New Mr. Pickles Snippet

I finally have posted the second snippet I am going to share from my Mr. Pickles short story that I have been working on for probably six months now, if not longer. It is currently posted on my other website nathanpguest.info, which I am using as my writer's journal.

You can check out the first snippet I shared, which I call the Prelude, in an older post on my blog, as well as the story behind the story and a look at a piece of art that a friend of mine did back in 2007 that originally inspired me to write the story.

Feel free to comment on either site, though I would prefer you keep the comments for my writing on the other website.


Thanks for reading!

God's Right Arm

So, to update from the previous post about God's Right Arm, I am officially abandoning the project since it is too much like the Witchblade comics (which I do plan to read some day), which are now graphic novels. What's funny is that I have never read that story, I just saw a few images from the television series and had a mental image in my mind of that type of character in the world I was dreaming up, unfortunately it's almost the exact same world that Sara Pezzini lives in, so I need to start from scratch, which is a real bummer since I had quite a few pages in one notebook filled up and was adding on to that in an almost daily fashion.

All is not lost though since the heroine is one of those type of characters that I have had running around in my head for awhile now and has also been in numerous stories that I have cooked up but have yet to put down on paper, so it's only a matter of time before she returns in something a bit more flattering and original. Most of the material I had laid out was bits and pieces from another idea I had awhile back, so that will be able to be reused too, I will just have to go back to the original idea, which I think I liked more anyways with that material.

Anyways, I plan to start another project soon that I can do on a daily basis so I can help keep my writing up and will share it on my new website nathanpguest.info, so look for updates on there from time to time as well.


Ok, back to the drawing board, and sorry for getting some people's hopes up that were looking forward to the story being fleshed out more, but I guarantee that if you start reading Witchblade you'll understand my decision.

It's Alive!!!!!

Well, ok, it's been alive for awhile now, I just haven't advertised it until I got at least one piece of content upon it and now I have three, two about pages and one actual post, with the post being a sample of free writing I did tonight to loosen up.

Anyways, what am I talking about Willis? Well I am talking about my new website that I eluded too in the post before this during April 1st (yes, I know, it's been awhile since I posted anything, I'm busy ok!? :D ) and did as an April Fools joke. Me having a new domain wasn't a joke, the actual joke was the link I posted, but anyways, low and behold my new website is ready for advertising now and is located at nathanpguest.info.

Why the other site you ask? Because I need to keep my writing samples and blog separated and this was the only way I could think of to do it and do it in a more professional manner, plus it was cheap this way as well.

Anyways, I will still rant, rave, and blog on this site, when I can find the time, but any writing I do outside of this that I consider to be more professional work will be on my new website nathanpguest.info. So bookmark it and check it out from time to time and add it to your reader if you would like. I do hope to write to it more than my blog and would like to put up something, anything, at least once a week, so expect another snippet from my Mr. Pickles short story that I am writing posted over the weekend if not sooner, plus an additional short flash fiction piece, and then hopefully I can finish another flash fiction piece I have been working on forever and get it posted the following week (fingers crossed!).

So thanks to what few readers I have out there and let's hope this brings in some more. Thanks for your patronage and I will try to get some more posts and writing done in the near future.


Peace.

God's Right Arm and Hell Week(s)

So I've decided to finally post about the book I did at Amory's birthday party. I was the first one to finish (no prize, was just glad I was able to finish) and I got a few positive reactions from what I had wrote. Reading it over a few more times the last few days has brought about me noticing some errors here and there and not being totally satisfied with it. However, that's me in a nutshell, I am never totally satisfied with any of the works I do at first and always strive to make them better over time, but I hear that isn't necessarily a bad thing. I've decided that I am not going to rewrite the prologue any time soon, mostly due to time constraints and the fact that I am regarding this project as something to keep the juices flowing and allow me to always have something to work on, but not take the project too seriously since it will be just something that is posted to my blog and not necessarily something I want to pursue publishing yet. I might eventually go back to the prologue at some point and clean it up some, but I want to wait till I get some more chapters out before doing that.

The idea for the book came from an original idea I had for a campaign setting that has been brewing in my head for a few years now. I then quit role-playing and it has been put on the back burner ever since, until now.

My vision was of an alternate Earth, that had fallen into darkness, due to the forces of the antagonists from the Bible winning, and god leaving and allowing the world to fall into darkness because he lost all hope for mankind.

