Emergence Ascended · Emergence Collective · science fiction · spiritualism · String theory

Karma, attachments, and attraction

I have mentioned in previous posts that when I am writing (or drawing), I create rule sets to maintain continuity in the world I am building (or the picture I am drawing, a style is a rule set for me). In Emergence collective and its sequel Emergence Ascended, there are rules to the world that may not be spelled out in the story. It’s mostly for me to keep the story’s vibe the same throughout. I tend to be scattered, and ADD doesn’t help, so the rules are a coping mechanism to keep things straight in my scrambled egg brain.

In the Emergence world, I have several seemingly unrelated philosophies that guide the story. Remember that I am not a shaman, Guru, or theoretical physicist, so the crap I come up with may or may not coincide with actual science, religious or spiritual facts, beliefs, or practices. It’s pure fiction. The framework for these stories is based on String theory and my imaginary connection to spiritualism, where vibrational energies are the heart of reality. In string theory, everything that exists comes from infinitesimal vibrating strings. When the strings vibrate at different wavelengths or frequencies, that defines the particular matter or energy and makes things like quarks, protons, atoms, molecules, etc. In some spiritual philosophies, the world(or reality) is also vibrational energy that governs things like love (positive vibrational energy) or hate (negative vibrational energy), whether you are healing or decaying in your spiritual self. Consciously or intentionally, maintaining a positive vibrational frequency (spiritually) will shine out and radiate love, light, and positivity that others will be attracted to. Conversely, suppose you are radiating a negative vibrational frequency. In that case, you will attract negative entities that thrive on those frequencies and encourage negativity in your life to reinforce the negative energy they are consuming.

Karma (in my world, though I don’t point it out expressly) is that convergence of positive and negative energy. To me, Karma isn’t a spiritual point system where if you do something good, you get points that you can cash in, in life or the afterlife. Or if you do something terrible, you will lose points, and maybe something bad will happen to you. In my rule set for my story, Karma is the balance of positive or negative vibrational frequencies. Like attracts like. If I keep vibrating in lower frequencies, those things that also reside there are attracted to me and vice versa. Doing “Bad things” (although a cultural distinction can be made for what is considered good or bad ) is merely a matter of vibrational patterns. Altruism is regarded as one of the higher frequencies, but your choice in how altruism is displayed can be a negative frequency, depending on your intention. If you help an old lady cross the road, for example, that is a good thing. But if you did it to be noticed doing it, so that whoever saw you doing the “Nice thing” will see you as a good or nice person; that act of altruism is corrupted by your selfish, negative need to be seen as being nice (Bad karma dude). It’s a slippery slope, and the balance of your spiritual frequencies is constantly wavering back and forth.

Ok I think I am rambling and none of this probably doesn’t make sense, but when I am writing the Emergence series, this stuff all plays its part in the back of my mind.

Thanks for reading! Leave me a comment or ask a question, there is extra Karma if you give me this a “Like”

Emergence Ascended · writing

“Light bulb moment!” Gru.

So as I mentioned before, I have been stalling on Emergence Ascended. When I started, I had the gist of the story in my head from beginning to end (sort of). I had a rough map, at any rate. Sometimes I write myself into a corner or (as the reader is) wonder what will happen next (that’s where I need to be clever and creative), but sometimes I get stuck. There were a few possible plot directions I could go, but one way led to a problem, and the other leads to another issue. Trying to find the best possible solution without sounding derivative or a bland ending, I had to give it some serious thought.

Well, I had an epiphany. I had all the elements in place, but for some reason, my dumb brain took a minute to sort it out. I Passed the bumps in the road and am ready to finish the 3rd act. As I am primarily a discovery writer, I do not usually outline; I have an idea and go from there. But After my epiphany, I decided to jot it down to keep my thoughts in order. Maybe I am evolving my writing style.

 Here is a question for the other writers out there. Have you ever written the end, last chapter, or whatever before you finished? Then connect the dots? How’d that go?

Thank you for checking out my blog; I love replying to comments, so feel free to say hi, and drop a like!

Audible · blogging · Emergence Ascended · Emergence Collective · readers

Chapter snippet…

Chapter 33 of Emergence Ascended just a tease. Sadly the Audio gods are angry, and my plans of recording more chapters of Emergence ascended went the way of the Dodo (with fewer feathers.) Still in the plans I might try to squeeze it out after work, if I can fine a quiet space. I have been considering dropping chapters of Emergence Ascended right here. Any interest out there or should I wait for the book release?

