Author · Emergence Ascended · writing

Go with the flow?

Alright! Saturday morning, I’m up early, got some good coffee in my mug and I pull out my laptop. Im feeling good, feeling inspired. It’s been way to long since I wrote anything substantial in my WIP but I am inspired and ready to go. When I am not smashing keys and making words, I’m thinking about the next scene or character development. Saturday I was gonna write a pretty important scene that I have been ruminating about.

I start writing. the clacking of the keyboard is near-constant, except for the occasional breaks to sip more coffee and keep the flow state rolling. Wow, the words are pouring out of me in a fluid stream of consciousness. I write the chapter in one go. Wish I could write like this all the time. I finish the chapter, and by that time, my quiet solitude is coming to an end (as my family is now getting up. I write in the morning before every in the house gets up and starts expecting me to acknowledge their existence).

Before I close the laptop I give a quick skim over the chapters to make sure that everything is lining up and the story is going where I want. I start reading chapter 5, and it’s very familiar, I keep going and as it turns out, It was almost identical to the chapter I just wrote. Really? Of course, I have been thinking hard about this part of the story, cause it’s an important plot thingy, but how could I have actually forgot that I already added it in? Maybe I should read my own stuff more often. Really, more to the point, I shouldn’t allow myself to get so distracted that I forget where I am at. Sheesh. Have any of you ever done something that silly?

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

Fresh perspectives, everything you want in life is on the other side of fear.

Getting my head back into the game, thinking about my current work in progress.  I have not written anything significant on my WIP for a month (wow time flies) or so. Chapter 8, of Emergence Ascended, is not what I want it to be.  I’ve been thinking of a rewrite, putting in additional details and what message this chapter sends, and how the story will progress from here.  I suppose this chapter is a pivotal moment in the storyline. But rethinking what I am trying to express, has made me start to rethink some of the earlier chapters, and nearly a complete rewrite of one of the characters. Don’t get me wrong, I am not struggling with it but there are things that I wanted to illustrate in Emergence Collective that I don’t think I clearly articulated.

There are some pretty complicated concepts that are the meat of my “Hippy Scifi” (thx for coining a new genre name, T.A.Walker) narrative that needs to be described. The character also have a tangled mess of interactions and relationships that need some serious thought, (starting from the earlier chapters.)

I have never done a rewrite. What you see is what word vomit spilled out at the time. Only a few minor changes in sentence structure or grammar stuffs, maybe I rewrote an entire paragraph once or twice. As a new writer, I am not sure if this is considered normal or not. My fear is that if I start to rearrange my thoughts (that I had at the time) when I wrote it, that I will lose what my intention for where the story was going.

How many of you rewrite your work? I am hoping that maybe I am starting to mature as a writer and these little fears about ruining it by rewriting are simply that, a silly fear.

about me · Author · Emergence Collective · writing

Busy Wednesday

Here is a repost of T.A.Walker‘s AKA “the Bookie”, review of “Emergence Collective.” Seriously give it a listen.


Part 1 (click here to listen)

A fellow blogger T.A. Walker picked up “Emergence collective” and is currently reading it. She will present her synopsis and commentary about it on her audio blog (?) Podcast(?) I highly suggest you check out her blog and see what else she has been reading https://tawalkerfreewriterlife.wordpress.com/

Part 2 (click here to listen)

A fellow blogger T.A. Walker picked up “Emergence collective” and is currently reading it. She will present her synopsis and commentary about it on her audio blog (?) Podcast(?) I highly suggest you check out her blog and see what else she has been reading https://tawalkerfreewriterlife.wordpress.com/

Finale! (click here to listen)

A fellow blogger T.A. Walker picked up “Emergence collective” and is currently reading it. She will present her synopsis and commentary about it on her audio blog (?) Podcast(?) I highly suggest you check out her blog and see what else she has been reading https://tawalkerfreewriterlife.wordpress.com/

Horror · Uncategorized · writing

Happy Monday

Back at it for us working-class people, the weekend is done now back to the grind. I hope Everyone enjoyed the story “Alone.” Let me know what you thought in the comments section!

Here is an idea I am workshopping. Its quick one, sort of flash fiction.. Have fun!


Phantom Black

The beam of light pierced the veil. Like an ugly knife wound tearing a rough, misshapen hole in the darkness. The light touched a tentacle of the creature, a warm tingle drawing its attention. Confused and curious, it extended its tentacles, reaching, feeling the jagged edges of the opening. It wrapped its tentacles around it with more confusion about the nature of this new thing in its world, then examined the edges, feeling its solidity. Reaching in and gaining purchase on the inside surface, it began to pull itself through, marveling at the warm tingly, yet slight stinging sensation on its skin.

