So it's November Firstish and the topic is Thankfulness. I am thankful that I got the promp that hey dude that was you on for writing November First. Oops! Really I try to make a list of things to be thankful for not only once a year but everday. Especially when I'm in a depressed or self pitying funk.
I'm glad I have love from friends and and church family around me. I am greatful to be writing stories today. I find I miss it if I go too long without writing. I'm thankful I have a God in my life that looks after me. I couldn't live life without him.
I have to say I find it really trippy that I cross the Golden Gate Bridge every Sunday and a lot of Tuesdays to go to Church and connect with my church friends.
If you had told me in 2000 that I would be living in California and going across the Golden Gate bridge every week I would have told you you have been smoking a little to much Prop 19.
I mean isn't California the land of Fruits, nuts and flakes? Yeah things are pretty loose over hear. Especially the San Francisco Bay. But you know it turns out God has a place in his kingdom for Fruits, Nuts and Flakes. After all he made them.
I find that while the Christian population is only ten percent of the population here meeting together with other Christians is not only nessesary it is also rich.
I think ahead, probably too much of going to Tel Aviv University in Israel. I read that the Christian Population there is about one percent. The time together must be really rich. A friend of mine just got back from there on a business trip.
She said the land and the people are just ready for a harvest. Wow, how cool is that?? We have so much to be thankful for.

Possible Zombie Apocolypse

It's not people I'm worried about, it's monkeys. Yeah people give me that look all the time like I'm strange when I say that, but I saw it happen man I was there! It started out with some rumors about monkeys getting out of a lab.
Hey who would believe in that stuff anyway? It's like AIDS who really knows how it happened but it did huh?
Same here. I heard of some monkey escaping the Berkley Labs. OK probably false but hey it could happen you know?But I saw it one night.
First I thought it was a cat jumping out of a tree or a squirrl or some thing.
Then I saw it man it looked at me and my friend.It's eyes were hollow and empty it's face dry and rubbery. It didn't even look real but I didn't see any strings.
That's when it jumped at my friend Doug and started tearing at his face. Hey you can call me a coward if you want, but I just ran. I can still hear Doug's screams.
It wasn't long after that, that I heard of more break-in's and not just Berkley. There was San Francisco State, and UCLA. It was an epidemic.
The dead monkey invasion had begun.

My fevered pitch.

Okay, here is my pitch in a nut shell, please give me feedback if you like. The idea origionally was to create a series of short stories that spanned the whole world we will see where God takes it though.


Alambraidria a world of superheroes, which was nearly torn apart by war that spanned their world and beyond 1,000 years ago.

Today heroes stand perplexed at the growing number of super villains in their world that threaten to overwhelm them.

Here: A hero fights to unite the varied factions of heroes, A public accountant dreams of becoming a superhero and a woman with an infamous past fights to survive.

My creative writing teacher Dr. James Tipton talked to us about using the five senses. He demanded using this tool made what he called a concrete scene.

Placing us in some place and time, even if it was fantasy, using the five senses could give you the feeling of really being there.

What's more I got a better sense of what he meant when I began reading his book Annette Vallon.

This is a historical fiction novel based on a read woman.

She helped save Lords in the French Revolution and smuggled people out of France who were enemies of Napoleon Bonaparte.

She seems to be a fascinating woman. What is amazing about his novel is the detail of the surroundings.

A sentience of description of people, even the feel of the fabrics of Lords coats and what they were made out of. But the detail isn't so overwhelming that it bores one.

Generally he likes to say, " You go from one concrete scene to another, there has to be purpose in a scene. One scene leads into the next and so on."

What he said he found out and I discovered on my own, is when you get into generalities in a scene, in a story, your story not only becomes boring to your readers but to you as the writer.

I hope this is useful to some of you out there.

Oh,and if I can suggest something, start reading poetry. In fact start writing it as well. Heck take a class on it.

I have found that when I write poetry, my short story writing blossoms like spring time flowers, when I stop it becomes rather bland. Just a thought.

As Paul Harvey would say,

Good day.

It's been some time since I have written, sorry about that.I'm finding myself dissatisfied with my writing. The world I have written is I find rather dull. Of course I have been reading Tolkien and frankly the man was much more well read than I am in the old myths and wrote the stories most of his life.
The advice I get from authors and also from books is keep writing so if you fell discouraged keep writing. I am. Even if you think your writing is utter excriment keep writing. Look there is only one way your going to get better practice. I'm writing this for my benefit as much as yours. Ok yeah, you've had some set backs, so have I.
Your setting stinks. Improve it. Heck use history. What are some of your favorite places and time periods? Ever thought of mixing them up? Would they fit with the genre your writing?
How about praying and telling God about it? That just came to mind. It's amazing how that is the last thing that comes to me when I'm in trouble.
I need to practice less self reliance. God call you to write? Guess what he won't call us to do anything that we can do on our own. We need to rely on him. And if you know he is calling you to write guess what? It's going to be the very last thing your going to want to do.
That has been my experience. Like the old Hymn " Fightings from without and within."