Thanks for checking it out!

art · Author · blogging · Emergence Ascended · Emergence Collective

Switching gears

It’s been a great couple of weeks, with a quick vacation and a holiday weekend. I did not spend any time writing. I let myself get bored. Boredom is a very healthy state of being in my opinion. It makes your brain ooze creativity as it aches to do something, anything. So I let myself get bored, refilling the creativity, parts of my brain. I also switched gears from writing and spent a lot of time doing some laser engraving projects (As shown above). Now that things are going back to normal, I will start posting again and writing my WIP. I also plan on recording more chapters of “Emergence collective.” So if you have been following my Spotify, more episodes are coming soon (Sunday maybe)

Thanks for checking out my blog!

Emergence Ascended · Emergence Collective · Horror · science fiction · writing

Whittling away at things

I am getting to the end of “Emergence Ascended” (my current WIP), the sequel to “Emergence Collective,” which is very exciting. I am probably the slowest writer in the world since I should have finished this book 6 months ago, but I am chipping away at it. It’s funny that while I am writing, I have to stop myself from daydreaming about the other stories in my head. I added a few more paragraphs to my short story Phantom Black (I’ll post that next), but also I am working out some details for my next book (no title yet). In the next book, I go back to my favorite Genre, Horror. It’s a ghost story, but there is a direction I am taking that requires a lot of moving pieces to work together all at once for the idea to make sense. I am also going to take a completely different approach to my writing. The dreaded outline. With some bonus pain, being character development prior to even starting. I had read somewhere about an approach to fleshing out characters by making a grid, in which each box in the grid describes a character trait or behavior and how those characters interact with each other. There is more to it, but that is the gist of it. I have some other character generation ideas that I am going to integrate into the new writing process too. Anyway, I have been having fun playing with the plot and character decisions with the ghost story instead of finishing my WIP. Oh, and some short story ideas.

about me · Author · Emergence Ascended · Emergence Collective · reading · voice acting · writing

Audible update: Bonus edition

I decide to go ahead and do the commentary on my audiobook on Spotify. If you are interested in hearing me ramble on and attempt to share my ideas and feeling about “Emergence Collective,” there is the bonus episode now on Spotify, in addition to chapters 18 and 19.

As I look back, I can see how far I have grown as a writer in just the last year. (Ya know, when I actually started to get serious about it). Narrating the book has taught me so much more than I anticipated that it would, and to be honest, I didn’t think it would be any more than me reading aloud. But as I read, I see a lot that I can improve on, namely the overall structure. It hadn’t occurred to me when I was writing it, that my chapters are very short, (I don’t know if there are rules or anything concerning chapter length) but now I see that. The story still flows well and I am happy with the overall story. I think that “Emergence Ascended” is much more concise and smoother. the flow is better and I think I have a solid handle on the pacing. If you have read “Emergence Collective,” you should be getting excited about the sequel. I am nearing the end and I am getting excited (sort of) about the editing and final reviews. If you want to beta-read it, let me know!

In the meantime, check out the latest episodes on Spotify. Please comment/like or you can simply just say hi at Hello@hand-printsofdarkness.com Be sure to follow my Spotify page to get notified of the latest episodes!

Thanks for stopping by!

Audible · Author · Emergence Ascended · music · Podcasting · readers · reading · science fiction · voice acting

Audible Update: Moving along

Do you remember the Twilight Zone episode “Time enough at last”? Where the bookworm survives the end of the world and can finally read as much as he wants with no interruptions? Yeah I feel for him. but my case is for writing. If you can know me I am consistently inconsistent with my personal projects. So I missed a week or so blogging, (And writing in general). I did managed to get chapter 13 recorded, but not the re-record of 14 (because of the weird interference sound in the recording), I published it anyway. I got 15 through 17 finished yesterday so there is progress.

I have been thinking about Spotify and the role it is taking in my blog and writing. So far, I have not been very vocal, aside from the narrating and a quick intro. I have been wondering if I should lean farther into it more as a podcast and less of a platform to read my book.

I have also been speaking with a music artist that I like about using her music in the podcast (intro and outro music). I have received permission. Now I just have to learn how to do it. Of course everything I want to do falls into the category of ” Now I have to learn that thing.” Of course a will let you know the progress of that new project.