                The scientists fiddled with the device with excited banter, enthusiastic about their apparent success. The device looked like an over-engineered paint spray gun. One of the scientists adjusted a setting on the machine, causing a pleasant harmonic tone to emanate from it. The other scientist poured a black viscous liquid into a small vat attached to the instrument with tubes, hoses, and electrical connections. The first scientist starts speaking into a recorder, taking verbal notes with a shaky, excited voice. “four-thirty two hertz to four forty hertz seems to be the correct resonant frequencies to properly align the filaments. We have achieved approximately….” He looks up at the other scientist and nods his head slightly, prompting the missing information.

                “Ninety-nine point nine, nine percent.” The other scientist reads off of a computer monitor in a matter-of-fact tone.

                “Yes, right. Ninety-nine point nine, nine percent of photon absorption.” He continued, “We have found with the increased amplitude and voltage, the harmonic frequencies will correctly align the carbon nanotubes vertically; gave us an additional twenty percent efficiency.” He said, his voice still quivering with obvious exhilaration.

                Tentacles wavered through the opening, touching the air feeling the strange tingle of the light. As it pushed deeper into the new expanse, it could feel a vibration of sound emanating from inside this new space. It waved a tentacle sniffing the air, searching for the source of the vibrations. With so many new sensations, the creature grew eager and more curious. It pulled itself through the hole, sniffing and feeling.

                With their backs turned away from the black painted surface, the scientists quickly prepared their device for the new round of testing; the creature probed a tentacle towards them. The probing tentacle extended toward the sound vibrations and detected a unique sensation that triggered a biological response; Hunger.

Author · Emergence Collective · writing

Emergence Collective…read between the lines (Spoiler alert!)

Emergence Collective… What does it mean to me? If you have read it or you like spoilers keep reading!

As a new writer I found (am still finding) it difficult to convince anyone
to read my stuff and find an Audience. Friends and family mean well, but I
think that my investment in the story and their interest didn’t align. As I
wrote Emergence collective I did not get any real feedback or even
proofreading. To be honest, my editor was the first person to actually read the
damn thing. She did a fantastic job thank you PaulineNolet.com. Her feedback was
reassuring that I didn’t spend all that time writing it, wasted. the idea for
the story was kinda big and I thought deeply about the world I was creating. A
lot of these concepts did not really make it into the story but there are
connections I can make in conversation that would completely make sense and you
would definitely find connections to the story.

What would happen if you could dream up just about anything and it could be
real? what would you do with that power? I wondered that if there are lots of
people that had this ability how would the world change? My first thought was
that people would make their surroundings “customized”. One person
might make a fairyland castle environment and another would pattern theirs with
say Starwars. But how far does your own realm extend to? How strong is your
willpower? your willpower and intention govern the sphere of influence you have
in reality itself. How about what happens when another ascended person enters your
realm? Does there will power change your realm? since they are in your sphere
of influence? What about mutual agreements on world views? do they see a
StarWars environment and you see the fairyland? could there be a merger of the
two? How does this relate to collective consciousness? The reality as a whole
is an agreement of expectations that we all have. Gravity works because there
are enough consciousnesses agreeing on that, it becomes part of the collective
worldview, How does being ascended influence that?

I made sets of rules about this idea and used it as a roadmap for the story
progression as far as the shared environment of the characters.

I use transcended and ascended interchangeably, even though they are not
precisely synonymous. I think it still fits. I still think a lot about the
nature of consciousness. What is it? Where does it come from? One of my
favorite theories is that the human body is like a marionette where our
consciousness pulls the strings outside the body. You cut the strings,
 and the body dies or is in stasis like a coma.

 But where is the puppeteer? In a higher realm, a higher resonant
frequency outside of conscious reality. And our brains act like a filter
preventing us from experiencing that higher realm. It is only when we alter our
state of mind that the filter is removed, and we can experience the true
reality as its resonant frequencies are revealed. Whether it is through strict
meditation or mind-altering chemicals like Ayahuasca, a potent hallucinogen
that contains a chemical called DMT or dimethyltryptamine. Whatever the
catalyst is that allows us to escape the prison of our brain doesn’t matter
once free, and one is perceiving a higher reality, the awareness of the nature
of the universe expands. We start to fully understand our place in it. Learn
that we have abilities that were previously only imagination. Learn to connect
with others on a deeper spiritual level, communicate and express ideas. Travel
throughout the realm and defy the physics of the reality our bodies are trapped
in.

