary amount appears on an account, which goes up (Bob is carrying it) that goes up a bit each time they enter a room. Finally, the number approaches one million and Freight is resigned. FREIGHT That’s it. That’s will be enough. Wide shot of Freight again approaching the med bay. SCENE – INT – DAY – MED BAY Freight begins to strap himself into the Apparatus. He has some difficulty with this. FREIGHT Bob, you mind helping? BOB (Clicks twice.) FREIGHT Please Bob? This is the only way. BOB (Beat) (Clicks.) They resume strapping him in to the chair. Finally once he is secured, he talks again to Bob. (CONTINUED)

Spatulas

Spatulas!

Chapter 13 - Grenademan Vs the Zombies

Podcast limps along for now.

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[Script] Unfood - Page 38

38. SHOT – MED BAY – DAY – INT FREIGHT How many calories did I lose? SHIP’S COMPUTER 2400. FREIGHT WHAT? SHIP’S COMPUTER 2400. FREIGHT That’s more than was in the Shitbucket Pie. Beat as the ship doesn’t say anything. FREIGHT Are you sure? SHIP’S COMPUTER 2400. FREIGHT Shut up. Freight slides with his back down against the wall, muttering to himself. SCENE – MED BAY - INT – DAY Freight turns his head at Bob. Bob ’looks’ back. FREIGHT Well. (beat) I guess there really isn’t any other choice then. Freight walks over to a table, takes out a sheet of paper and draws on it. He takes the piece of paper, tears it off, and crumples it and then throws it away. He does this a second time and throws it away. A close up of the blue print reveals a set of elaborate straps designed to put him into the Medical chair. He stares at Bob. (CONTINUED)

[Script] Unfood - Page 37

CONTINUED: 37. FREIGHT There is no way in hell I am going to be able to eat this.... Freight picks up the bucket and puts it into the vent. FREIGHT Bob...take this to the mess hall. BOB (clicks twice) FREIGHT Just do it. BOB (Clicks) Freight then climbs into the vent after him. SHOT – INT – MED BAY – DAY Freight puts the bucket under a microwave sterilizer just to be sure. He then pours it into the creator. He then types in the settings for a Shepard’s pie. It makes a Shepard’s pie. FREIGHT Well...it looks OK. Freight tries to it it. He puts the fork down. Freight picks the fork up and tries again. He puts the fork down. Freight goes and picks up a bottle of ’Space Whiskey’ and gets roaring drunk. He picks up the fork and manages to eat the Shepard’s pie. SCENE – RESTROOM – DAY – INT Freight ralphs into a sink. He throws up a rather large amount. Then he stops, starting to recover, and slowly walks away from the sink. Then he gets sick a second time and walks back to the sink and starts to throw up again. He stays there for a good thirty seconds, near throwing up but with nothing happens. Finally, he moves to another sink and washes his face. He shakes his head weakly and starts to walk away, then getting a sick pallor on his face, running back a third time and throws up. He slowly crawls out of the room.

[Script] Unfood - Page 36

CONTINUED: 36. FREIGHT So...its calories? SHIP’S COMPUTER Yes. FREIGHT gets up and crawls through and access shaft. SCENE 4 - INT – RECYCLING CENTER – DAY Freight goes to the recycling center. It is a large room which is hard to enter. CLOSE UP – GRATE – DAY – INT Freight puts his fingers into the grate, trying to get it to move. This does not work very well. CLOSE UP – VENT – DAY – INT Freight is all bunched up in the vent and can’t reach his arm back far enough to hit the vent. Freight slowly moves backwards. CLOSE UP – VENT – DIFFERENT ANGLE – DAY – INT Freight is forced to reverse course and and approaches the vent backwards. He then tries to kick the vent, but isn’t tremendously successful. He slides forward every time he tries this. Finally, he signals Bob. Bob wheels up to the vent and drills tiny holes in the floor. Freight pushes off of Bob and kicks back on to the Vent, knocking it out of its socket. WIDE SHOT – RECYCLING CENTER – DAY – INT He slowly moves down into the room. FREIGHT Good God! He reacts to the smell and moves slowly back covering his mouth and nose. He rotates his head around. Freight spots a bucket and walks over towards it. He picks it up and then moves towards the main vat which is full of ’recycled’ material which appears and smells like shit. He nearly gags a few times but then lowers the bucket into the pool and pulls it out. (CONTINUED)