I don't want to go into too much back story, since one of the chapters is going to go into the story of the world further (or at least several chapters with tidbits here and there), but most of the characters were gleamed from the old testament as well as others taken from John Milton's Paradise Lost, which I am still trying to read in its entirety, but there was a lot of inspiration from that piece that has shaped my vision of the story presently. There will be a lot of back and forth time travel as the main protagonist follows her destiny and completes the steps necessary to get to the point where she can begin restoring Earth to the way it once was before the fall, and I imagine that the story will take several books, with twenty or so chapters in each one, to complete it. so needless to say, this story will keep me writing about something, even if I don't have a new piece to write from time to time.

Anyways, if you want to check it out, click on the image of the book cover below:




Thanks goes to Amory for this idea, it was great fun and I had an awesome time of it. I hope he does more events like this soon, because it was very stimulating and I stayed persistent in finishing this, despite having times when I thought I wasn't going to be able to do it. We'll see where this story will take us, and I already have a few chapters mapped out in my head, I just need to get them written down.

Which brings me to my next point....The last two weeks of the current quarter I am in at Indiana Business College, which are usually referred to as "Hell Week(s)", due to this I am not going to have a lot of time to write, so I might skip my usual weekly flash fiction piece for those two weeks, and if I do try to do something, they will be very short.

I still plan to get out this week's sometime before the weekend is out since I am wrapping it up now as we speak. Look for it being posted sometime today. I was also going to try and get the first chapter of god's Right Arm out before the end of the quarter too, but that won't be too realistic. Once the quarter is over expect things to go back to normal and hopefully I will be able to knock out a few of my goals pretty quickly that I wrote in my last post as well.

That about sums it all up, so until next time.


Go Obama! (I can't believe my primary is going to matter!)

Melting

I find myself in a very hot, black, pool of liquid. Sweating, slowly melting to the intense heat. Suddenly I see a branch land in the liquid pool next to me and my world begins to spin. Faster and faster I swirl about, desperately trying to grasp the branch to pull myself out of this personal hell. Despite my best efforts though I being to sweat even more profusely and am getting to the point where anxiety and my decreasing energy are overtaking me and causing me to slowly drown. I swim harder and faster towards the branch and am finally able to get a tiny grasp on it, still succumbing faster and faster to the black pool of darkness that I am trapped within. The spinning becomes even quicker though and I lose my grip and float out to the side of the pool, which seems to be bordered by an impenetrable wall of ceramic. I try to cling to it, but it is too smooth and I flounder about losing the last of my strength and succumb to the whirlpool that has taken me. I start to become with the liquid and watch as the last of me dissolves into it, fizzing the area around me. As I drown I remain conscious, but take on a new existence. I witness the branch leaving the pool, forced out by the powerful swirling of the whirlpool and hope for stillness soon. All starts to quiet slowly and eventually steadies and I welcome the ending of the storm and take in my new presence. It appears that I am now more than I was before and I seem to encompass all of the darkened, hot, pool of liquid that I once loathed. I bathe within with joy upon me and fret no loner for my future, for this new world seems full of all sorts of new adventures for me to undertake. But just as things go all quiet and I calm down from my fleeting rush from before, the ground begins to shake and things around me are moving again. I seem to be heading towards the sky, and not fearing the embrace of heaven I welcome it. Then my world begins to tilt and I see that I am not heading towards heaven, or at least the heaven that I am aware of, but instead am heading towards a small cavern that enlarges more the closer I approach it. My world tilts at an unnatural angle and I begin to slide towards the cavern opening. I cling for life as best as I can to my prison, but am unable to get a hold and am consumed by the cavernous maw. My existence changes again as I slide down a reddish, humid tunnel, and feel like I am starting to slowly lose consciousness. Through a long trek of what seemed to be endless tunnels, I finally land into a pit of what feels like acid and begin to break up even faster. My life slowly fades and I remember the good times before I encountered this hell of mine. Slower and slower I fade away until finally I give in and embrace my destiny. My life was short but it was a good life and I take the memories with me as the internal, immortal rest that takes all at some point snatches me and I go without a fight, uttering no words of remorse.

New Writing Sample

I've had an idea running through my head for sometime about a world that once had a creator, but left quite some time ago and left the world to ruin upon itself since the inhabitants gave in to their sin.

I won't go into too much more detail here, but a relic was left behind to test those worthy to possess it and with it could once right the world again and show that they were capable of their god's love once again.

The idea has been running through my head for years and it is obviously a fantasy piece, but I've decided to go ahead and do some work on it and post it here instead of ever trying to get it published. It is not what I would call one of my better ideas, but it could serve as a good warm-up piece for something else later on.