The enemy doesn't want to see your work suceed especially if its meant to help someone or point them to God. Keep the faith and remember what Philipians says,Phil. 3:13 Brothers,
I do not consider myself to have yet taken hold of it. But this one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead., I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which
God had called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
And also," Phil.4:8 Finally, Brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right,
whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think on such things." (Moreover.) Whatever you have learned or recieved or heard form me, or seen in me- put into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Epiphany

I talked to a friend at church the other day, he said the thought I should write about what I thought heaven would be like. I explained I was really trying to do backdoor evangelism with Sci-fi/Fantasy. He said I ought to do it just for me. You know he had a point. I think This is the beginning of something soon.

Dear Angie and Brad

Dear Angie and Brad,

Heard you broke up again, it made me sad,

Your kids were sick, your house is gone,

Angies mother was thrown out on the lawn.

How sad, how sad the life you had, before the

twenty seven children were taken away.

The IRS found your off shore accounts and now it's

Time to pay, pay, pay.

Well its' time to go a new job have,

I'll see you on College St. or Seventh and Grand.

Where I get my Ideas?

I ask a lot of what ifs. For instance my current work the Champions of Andelusia(Which I'm going to have to change because everybody thinks they come from Spain. Sorry I didn't think people knew their geography that well.) I thought what if there was a world where Christians were superheroes.

Then I thought what if there was a group like the Justice League that were world famous but they failed and the world fell. Then what if they had kids who went back in time to save the day.

Also I talked with people who were into Sci-Fi /Fantasy and I'm sorry to say I just made stuff up right then and there and we were both impressed.

Like a war across time that nearly destroyed this world and remnants of weapons from that time that surface from time to time. And I rob and plagiarize history because it's legal. Plus I think with Fantasy you really need to have a strong foundation with reality if you don't want to lose your audience. But that I suppose is a different topic.

Ever get chewed out? Did the person have a point?Yes. Were they right? Yes.Did the delivery suck? Yes. This will probably take sometime to get over. That being said I am greatful for where I am at. I need to spend more time writing and less time talking on the internet, But having been really pretty lonely and isolated lately I really couldn't help it.
Anyway working on background for story, world building and such. And trying to type up the story digitally so I can edit it easier.

I haven't written in some time.

For that I appologize. Recently I nearly became homeless, which was not entirely my fault. But the important thing is to not get discouraged. My Bible study teacher said something pretty important which was that even if I ended up on the street and had to live at a shelter it's just for a season and I am not destined to stay there. The big thing is to not feel sorry for myself, God hasn't abandoned me or anything.
I leave you with a poem I scribbled while looking at the moon one night:



The moon rose up out of the east,
Here her cradled radience was crowned
By a mantle of stars.



Finito.

Discomfort.

I would say I know discomfort pretty well. I got behind on my rent recently and was asked to move. It wasn't entirely my fault but I really felt God's peace all over it. I sensed he wanted me to learn to live out on my own. Honestly without any family out here it was pretty hard. I really didn't learn anything about living out on my own from my parents by the time they became Christians I was so jaded from a childhood of living with Alcoholics that I was really in no mood to listen to my father's lecture about finances.
For almost a month now I have been looking for places on line in San Francisco and in Marin(Northern county above San Francisco) for a place to live. Unfortunately most people want $1,200 to $2000 to move in I have about $300 dollars. I had a house sitting gig that was a week in San Francisco which bought me some time but the second house sitting gig I was hoping for fell though. So I was out of a place and didn't have a place to go to. Fortunately someone from AA payed for a room for last night and tonight. And someone else from AA said he might have a short term appartment for rent.
God really has opened the doors for me but my patence and my emotional state has been at the snapping point a few times. Not everybody has been paticularly helpful or kind to me during this time. But I was able to not fall back in a state of, " Hey your a jerk your just like my parents, I'm not going to reach out to Christians or people from AA anymore." This guy was the way his was but that was his garbage and had nothing to do with my past. Yes it hurt really badly. I didn't snap back because he was helping me to a degree however I am not eager to go to him again when I am in trouble.
I am trying to lean on God more,it not easy. Especially when you are teetering on the edge of homelessness. I'm pretty overwhelmed and more than a tad dispondant. But drinking isn't an option and God is no less faithful because things look grim. I just try to move forward and trust him with the next thing I need to do.

Midas Touch?

OK I have like thirty pages written for my current story and only am about half way thorough. I got busy with life and honesty didn't write for like a week. Looking a back at my work I was horrified." What Garbage, I can't believe I wrote that pathetic junk! " OK reassessing what someone said some time ago about first drafts. They are suppose to be garbage. The main character mianders hoplessly. No one seems to know what is going on. It's like a high school band that wonders down the field not knowing where their going and since no one brought the music they all decide to wing it. Lets face it, the best you can do is escort them off the field and take away their instruments.
But that is what rewrites are for. I discovered I needed to find out what my characters want again and start really throwing obsticles at them. Well that's all for now back to writing!

School is over!