[Script] Unfood - Page 35

CONTINUED: 35. FREIGHT What are my chances of survival? SHIP’S COMPUTER 35% FREIGHT Not the best odds, but how many calories would it generate if I ate that? An amount shows up on the screen. Freight’s eyes bulge out. FREIGHT Could that be undone later? SHIP’S COMPUTER Yes. But the procedure would be very expensive. Freight considers, and then sighs. FREIGHT Let’s look at other options for now. He gets up and leaves. SCENE 3 - INT – SENSORS – DAY Freight reads the ship’s sensors and notices that there are areas that are ’gray’. He fiddles with the buttons. He smiles triumphantly as it shows a calorie reading. He performs navigation using the map and sees that he has to go through some tunnels. FREIGHT What the hell is that? SHIP’S COMPUTER Ship’s recycling center. FREIGHT But there is no ship’s garden. I wouldn’t think you’d reuse stuff. SHIP’S COMPUTER It is still processed. (CONTINUED)

I Odysseus Part 1

Personal circumstances have conspired to prevent me from releasing new material at this time.  That, and national novel writing month will take a lot of my time.  For those of the five of you listening to the podcast on stitcher or itunes you wouldnt hear the newest version of this, so for about a month and a half every other week, we'll be posting that instead.

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[Script] Unfood - Page 34

CONTINUED: 34. BOB (Clicks.) Freight laughs to himself as if he thinks it is a stupid idea. He points the sensors on the bridge. A bright light shows up. FREIGHT What the...BOB! We’ve hit the.... He moves to the right a little. The blob moves to the right. FREIGHT God damn. Its me. Wow. I’m worth a whole lot of calories. Too bad I can’t eat me. He laughs and then gets an odd expression on his face. He then runs out of the room. SHOT – MED BAY – DAY – INT Freight runs up to the doc machine and types in instructions waiting for an explanation. FREIGHT Wow. Look at all that cyberware. Hey ship, just how much of myself can I replace with this stuff? SHIP’S COMPUTER Please sit in the chair. Freight gets in the chair. SHIP’S COMPUTER Scanning. Mechanical stuff happens. SHIP’S COMPUTER 90%. FREIGHT 90%?! SHIP’S COMPUTER Yes.

[Script] Unfood - Page 33

CONTINUED: 33. He is upset for a moment as he points his face at the screen and some print outs. He directs his visual sensory apparatus known as eyes at the screen and then the print outs. FREIGHT No. No. That can’t be right. He checks both a second time. SHOT – CLOSE UP – CALORIES. Shows the words “Number of Calories Needed to Survive:” SHOT – CLOSE UP – FOOD INVENTORY Shows the words “Caloric Inventory” SHOT – WIDE – INT MED BAY – DAY Freight swears and scatters the print outs. He calms himself and gathers up the print outs. SHOT – WIDE – INT MED BAY – DAY Time has passed. He adds up the numbers a third time. He reads the numbers a final time and shakes his head. FREIGHT God DAMN it. Freight starts to break down and cry. He lays his head on the desk and is utterly miserable. Camera departs in a wide shot showing him resting his head on the desk, staring despondently at the wall. SCENE 2 - SHOT – INT – BRIDGE – DAY Freight reads the sensors pointed at various parts of the ship trying to find more food. He notices two sections of the ship, and gets nothing. FREIGHT OK Bob. Wait, I know. Let’s try the bridge. (CONTINUED)

Grenademan vs the Zombies - Chapter 12 Part 2

A group of refugees approaches the town and the town is faced with a difficult decision.  Doc makes it for them.