Here is a snippet, though it is very rough and is more or less in a free-writing form at this point:

"Oh lord, thrust ye light upon me and choose my destiny. will ye consume my fate, or will ye show me another path. A path of light so golden and true, that will cleanse my soul of sin and give me the strength to thwart thine enemies and rid the world of ye children of darkness that ye left behind for us to realize our mistake and to eventually consume with ye wisdom and holy light. For I shall arise as the holy warrior of light as per prophecy and summon all thy children and create an army of light to rid us of all darkness forever. Bequeath me the right to carry thine sword into battle and smite thee foes so that we will once again return ye love and restore faith to the land once more."

Thanios gazed upon the sword of light hovering in the air above him and plucked it from the air. The light grew dark and Thanios stood still, frozen in time, a voice echoing throughout the cavern and within his mind "YE ARE NOT THE ONE, SO THE SWORD WILL FOREVER HOLD YE HERE TILL HE FREEDETH UPON YOU. THERE IS ANOTHER, AND HE IS A BETTER MAN THAN YE WERE EVER PROPHESIED TO BECOME. SLEEP FOREVER UNTIL THAT FATEFUL DAY HAS COME UPON YE AND RESTORED YE ONCE AGAIN MY SON..."

The sword left Thanios hand and hovered back to its original position, the light reborn within it. Thanios, stood still, arm raised, body of total crystal, and forever he rested there, waiting....

The Gloom

Author's Note: I will fully admit that I am very weak when it comes to poetry, or at least I think I am. I have a tendency to write only things that I can put to music, as if the words were actual song lyrics dancing in my head. This piece is my first attempt at breaking away from the mold and has been collecting cyberspace dust for awhile now. Tonight, while at work, I received some inspiration and decided to dust it off and try to finish it. I'm not sure if this piece is finished or not, and will probably be revisited at some point, but for now I am satisfied with at least sharing it.

Sporadic raindrops falling on my head

No one knows what's in store

Which makes today's life such a bore

And all I want to do is sleep instead

For the wrath of the night has won the day

The gloom spreads forth its icy touch

Layering us all with the darkness's dream

Speaking words I cannot understand

But sounding like bare feet running through the sand

I ask what it wants but it does not answer

Only mumbling and moaning to my ear's fright

Casting shadows of the landscape in flight

Finding dawn's light, to escape this prison, I search

Till tomorrow's awakening rising of light

Mr. Pickles Exposed!

So, totally unknown to myself, Amory actually had some images of the sketch that I am basing my Mr. Pickles short story idea off of online, one charcoal (which I like the best) and a digital color painting.

Here is the digital color painting:



And here is the charcoal:



What's even better is he's given me permission to use these later if needed. Now I just wish I had some damn free time so I can actually work on the story. Le sigh.

Mr. Pickles - Prelude

Mr. Pickles is the working title of a short story that I am currently working on and hope to some day get published, if not sent off to a writing contest to win some grant money for college.

It's based on a sketch, that I unfortunately can't link to at present, that a friend of mine, and fellow co-worker, Amory Abbott, did within his sketchbook. He had asked me an opinion on it and we had started talking about it the rest of his work shift from there. Weeks later a story begin to form in my mind and I asked him if he was going to do anything with it and if he wasn't if I could use it for the basis of a short story. He had no plans to use it beyond a sketch and thought it was a cool idea for me to write a short story based around it.

The sketch itself showed nothing more than a girl between the ages of eight and twelve and had her looking down at a cat that was blocking her path and was also staring up at her. She says "Mr. Pickles?" and there is also a caption below which reads "Two years after the house fire destroyed everything".

Below is your first taste:

Acrid smoke filled her lungs, she couldn't breathe, she couldn't cough, she couldn't even think, all she could do was gather what strength that she had and crawl out of bed, trying to expel the poison that was slowly filler her lungs. With each inch of struggle she succumbed more to the flaming nightmare, she tried to whimper, to call for help, but not so much as a squeak left her lips. This had to be a dream she thought, a very horrible dream, one that she was a prisoner of, that was claiming her slowly as she finally made it to the floor in one exhausted heap, letting the demon of fire and ash consume her. Without warning she saw something, a miracle, a shadow of a giant engulfing her bedroom window. The glass and frame exploded into what she thought was a million pieces, and the shadow entered her room, bent down, and extended its hand...

More teases to come soon.