Isto

I really should be asleep right now.  Unfortunately, my husband hurt his shoulder and I woke up about an hour ago to rub some Tiger Balm on his aching body.  As usual, I started thinking instead of falling back to sleep.

The past couple of days have been dedicated to working on my book.  To make my main character more interesting (since he wasn't complicated enough) and throw my readers off, I created a fairytale monster called an Isto.  My main character is accused of being one and thus all that encounter his elemental/seal-covered form go running in terror since an Isto is said to be the vengeful dead.  It is common belief that they are immortal since "how can you kill something that is not alive?"  They take on many forms so any sort of terror or foolery is blamed on Isto...Istos?  Or Istoes?  I haven't decided yet.  I think I'll leave out the 'e'. 

On to what has been keeping me up for the past hour.  I really don't have much content for my second book.  I have a basic outline which deals with the consequences of the first book.  There's a plague killing off jespers.  Rin is introduced to help find a cure.  Derhan finds his last guardian on an island.  LaTonya has to keep her half-brother from dying.  The earth clan demand a new Teymir.  The guardians have lost their marks.  MaTisha and Kieser must settle the unrest and unite the provinces.  It all sounds rather uneventful, doesn't it?

In comes the Miasho deities and the Isto.  De, Tu, Li, and Na hunt down their brother Ko with some bad news.  Taking on the niniers (which was never part of Derhan's master plan) has upset the balance, releasing the monsters that they had to imprison long before the humans or elementals existed.  These are the Isto and they aren't just fairytales this time.  The first to be targeted are the upholders.  Miasho power kept them at bay so the first item of business is to destroy their adversaries.  That means Nicholas, Alistair, Alissandria, and Satch all have their hands full with undead monsters who wish to rip them to shreds.  That should add a bit excitement to the storyline.  How will the hero vanquish the Isto and save the day?  Not sure yet, but the details will work themselves out.

Back on Track

In the midst of illness, child care arrangements, mini-vacations, and football games, I'm finally back on track.  For the past two weeks, I've been out of the swing of things, binge eating fast food, desserts, pizza, chips, and other forms of junk food.  I also haven't worked out at all.  But today is the last day.  Starting tomorrow, I'll be eating healthy and exercising once again. 

Though I've been a lazy bum, I have reveled in the fact that I've gotten the opportunity to write.  A great deal of time spent thinking through my story and revising certain facts.  For instance, if the reader is able to figure out what my main character is, then shouldn't the people traveling with him and spending all waking hours with him also figure it out within a reasonable time period.  On that note, the reason why he kills all the people that he does is because he's recognizable as a fire elemental when he's transformed.  If it's just the hair and eyes, it'd make more sense to have him wear a hat and some form of glasses or blindfold instead of killing a bunch of guys.  And if the guys know that he's an elemental, why would they try to fight him?  Instead, they run in terror!  Well, a short man with red-glazed hair and red eyes just isn't that scary.  Let's throw some creepy black markings on his skin (all the seals on him becoming visible) and make his skin glisten like polished bronze, and his eyes glow with a backlight of fire.  Now that, that makes him a bit more scary.  The glowing eyes bit started with Jebaliah and I decided to keep it as an elemental trait.  Since MaTisha's power is sealed, she doesn't have that trait until her power is released.


In addition to the deduction of my hero being a fire elemental, I asked myself "why wouldn't my characters take advantage of the Miasho art to hide from authorities?"  I decided that they would.  So MaTisha gets a new scarf to hide her identity, which doesn't work on Derek, of course, since he's a Miasho deity.  With the changes I've made, I've been rewriting several scenes to make them flow and adding a few scenes to try to add more life to one of my favorite characters, Alistair.  I want to make sure to do him justice on paper.  A highly intelligent, sociable assassin.  I liken him to some of the popular anti-heroes in television, like Spike from Buffy or Xellos from Slayers.  Hopefully it shows in print.

Thoroughly Annoyed

I know I had it.  I remember typing it.  Yet I search my netbook, I search my Google docs, I search my desktop, and it's not there.  That makes me thoroughly annoyed.

I had written a section of story for the first book a while back about how my main character was sneaking into the opposing side's palace, sees a tapestry on the wall, realizes that he caused his own dilemma, and gets captured by Kaio because he's cocky and underestimates his enemy.  I can't find it anywhere.  I'm going to have to retype it and remember all that I put in it.  What bugs me, it was one of my inspired pieces, so the first draft had turned out pretty good.  Oh well. 

