Random Thoughts (and Fish)

[lydamorehouse]

First of all, I'm completly bummed out.  We bought two new shubunkins (calico goldfish) at PetCo and happily brought them home.  They've been doing great after what seemed like the inital shock of being in a new place where the lights go on and off.  We named them Thor and Loki. 

Thor is dead.

I was so shocked to discover Thor's lifeless body this morning after dropping the family off at school and work.  I mean, he was swimming happily a few hours ago!  I have no idea what happened.  My only thought is that the fish either brought some disease with them or, somehow, despite several thorough water changes, there was still something lurking in my tank from the previous fish. 

The only good news is that PetCo knows that fish are risky, so there's a 30 day "return" policy.  If your fish croak, they'll replace them free of charge.  So, if Loki pulls through this, I will go back and get him a new companion, and perhaps name the new fish something that would make Loki happier... perhaps Fenrir?

In other less depressing news, I started the sequel to Precinct 13 (and it's hillarious!).  Having talked to haikujaguar off-line a bit aout this, I think I'm going to try the serialization model.   The plan is that once I get a couple of thousand words written, I'll post the first part "for free."  After that, I'll follow with an offer for more, if folks are interested in paying for it... or maybe, I'll just link to a tip jar for a while until I'm sure I have an interested readership.  I think besides some of the nitpicky deals (like setting up the tip jar icon through paypal), the challenge is going to be getting the word out. 

I thought I'd post here as well as the vastly under-used tate hallaway blogspot blog, and promote it via twitter and facebook. If you folks have ideas, now would be a great time to send them along.

It's going to be an interesting experiment, at any rate.  I've been writing like this (in small installments) for fan fic, so I'm not worried that I can push myself to continue to post every several days and that the story will be coherent.  What worries me is that these stories will go out into the world with a resounding thud, as they fall from the nest completely unable to fly.  I have a hard time believing I have enough fans to make this work. 

If nothing else, I should have something resembling an e-book at the end.

And, it should be fun, regardless of any profits made along the way.

Meanwhile, I've gotten several pages written on my next stab at a military SF proposal for my editor.  This time I'm going for a much simpler, straight-forward story with an uncomplicated hero.  As Shawn said to me the other day, "Think: Captain America."  That very well be the peice that's been missing from the other tries, and, as they say, nothing ventured.... I've been stuck on some plot points for that, but I've decided to let my brain turn things over and percolate a bit.  Still, I hope to have something for Wyrdsmiths to look over at the next meeting, which I think is this Thursday.

Oh, yeah, and I spent all day yesterday painting the foyer.  It's a tiny space, really, but this included painting the crown molding (which the previous owners sprayed over with that bumpy plaster crap), and the door and a bunch of other picky bits.  Still, it looks marvelous now.  I'm quite pleased... and tired now.

Comments

[seawasp]

One can't help but wonder if naming them in opposition was a good idea. Loki and Hel, Loki and Jormungandr, Loki and Fenrir, yeah, all good but Loki and Thor seems dangerous.

RE Captain America (which is pretty much one of my default "and this is what a Hero should be" references): my wife and I realized that Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man, is very much like Captain America -- even more so nowadays, when he's a man from a time that's quite distant in many people's minds.

[lydamorehouse]

Ooh, and they're both named Steve. Perhaps I should change my character's name!

But I think you're right. Steve Austin is a slightly murker character, though, don't you think? He's an astronaut, sure, be could be kind of a womanizer if I remember the first few episodes correctly (which I may not. It's been a while.)

[seawasp]

Not the TV version; the original book version was kinda a dick at times, but the TV version was a Knight in Bionic Armor. He had the "girl of the week" sometimes, but he was unfailingly polite and supportive, never seemed to be dumping them (i.e., while the episodic nature of the show didn't allow him to have a continuing girlfriend at first, he always seemed to stick with them past the end of the ep). Then of course he fell in love with and got engaged to the girl next door (Jaime Sommers, the Bionic Woman), and when she lost her memory the two of them still slowly got back together and eventually were married.

No, Steve was about as squeaky-clean as you could get overall. He also hardly ever killed anyone (I can only remember two examples) and when he did, technically HE didn't kill them -- they made choices that got themselves killed after he tried to stop them.

As I note in my article, there's a reason I named my character in Grand Central Arena Ariane Stephanie Austin...

[theatre-nerd.livejournal.com]

Sorry about your fishie. Glad to hear about the return policy. I have always had really good luck with goldfish, I have had some very elderly ones in the past.

Will there be home improvement photos?