I know this sounds like the ravings of a metaphysical stoner. I think I
communicated the essence of these ideas in the story well enough. But wait!
There’s more; however, I will not bore you any longer. I do explore these
concepts much more deeply in the next book. I think that once you get your feet
wet in the first book, the second will be more satisfying as you explore your
own thoughts on the potential of what could be done if all of this was real. I
would love to hear your thoughts on this!

about me · Author · writing

Write what you know….

They say “write what you know.” Whoever they are, I get what they mean, but there is so much that I don’t know. I am just winging it. One of my challenges in writing is trying to pretend that I have had the normal everyday experiences that my audience had. I spent the majority of my formative years living in rural Alaska, isolated from the social experiences that “City kids” usually get. My school was somewhat small, comparatively and after school social engagements were difficult to do, due to geography. People tended to live pretty far away and there is no transit system in the bush. Moving to “the lower 48’s” was a culture shock and since I had gotten used to isolation, it pretty much cemented my brain in a state of permanent introversion. High did not spend much time attending high school, and when I did my scope of friends was very small, so I missed out (Thank god) on the usual high school drama and typical situations that most people did. I dropped out and began entering the workforce early. No High school diploma so no college.

How do I write about the high school and college experiences that I have never shared? Most of my “research” has been watching TV about it, but I am not entirely convinced that those are typical or genuine. “write what you know.”…. Hmm.. I guess I will continue to fake it, and hope no one notices. Honestly there are a lot of situations like this, mostly social, that I am guessing about. Maybe, that I don’t have some of those experiences, that my pretending can actually end up being a fresh take on it, and maybe those situation are more likely to be more genuine than the entertainment industry tropes.

Emergence Collective · writing

Character snapshot Revisited: The hole

From the feedback I have gotten about ‘Emergence Collective,”  It turns out that “The hole.” Which was (to me) just part of the setting that turned out to be its own Character. I didn’t expect there to be so much intrigue around it. It is fun and satisfying to see reactions and thoughts about my story from other people’s perspectives, which didn’t occur to me since I was focused on different parts of the story.  This character snapshot is not a character, but a place in the story.


Old Willy opened the truck door, which whined and screeched in protest as
the rusty hinges rattled. “Whatcha doin’?” Mr. Winston croaked out the question
while clearing his throat, showing genuine interest in Frank’s contraption over
the dump.   

He turned a little red, embarrassed by his curiosity. “Umm, well, ya see. I
got to thinking is all.” He began to explain. “I have been using this as a dump
for 30 years now, right?”  

“Well… why hasn’t it filled up yet?” He posed the question with increasing
excitement.  

Mr. Winston’s eyes lit up as the thought sunk in. “You know…. I never much
gave it a thought….’ Till now. You know your right!” the excitement transferred
to Mr. Winston. They both sat staring at it silently for a minute or two,
pondering the notion as another old beat-up truck shook its way up the path. A
younger man in his mid-30’s poked his head out of the truck window to have a
clearer view of the scene around the hole.  

       “Is there something I can do?” he asked with concern in his voice.
Not knowing the details of the situation, he offered his services out of simple
neighborly kindness.  

Frank and Mr. Winston did not look up or respond, lost in their own
thoughts. Johnny got out of his truck in a hurry and trotted over to the
hole.   
  
      “Someone fall in?” he asked in an almost scared tone of voice. He
detected that Jonny was getting amped up a bit, broke his trance from the hole,
cracked a smile, and chuckled. “No, no, everything is fine,” he said in a calm
voice, trying to put out the fire in Jonny’s mind “we were just think’n is all;
how deep is this hole?”  

 

art · Author · Emergence Ascended · Horror · painting · poetry · writing

Happy Monday!

A new week begins, and I reflect on the last couple of weeks. It has been a busy one with work and home life. Just getting back into the routine of things. I took yesterday off from any creative endeavors  and did some chores that have been neglected (getting the garden ready for planting…a little late)

I had a great day of writing on Saturday, and that has renewed my vigor to keep pushing on!

Monday always has a way of bringing me to a weird place of optimism and pessimism. The optimistic side dwells in the possibility of escapism through stories and creativity. Back to the grind of work, I feel like Sisyphus, who was cursed to do meaningless duties ad infinitum, with the only escape being to dream of a life free from the burden of responsibility. Those dreams Are where I live. As the boulder rolls back to the bottom of the hill to restart the process, meaningless tasks, The only break from monotony (the weekend) is where I exist. Where I thrive.

Emergence Ascended · writing

Saturday for the win!

I am feeling very good about today! I finished Chapter 8 of “Emergence, Ascended.” and I am really happy with it. Things are moving in the right direction and I even managed to surpass my word goal for the day!

Author · Emergence Collective · writing

World Book day!

In honor of World Book day, I am giving away 1 signed copy of Emergence Collective!

The first one to email me (link below) will get the book.