My how time flies

Kimiko Ann Mori Townsend is now a year old.

It was a good party, though it didn't go of quite like I had planned.  I had envisioned giving her a cake she could make a mess of and singing "Happy Birthday" with a single candle.  Well, we cut the first slice of double cheesecake and brownie and I hand it to Abi to give to Chris so that he could give it to Kimi.  When I asked him where Kimi was, he said on the floor with her new toys.  I asked him about the cake, and he said she wasn't digging it.  Then I asked about the whole singing and candle thing and his response was... "uh...".  Oh well.  I guess this was just the first birthday of many to come.  Not sure when we'll use the candle that's shaped like a 1.  Maybe when she's 10.

It's those little things called words that usually get forgotten.  Like singing Happy Birthday on your daughter's first birthday, or asking the woman you love to marry you.  Yep.  That's right.  He forgot to ask that question when he proposed.  It's one of my favorite memories, him getting down on one knee and lifting the ring up in the traditional fashion.  And then he didn't say a word.  He just looked at me.  And so I hugged him since I very well couldn't answer a question he never asked.  Later that night he did.  He was "I guess I forgot to ask, will you marry me?"  After five years, I'm still happy I said yes. 

My best friend is a newly wed and she mentions all the little things that are just "guy" about her husband.  It makes me laugh because I realize that Chris is very similar only I've grown used to all the nuances.  For instance, the question "where is...?"  I may not have a good mental database (see last blog for explanation), but I am perceptive.  I don't know if that's a talent I developed before or after marrying my husband.  It could just be a female trait.  It makes me come off as a know-it-all at times (I've seen this in myself at work), but I can't help the fact that I notice and deduce things fairly easy.  It helps since it usually provides an answer to the "where is...?" question.

As Kimi settles in for her morning nap (since she's used to getting up around 7 now with my new schedule), I'm getting ready to take advantage of some serious writing time.  I haven't written in 2 weeks.  That causes problems because my brain is changing the story again.  Third book took another leap in a different direction and now I have to fit the pieces together again.  Of course, that affects the first book.  *sigh*

How not to look like an idiot.

I'm not so good at thinking on the fly.  I may be able to narrow my eyes and spit out a mean comment that'll make a T-Mobile rep cry (ask my sister-in-law about that one), but being able to tout useful information on demand is beyond me.  Take work for an example.  I know how to write CSS, design nice looking pages, and throw together a working website, but when my co-worker asks me layout the CSS for our latest project, I draw a complete blank. 

On the drive home, I was comparing my mind to a search engine rather than a database.  I have to ask it to go out to other places to look for the information I need rather than storing it all in tidy orderly tables in my memory.  I suppose I've been ruined by Google in that fashion.  When information is at your fingertips, why hang onto it in your brain?  Of course, when you put it into practice, it makes a person look even less impressive than they really are. 

As a result, going back to my work example, I look as if I need to be guided through every step of the process.  Compounding that with the fact that I know there is an expected adherence to a style not yet defined, I find myself just using copy and paste to take existing style sheet information and using it in the current project.  Yes, my impressive knowledge of web design is to copy something my co-worker has already done.  Gee...

What I would really like to do is sit down and develop my calorie tracking tool on my own time to show that I'm not full of crap and that I can do this job.  Slight problem with that plan.  It comes in the form of a 2 1/2 foot tall, walking bundle of energy that is absolutely offended by computer use that consumes more than the time it takes for her to cross the room.  Yes, even blog posts.  I've had to walk away about 7 times so far.  That makes it difficult to keep focused on writing code.  She almost deleted a 9 page document that holds my writing from the Commander's point of view for my book by slamming on my backspace key repeatedly while I was trying to finish a sentence. 

So I suppose I'll go on looking like an incompetent idiot until I'm able to pound out code without looking up references.

A commander, a medic, and a nomad are standing on the edge of a cliff...

With my new schedule, I found it difficult making the time to write.  Typically, I would write when I'm alone so that I don't feel like I'm neglecting my social duty to my family.  However, now it's wake up, Kimi, work, Kimi, Chris and Kimi, bed.  I don't have that alone time between work and Kimi anymore.  As a result, I've written a disappointing 800 words this week towards my first book.

