Story of the Week #15: The Prince’s Challenge (Sangrilicious II)

This is me, drinking the Kool-Aid, and continuing with my vampire story. “The Prince’s Challenge” is Part Two of “Sangrilicious”, which was Story of the Week #5 (on a side note, I’m rather impressed that I’ve been doing this for fifteen weeks now; that’s probably some sort of milestone).

My feelings about vampire fiction haven’t changed. I still don’t like the vast majority of it. And I’m therefore surprised that I’m finding myself drawn to Delilah’s adventures as she, a newly embraced vampire fully schooled in the traditions and culture of her species, enters and tries to take over a town which is full of what you could basically call redneck vampires. I suspect that there will be two more stories about Delilah in the next few weeks. I already know what the title of each story will be, but I’m not going to tell you what they are ahead of time.

Enjoy!

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Why I am (apparently) not a Christian

In 2004, I had the following conversation in the parking lot of a Safeway supermarket. WOMAN: Jesus loves you, you know. ME: That’s great. I love Jesus too. WOMAN (pointing to my car’s bumper sticker): Then how could you be voting for John Kerry? At the time, I wanted to reply with something like, “Because [...]

Sad news from the BBC

David Tennant has announced that he will be leaving the role of the Doctor after he finishes filming the next four specials that will air in 2009 and 2010. Of course, that means we have two years or so of Tennanty goodness before the eleventh Doctor takes the helm of the TARDIS. I’ve been a [...]

Today’s Writing Whine

Another day, another rejection. It looks like my goal of making my first professional sale this year isn’t going to happen. I currently have three active submissions at three professional markets. I need to come up with two more. Hm. Current Mood:  sad

Story of the Week #14: Emissaries

This is one of those stories that I read after writing and go, “Huh? What was I thinking?” Seriously, I know this story is about something, but I’m not entirely sure what. I invite your speculations.

Fair warning: I know that some of my regular readers are disturbed by some of the more visceral imagery that can show up in my stories from time to time. Bear that in mind should you choose to proceed…

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Picture of the week

In case you haven’t already seen it, here’s the photograph that Colin Powell spoke of in his eloquent endorsement of Barack Obama on Sunday: Maureen Dowd has an op ed column about this photograph and about the man, Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, a Muslim who died for his country — America — in Iraq. As [...]

Story of the Week #13: Ghoultown

This is a story I’ve been wanting to write for a long time. Honestly, who doesn’t want to write a story about zombies and cowboys? No one, that’s who. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you.

This story, though, got started as something else. I was going to write a haunted house story. I had the plot and the details of the house all ready to go, and I was excited about the concepts. Then something happened, and the story derailed big time. But that’s okay. This story, I think, in spite of the fact that it’s rife with cliches and anachronisms, has a lot of potential.

The main character, Zoe Garrick, is one that I’ve been holding in my head for awhile now. At first, having been inspired by The X-Files and an on-again, off-again interest in the Western genre, I thought I’d write a story, or even a series of stories, about a government agent investigating paranormal and unusual cases in the Old West. The FBI didn’t exist back then, but the Secret Service did. I figured it would be fun, kind of campy, and full of mad scientists and other great villains. Then I remembered that The Wild, Wild West already existed. Ah, well. So I made my character a US Marshall (an anachronism there; the first woman Marshall wasn’t appointed until the mid-50′s, though a woman Secret Service agent at that time wouldn’t have been any more accurate) and took her out of the loop of the paranormal and unusual investigations. And then this story took a darker turn than I had expected, and to my shock, some sort of theme emerged. I’m not sure what it is. And I’m not sure I approve. But that’s not up for me to really judge. That’s for you, the reader, to decide on your own.

So here it is, “Ghoultown”. It’s not affiliated with the band Ghoultown in any way, though I did listen to them a lot while writing this story.

Enjoy!

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Brainz

I took a quick break from writing my zombie story to browse the web, and saw this picture of John McCain: It seriously looks like McCain is about to chow down on a helpless baby. We seriously need to vote for Barack Obama. I, for one, do not relish the idea of cannibalistic zombies in [...]

Blog Action Day: Poverty

Today is Blog Action Day, and this year the topic to address is poverty. Honestly, I wish I had something original, clever, or wise to say about poverty. I’m not an economist. I’m not a social worker. I’ve done some work with the povery-stricken, but not much. So my participation is limited to a few [...]

Brief Writing Update

It appears, by the way, that “Night of the Frozen Elf” has finally found a home. More to come.

’80 vs. ’08?

Looking at the current Presidential election, I can’t help thinking of parallels with the 1980 Presidential election. Not that I remember a whole lot, since I was 12 years old at the time and more caught up in other interests besides politics, but I’ve read some history on line and I do have some memories. [...]

Story of the Week #11: Sir Reynold Fights Another Ogre

It was my friend Ed Gyles Jr. (edgylesjr) who gave me the first line of this story. It was a challenge. Or possibly a dare. Maybe a double dog dare. The point is, he gave me the first line and said I should write a story with it.

So. Here it is. It’s a weird one (as opposed to everything else I have written). So enjoy.

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Current Mood:  chipper

Voting No on Proposition 8

Here’s what happens if Proposition 8 fails: Homosexual couples will retain the right to marry in California Also: Churches will NOT lose their tax exempt status if they choose not to perform same sex weddings I haven’t been keeping up on the “Yes on 8″ literature and advertising, but I understand that the fear of [...]

Liberal Taxonomy

I don’t ordinarily do memes and such in my main blog but this morning I’m bored. So here’s my liberal taxonomy. My Liberal Identity: You are a Reality-Based Intellectualist, also known as the liberal elite. You are a proud member of what’s known as the reality-based community, where science, reason, and non-Jesus-based thought reign supreme. [...]

More glass houses, more stones

First of all, a message from Governor Palin to the AIP: Now, a little bit of history: Vogler’s greatest moment of glory was to be his 1993 appearance before the United Nations to denounce United States “tyranny” before the entire world and to demand Alaska’s freedom. The Alaska secessionist had persuaded the government of Iran [...]