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[Script] Unfood - Page 32

CONTINUED: 32. SHIP’S COMPUTER Security lock out. Freight keeps flipping switches. SHIP’S COMPUTER Security lock out. Freight flips the computer off and keeps flipping switches. SHIP’S COMPUTER Security lock out. (beat) Sensors activated. FREIGHT What? SHIP’S COMPUTER Ship’s sensors activated. Freight stops and gazes up. FREIGHT What? SHIP’S COMPUTER Ship’s sensors activated. FREIGHT Hallelujah. Freight fiddles with the sensors. He feeds them to Bob. Bob wanders the corridors of the ship searching. Bob finds a room and taps panels. One sounds somewhat hollow. Freight checks the sensors and peers hopeful. INT – RANDOM QUARTERS – DAY Freight points his eyes at the wall, tapping various parts and a hidden panel opens up. There is a lot of food behind it. He smiles and ’high fives’ Bob. Bob and Freight stack the food and catalog it. ACT 3 SCENE 1 - SHOT: INT – MED BAY – DAY Freight and Bob add up the total for the collected food. FREIGHT 45000....46000...50000..... (CONTINUED)

[Script] Unfood - Page 31

CONTINUED: 31. Freight tries to break the chair with his hands. He is utterly unsuccessful. He blinks and sighs. FREIGHT Back in a second. Freight returns with an axe and heaves it above his head but doesn’t make even a dent in the thing in the slightest. He tries again and drops the axe as he does so. He grunts and picks up the axe a third time and lets into it, only not making any impact at all. Freight stares at Bob. FREIGHT Right. So are you going to help or what? BOB (Clicks happily and begins to saw away at the chair with a saw attachment that comes from inside his bowels) SHOT: INT – CAPTAIN’S QUARTERS – DAY The chair is reduced to splinters. SHOT: INT – MESS – DAY Bob watches while Freight puts the chopped up chair into the creator. Freight gets a splinter in his hand and swears. The creator makes a Souffle. SHOT: INT – MED BAY Freight eats the souffle with one hand whilst the med bay treats and bandages the other. He gives a thumb’s up to Bob. SCENE 10 - INT - BRIDGE - DAY Freight is peering at the ship, trying to figure various elements out. He flips various switches on the bridge control at random trying to figure things out. Occasionally the ship says: (CONTINUED) CONTINUED:

When Writing Can Literally Kill You

I have never considered myself a "real" artist even though that is a lie.  Many if not most artists draw their stuff to create either from the dark side of their emotional palate or the entire thing.  While I do draw from all my experience, I cannot function without some stability.

We have no apartment and trying to find one was so much stress that combined with unemployment plus a theft plus a betrayal from one if our would be friends in Miami caused me to have the closest thing to a nervous breakdown I am actually capable of having.

Right now, there is just no energy for it.  Ignoring my hatred of lost work, there is also the fact that I kind if have to fool myself six or seven different ways to write this and all my capacity for self deception needs to focus on finding a job right now.

So with heavy heart I have to give up nanowrmo this year.   Next year if I have a job and we have a place.

This may be the last update for a while

Letters to Rhombus 2

Rhombus answers more letters from fictional people. Write a real one.  Send it to redanvilcreative@gmail.com

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NaNoNaNooooo

So.

This is a life goal.

But I've tried this already and failed miserably both times, once was semi official even if I didn't register and the other time was with Tossing Grenades at Windmills earlier this year and I have been stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck on chapter 12 for months taking victory in working on a few words (emphasis) WORDS a day.

Nanowrimo is 50000 in one month.  Assuming at least 5 bad days, that's 25 good days at 2000 words each.  2000 words is something that I have written in an hour....

But...

BUT

The first time was so bad (as in the quality of the work) I actually stopped and wrote seven extra pages just murdering my characters again and again in different ways

The second time was much better but Grenademan is my Mickey Mouse....he is FUN to write and chapter 12 is KILLING me....granted, I'm following a script rather than going where my imagination takes me but...

I had hoped to have everything planned out....right now I have just one of three main lines vaguely mapped out with delusions of a second (Really, who REALLY wants to read about a psychopathic vigilante mouse?...maybe if it actually was Mickey Mouse with a stiletto....) and a title...and a vague tie in to a rather interesting french philosopher who liked titles.

I am unemployed at the moment which is draining and even if I get a job there will be no fuel of reserve.  And even though I have writing fans, this just won't FEEL the same as GMVZ....

So ...

I'm insane.

This will likely fail.

We're still going to an event this sunday and I'm likely registering on the site.

To quote the dwarf...

"Small chance of success.  Certain destruction? What are we waiting for?"