The Space Turtle » Fiction

The Remodel

Chivalrybean — Thu, 19 May 2011 04:26:06 +0000

I wrote the following story for one of my Fiverr jobs. I enjoyed writing it and the customer was happy as well. Win win! {:0)

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Professor Armitan looked over the blueprints of the old mansion and scorned the amount of wasted space, especially in the attic. The attic would be perfect for an observatory! he thought. It’s always important to know where the stars before researching the more esoteric topics.

Armitan sat on the porch and watched the sun sparkle over Puget Sound while he called Flying Dormer to set up a consultation. Due to the limited space around the mansion caused by trees, the fact that some of the construction would be done off-site would make it a lot easier to manage.

At the consultation Armitan explained the windows he’d want in the attic for the observatory, as well as the expansions he wanted for a larger library, and the laboratory for the smaller experiments. Storage for chemicals, essential salts, and various compounds would be required for the latter. Plus plenty of ventilation. The largest part of the project would be the basement. Plenty of room for storing large boxes.

The consultant considered the drawings and made several suggestions of ways to improve on the ideas the professor had, for which he was very grateful. He was a professor, not an architect, after all.

When construction started, the crew was very professional and answered questions with easy to understand explanations. A few issues arose when they came across unexpected deviations from what was on the blueprints and what was actually in the house, but they easily were able to adjust their plans, and even made some special editions that the Professor wasn’t expecting, but would very much enjoy. Who doesn’t want a secret passage in their mansion?

When all the construction was complete, the professor was able to research and experiment in comfort and seclusion, where the eyes of modern science would not pry.

A progress bar moved!

Chivalrybean — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:14:37 +0000

Started walking/jogging again today. Made it 1.86 miles in 30 minutes.

Yesterday I wrote two sentences for the ‘compassion’ story for Winston Crutchfield’s benefit book for Compassion 365. Last night I decided I had the wrong viewpoint character and changed him to a her and wrote the rest of the opening scene, or most of it at least. It is a horror story, and I am working compassion into it, just hopefully in a way that people wont expect.

I’m in the process of editing a story I finished that was for a winner of last year’s Podcasting For Water winner (who won a story by me about them, or his son in this case.) I had planned on about 1000 words, and it’s over 2k at the moment. I don’t expect it getting any shorter, since I think I need to add to the story to make it any good. I’m fine with the plot, but the main character needs developed so the conflict is dangerous and personal to the viewpoint character. I set up a situation that hinders the main character, but not very well, so when I tried to tap into it at the end, it made some sense, but I couldn’t put the emotion I wanted into it, plus the fix at the end felt anti-climactic to me.

I don’t know if I’ll catch up on the 12 stories finished this year, but I know I can catch up on the miles ran. Getting my time organized and using Remember the Milk and Google Calendar and putting those on my desktop with SMS reminders is really helping my get things done (as opposed to forgetting to do them.) Like the Mad Poet says, 2010 is not the year to step back, it’s the year to step up. I think I’m making that happen.

(Thanks to my Star Wars Game Master Jason for the tip of Remember the Milk)

My First PDF eBook is now for sale!

Chivalrybean — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 03:47:40 +0000

I’ve created a widget in my page on the top right where you can now purchase a downloadable, DRM free pdf of my latest story “Send In”.

I plan to make this available on the Kindle also.

For promotion I may give away review copies and run some other giveaways. Keep an eye out here for details.

First story of the year almost completed

Chivalrybean — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 04:15:47 +0000

I went through one of my short story called Send In today and changed a bit of the prose. I wrote it originally in Google Docs, but moved it over to yWriter. Once there I ran some of the ‘problem words’ searches and found I had a lot of works that ended with ‘ly’. I wasn’t sure what this meant so I asked Matt Selznick on gTalk about it and he said I was probably taking shortcuts of descriptions. To clarify I asked if ‘The car quickly sped up’ versus ‘The engine revved as the car sped up’ is what he meant. That was exactly what he meant so I went through and changed most of the ‘ly’ instances to have more detail.

I did a few other changes, the program suggested and aside from just better description, one part of the story near the end has a much stronger narrative now, plus a hilarious joke.

All that is left is correcting typos and making sure I stayed in the proper tense, then I think it will be good to go. It will be over 3300 words.

Muhos

Chivalrybean — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:08:43 +0000

At Hoover Dam Dr. Hudson reached out with his energy-sense and saw the ambient energy with second sight. Using ethereal fingers he grasped the energy in handfuls, stuffing them into a pocket inside himself. He went as fast as he could to win the Power Plant to Power Plant Worldwide Teleportation Race. His destination was the Pyhäkoski hydro-electric power plant in Muhos, Finland. He burst himself in to tiny particles and shot them across the planet with sheer force of will. He reassembled himself atop the power plant. “Hurrata” the crowds cheered. Dr. Hudson had finally reached the Finnish line.

New Project Began: The Emperor

Chivalrybean — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:31:31 +0000

I’ve started working on a new writing project for the Emperor’s Flame podcast. I’m writing the comical adventures of The Emperor and his Knights as they seek an obligatory item of great power. Standard quest fare. It is also Christian themed. I hope to keep the comedy fun and the morals of the stories true, but not overbearing.

I find myself spreading out my writing over the web. Hopefully this means when I start my own podcast for free, and my planned story subscription service (something like Jeremy C Shipp does), I’ll have ready audience with open ears.