That's not my only problem.  My mind has been jumping to the third book where it has no business being.  I thought to myself, would 14 years really be enough to throw my main character off the deep end?  Honestly, he's stronger than that.  So then my thoughts processed the way I designed my world.  There are layers.  The Drethamir exist in the top layer where time passes at a rate much, much slower than what we think is normal time passage.  Then the next layer down is the Realm.  An hour in the Realm is several hours by our time.  Further down is our time.  My thought, what if there was yet another layer down, one where time passed more quickly?  It'd be where the crafters reside, making their metal elemental items.  That would also be an ideal place to imprison an elemental as a punishment.  My underground chamber moved to a new layer and became the prison cell Thanmir Julvan vacated and redesigned to hold the most powerful being Chikara ever encountered, aka, my hero. 

That added an interesting twist.  Now that I have the chamber in a different layer, I can change things around.  Instead of 14 years passing for him, it's over 5,000, one year for every day.  That would be plenty of time to throw him over the edge.  Toss the sadistic nature of the Sovereign into the mix, and you have a well trained monster that eats other prisoners fed to it for meat, has been mentally conditioned to obey certain commands such as come, sit, and sleep, and has forgotten most details about his life prior to imprisonment.  Until the day the Commander, Kieser Hartford, is captured and thrown to the mighty Miasho beast deity. 

Derhan doesn't eat him.  Kieser doesn't know that it is Derhan at first since the huge furry monster with four arms, two sets of black wings, horns, and a tail looks nothing like the red-haired amorous elemental.  They had kept the details about his nature a secret.  Anyways, back to the story.  Kieser doesn't complain about the monster not eating him, but doesn't trust the mighty beast until he sees the beast transform at the Sovereign's command from his hiding place behind the fountain.  That's when he realizes Derhan isn't dead like everyone thought.  The Kieser and Derhan interaction while imprisoned is not new.  Unfortunately, Derhan is one of the last people to see Kieser alive before the Sovereign executes him.  But that's a different line of thought.  Back to the prison. 

I sat and contemplated why Kieser survives his encounter with the monster.  Why would Derhan not eat him if Derhan has no memories of who Kieser is?  The monster likes eating people.  They taste good.  Well, that throws a kink in the plan.  Derhan towers over the Commander, hungry, insane, and scents the air.  He smells his own blood.  Alright.  Why would he do that?? 

That took me back to the first book and a dramatic change in my character.  I turned him into a temporary guardian.  Derhan and MaTisha conceive a child that dies before birth.  Guardians are most often chosen prior to birth and Kieser would fit the profile of a combat guardian quite well.  The mark only appears after MaTisha joins Harim in the battle on the border between the fire and earth province.  Harim falls to Teymir Ira and Kieser is left with a sense of loss.  He doesn't know what his purpose is anymore.  Just before MaTisha transports to her province, she approaches Kieser about continuing the war.  He pledges his services out of a duty to his fallen leader, but as he accepts and she disappears, a guardian mark appears and a welcoming connection to the unborn elemental forms. 

 That's why Derhan doesn't eat him.  The connection is in the blood and even though the child doesn't make it to birth, it still exists.  That led me to think about Warren Bateman, my medic, and Satch Lander, my nomad.  They also make ideal candidates for guardians, Warren as a care guardian and Satch as intellectual.  Satch is a bit pouty, but he can be smart.  I'm not sure if I'm going that route yet, but I've decided to go ahead with the Commander.  It'll do to explain things in the third book.  Now I need to get back to writing the first book...

Super Loni

I had forgotten the joys of real programming.  My first week on the job has been enlightening.  Brice, the first half of my two-man programming team, has been a patient and effective trainer.  He's been teaching me how to do my job while getting caught on tangents that lead to one explanation of technology after another.  I've been learning a lot, more than I can fully absorb, but I'm catching on bit by bit. 

My schedule changed with the new job.  Instead of going in at 6:00, I'm going in at 8.  It's kind of nice.  I'm not getting up at 4:30 anymore.  I've started getting up at 6:00 to do my workout.  Then jogging Kimi to daycare with Abi.  At work, I'm cramming my brain.  I get off at 5, though I didn't take an hour long lunch.  I zoom to pick up Kimi from daycare, get her home and feed her, cook dinner and have it ready by 6, give Kimi a bath, load up some laundry, and then settle for the night.  Yeah, I was feeling a bit super at that time. 

Kimi is taking steps now.  She isn't fully walking, but she's getting close.  Life is moving so quickly that I'm afraid it's going to pass me by.  I guess I'll just have to be super to not miss anything.