Bingo! OK I'm in I keep mixing up my passwords. OK I have my presentation on my Urban fantasy writing, mainly...OK, OK wholy having to do with superheroes. Came up with another idea about reformed supervillains that of course is on the back burner along with many other dreamt up story lines. I feel like I cook at a fives star hotel I have so many things on the back burner.
But that isn't bad because when I am tired of one story line or rather when a story is finished I intend on moving on to something else.
Though I have to say I got a taste of my own medicine the other day. I have been reading a series of comic books.... OK first off I'm not a huge comic book fan but " The Mouse Guard " Is really well written. Anyway I have been following the story line and it ended with a great build up. Now the writer is going back to tell the story of a Mouse guard character I really don't care about who died. OK dude he's dead get over it already. The mouse territories is in danger within as well as without .
And that isn't even having to do with the treacherous mice that tried to over throw the mouse guard. I like doing that as a writer. Set up a good story and then go off and let the readers suffer for a while while I tell another story elsewhere. But to be a recipient.
I am so excited to be done with school. Tiime to write. Sorry I didn't write sooner but classes towards the end were crazy. Next time,
Brian.

Overworked and underpaid.

Sorry I haven't done a blog this week till now I have had so much home work I'm not sure I'll get it all done in time. I am so overwhelmed I think this is all I have to write about. Well I am trying to turn in my last creative writing story for my short story book for this semster. Apparently next semester we will be reading on Vietnam. So the stories will be about war which I had planned on doing eventually.
Alambraidria and the Champions will fall and die but I was hoping to cover this much later. However if war is what we're doing I suppose I don't have to polish and publish this till much later.

My blog

This is me blogging when I really don't want to. I have had five hours of sleep I stayed up to revieew my new Spanish chapter till 2 am. I didn't do well in class today. However it started out as a good day. I am having to rewrite a story that I did about two years ago about a kid who was coming of age. Now I have to rewrite it. I'm pretty disappointed but I have about two peices that are do soon and the end of the semester is coming up pretty quick. I will do a reading in class tomarrow.
Yes you can recycle your old stories for class, my professor expects excellence when it comes to Science Fiction and Fantasy though. I have won him over though. He is a real Tolkien Fan so I won him over with a poem about Beren and Luthien. Then I felt comfident that once he had accepted that he would except my stuff. Heh. Give the teacher what he asks for and if you can give him what he asks for and use a little subterfuge to get your writing out there, there you go.

He wanted short stories the first about two pages, the second three and so on. He is a minimalist. So I wrote a two page prologue, the first chapter and so on. It isn't going to work and I'm having to do more blurbs from different stories as I didn't read the Syllibus close enough but it was a good effort on my part. LOL! Well till next time, Audios!

The Song of Yarselin

First Lady and last Knight of the Order Of the Lion,
Who fought Mordu lord of the Lycanthropes
In The War of the Weeping Lion. 2243BN

Ever the beast flew at Yarselin; ever she sank her blade,
Snapping jaws grasped for flesh,
Her sword plunged and flashed like a diamond splashing red on the dry ground,
She drove Mordu the wolf to the eastern cliff kicking up dust as they went,
Gulls gathered for the feast,
The wolf like a grey cloud seeking to blot out the sun
threw itself at her sun blinding mail.
At death’s stroke sword sang freely
from the hand of Yarselin.
Mordu barked with laughter,
Yarselin balled and rolled as the Mordu lunged,
The wolf vaulted over,
Sprawling its head in quick turn and poised to jump again,
Yarselin snatched up her weapon,
Looking about the wolf at the great multitude of
Silent friends, the Falcon cried in the distance.
The sea wind picked up.
The briny smell of sea whipped up the cliff from below,
A dampness wrapped its fingers around Yarselin the
Golden.
The beast lunged,
Yarselin aimed her sword at the passing shadow,
The beast landed with a howl,
Its thick sinews continued to slide,
Yarselin’s arms raised high, sword stuck fast
and eyes wide.
The lone cry of gull over head,
The deepening, whipping briny wind.

Golden Dawn

Great the glow of that golden dawn,

The birds sang lightly,

Brightly, note by note,

That golden dawn so long ago.

Okay, I'm new on this blogging thing.

I am new on blogging and I'm not really sure how to start but like I tell my ameture film making roommate Don you learn by doing. Let me tell you a bit about Don and his work. When he started out he was working at a rotten job that payed him well enough for him to go to Africa and film Mountian Gorillas at Verengy National Park on the Borders of Uganda.
It was an exceptionally well put together film he did soundtracks, narrative and the whole bit. His friends in Australia who went with him still enjoy the movie and talk about it I hear. Recently he went to Australia where he filmed 52 of the fifty three species of Parrots. He has wildlife organizations knocking on his doors for the film. What's the point?
What Don learned is that you need to have an external mic that wont pick up the whirring sound of the camera that the built in mic that came with the camera does. He also learned that if he had a wind sock he wouldn't have to completely alter the sound track.
This pertains to writing in the sense that writing, like film is a journey. There are no dress rehersals here we jump in and we learn as we go. If there is any advice I could give you or rather suggestions, it is write. Just write, even if you don't do it well. You should have seen my first acting piece, it stunk. Of course I didn't put in the time either but that is another story. You will learn so much by your mistatkes so expect to mess up but keep writing!