“Emergence Ascended” my WIP is going slow, I admit that I am stalling just a bit, I am still trying to decide the direction of a couple very important characters and of course that changes the end of the story a bit. I am a discovery writer,make this shit up as I go so even I do not really know how it is going to end. I have and idea where I want it to go, but as the story takes a life of its own it could go very different that what I had planned. Thats is fun for me too, as I am also and eager audience waiting to find out what happens next. (makes for good introversion, as I am constantly entertained by myself). Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog! If you like it, feel free to comment or like it!

amazon · Audible · Author · Emergence Ascended · readers · reading · voice acting

Audible update: Good news, bad news.

The good news is that I recorded another chapter of Emergence Ascended, my WIP, on Sunday! The bad news is that I skipped chapter 13. I am scatterbrained; I know it. Another point in the plus column is that I was not happy with the recording of chapter 14. There was some weird interference noise that I couldn’t remove, and have yet to figure out where it is coming from. So now I have the opportunity to correct that. Next Sunday, I plan on recording chapters 13 and 14. so stay tuned for that.

If you are enjoying listening but are eager to finish the story, check out my Amazon author page to find my book. https://www.amazon.com/author/joseph_hallett. (best for international followers) Be sure to follow there and you will be notified of new books and stories as they come.

about me · Author · blogging · Emergence Ascended · Emergence Collective · readers · writing

Benchmarks.

It occurred to me that I had overlooked a benchmark on my writing journey. My one-year Blogsaverary was on February 18th. I can not boast of having a large following or mind-blowing analytics,  but I have had a steadily increasing number. I have ninety-one subscribers, and that is a lot for me. I want to thank those of my ninety-one (was ninety-two yesterday); sorry if I bored you or said something offensive, Mr. Ninety-two.)) that is genuinely interested in what I have to say. You are the ones that keep me going. As to the rest of the follow me, follow you people, understand I don’t care about numbers, And I will not follow you because you followed me. Ridiculous. (I have a low opinion of such things) Anyway, Numbers don’t matter. You can have a thousand followers that don’t read the blog, but If the one that does read it finds meaning or insight or just entertainment from what I write, that is fulfilling to me.) But sincerely, thank you to those that have stuck with me. I have developed some great friendships through my blog, which makes it worth it.

I started this blog not really knowing about blogging, to be honest. After I finished my first book “Emergence collective,” it was suggested that I start a blog to promote it. So, I did. And here we are. I am not a blogger. I am a writer looking for an audience and engagement with that audience. Honestly, I am not a huge fan of being a blogger. I feel it creates an unnecessary responsibility to continuously create content to keep my blog alive, which was created to find an audience for my books and writing. Blogging is writing, I understand that, but I like to write fiction. Science fiction, horror, fantasy, the stuff that is not entangled with reality. However, I should recognize that despite frustrations, time restraints, and bouts of apathy, I have made it past the one-year Benchmark! *pats myself on the back*

Benchmarks are tools used for “ground truthing.” A benchmark is a survey marker used to verify or validate quantitative aerial observations (Maps). That is an apt metaphor for my blog and writing journey. I can see where I am and know where I want to go.

Another benchmark (a mental one) is closer to a feeling,  but I feel that I am on the downward side of the hill regarding my second book, “Emergence Ascended.” It’s a feeling since I really do not know how long this book is going to be, but I feel I am past the halfway point. The same reason why I have yet to have a mid-life crisis, I don’t know when I am going to die, so I don’t know when it’s my mid-life (I feel I am missing out on something fun now).

Thanks again for taking your valuable time to read my blog and comment. Your engagement is priceless to me. I am looking forward to more benchmarks to come.

about me · Audible · Emergence Ascended · writing

Happy Ostara/Easter

Its a Holiday weekend, I am hoping it I can still get some writing and recording done before the festivities commence. But as we all know, when I make a plan, it goes to hell, so here is hoping. After I actually Finished the dreaded chapter 30, Of Emergence Ascended (my current work in progress), I feel like the rest of the book is going to go fast, and that is exciting. Then I get to edit! yay. editing.. yeah.

So, those of you that are eager to hear the next episode on Spotify, That is my focus for the weekend. Happy holidays for those that celebrate them and have a good weekend for those that don’t. Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog!