Bringing it back to the original

So bringing my ranting grounds back to one of its original beginnings. I have a domain but not sure if I am keeping it or not, and if I do, then it will be used for another project entirely.

I do hope to write more (yeah, I know I keep saying that), had a lot on my mind of late, and really do need to get back into it.

Just a return post for now, more to follow.

HSoT is moving!

The domain is already directed to my new blog site, but I wanted to make an announcement here as well.

I am moving my actual blog to http://thoughts.nathanpguest.info which is a subdomain of my new domain nathanpguest.info where I post most of my written works.

Feel free to explore both sites as one will host my written works while the other will be the classic blog and will be a place to rant and rave and talk about other things not neccessarily related to my writing.

Thanks for reading and I hope you stay with me during this new transition.

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.

New Domain

So I've got a new domain now for my writing (I will still use this blog to rant and all that jazz).

All writing will now be at nathanpguest.name, so please change your bookmarks.

Thanks for reading!

Independent Voter Ideology

This has been something I've been wanting to talk about for awhile now, and there are a few readers I have that are going to think that this is solely pointing a finger at them after they read this. Let me assure you that is not the case and that while I may be using a local example, I'm talking about so-called independent voters as a whole, or at least the majority of the ones I meet.

Now, I get the whole wanting to separate one's self from the rest of the voting populace. I've been there, I've done that and I also saw how silly I was once I stopped and thought about it. Calling oneself, "independent" gives you a sense of being better than everyone, smarter than everyone, and less ideological than everyone, but in reality you really aren't, and quite frankly, it's been slowly getting on my nerves over the years at the amount of people, especially in this state (Indiana), who like to label themselves as independent, really aren't, and then somehow think they are above everyone else, or are able to "think outside of the box" more than everyone else is just because they gave themselves what they perceive to be a clever label.

There's a reason for my snark, so let me move immediately along to it. Using one particular local example, which is also one of my favorites, mainly because of the confusion it gives me, is the pro-life vs. pro-choice battle. On one particular day, one particular person told me how much they thought voting was important, and that it was their duty, and that everyone should do it, etc., all of which I agree with and am glad someone as young as her realizes this. But, when you immediately follow this with "I don't like any of the current candidates, but am willing to vote for the lesser of the two evils, and since I cannot vote for anyone that is pro-choice, I will be voting for McCain."

Here's the ultimate problem with that though, if you are going to confine yourself to the two party system, which is fine by me and something I totally agree with, then saying something like what was said above does not make you an independent voter as far as I'm concerned, no matter how much you protest otherwise. The reason being is that the majority of one of the parties in this country is always going to take a pro-choice stance, the Democrats, and so therefore you are basically saying that you will always vote Republican, which totally kills the entire notion that you are an independent voter in any shape or form.

Now, if you want to do a write in ballot and not stick to the two party system, then that is one of your options, and you can then hold your head high and pretend you think outside of the box and all that jazz and make yourself feel good since you would be an independent voter. But not doing this, or not voting at all, or finding some other way to subvert the system in a way that would allow you to still stand your ground on one particular hot button issue, is not the path of the independent voter.

Never mind the problems I have with people who are against the war, think the economy is going into the tank, and agree with me on some other issues but are still willing to cast their vote for a guy that is just going to continue all of that mess and are doing so for only one specific reason, and that's all for the love and arbitrary protection of a little bundle of cells and a law that will never be overturned since just about every attempt in history to do so thus far has failed utterly.

Addendum: Looks like their is a pretty good book on this exact subject and I was pretty good with the point I was trying to make. Check out The Myth of the Independent Voter. Thanks to my friend CJ for the link.

Trapped

Author's Note: I had originally planned to post another piece that I had been working on all week, but I hit a very thick brick wall and couldn't break my way through it, so I looked through my archive and found this piece, and in doing so, the ideas just started flooding into me. It was originally called "God in a Box" and has been way too long since I touched it to understand exactly why I named it as such, but at this point it has morphed into something else. I think I will want to come back to it at some point and expand upon it (which is why I am having a hard time considering it as one of my weekly flash fiction goals that are usually just one-parters), but until then, enjoy what I have so far and let me know what you think in the comments.

The dark-haired man laid there, eyes shut, his body mostly still accept for his breathing, upon very moist, fertile ground which surrounded him and seem to spread into eternity. A pale woman, softly enchanted, was all that was in his mind's eye, begging, weeping, hoping he could hear her, then she faded. He awoke with a start, his breathing growing more heavily as he looked around and took in his surroundings. He wasn't sure what had just happened, he barely remembered anything, but he knew, deep down, that something dramatic had changed. He noticed the object in his hand then, perfect, black box, small enough that he could conceal most of it in his fist. He ran then, with all his remaining strength, towards a goal that he only vaguely remembered, the voices and footsteps behind him unnoticed. He does however notice the gun fire behind him, which only gives him more speed from untapped strength reserves he was unaware of before.

The forest was a maze of unidentifiable green as he ran though, but something else was guiding him, something within the box, for it would grow more intense in heat the closer he came to his goal. It was becoming almost unbearable now, which only prompted him to run harder, his pursuers still hard on his heels and unrelenting. His memories were slowly returning, but in jumbles. all he remembered was a woman, the most beautiful he had seen, trapped within a transparent prison. She had spoken to him in his mind, and he had remembered her from a time before, and what she wanted was freedom, that which they had stolen, the one and only thing that could free her. But it could only be given back by someone with strong emotions towards her and was willing to sacrifice all. that's when he remembered that she was a love from the past, and not just this life's past, but a life he had long since forgotten, despite that little fragment of it. That was the one piece that he had clung onto, that had given him strength in this life, and which was giving him the strength to reach his goal. He ran even faster, the forest just seemed to blur by him, until finally the box was welting the skin on his hand and smoke was emanating from it. He looked over to his right, and there it was, her prison, the thing that had kept her sealed off from the world all this time. Inside she looked so peaceful, but he knew better, knowing she was just in the opposite state, one of endless torment. He stopped running, his breath finally catching up to him, his pursuers still not too far behind. Clutching his side, he slowly walked to where her prison hovered above grown that was full of life.

Time was moving in slow motion for him now as he slowly raised his hand to touch the box to her prison. Seconds seemed like minutes, minutes passed into hours, until finally what seemed like a week had passed and he finally was able to touch the box to her prison. But nothing happened, except for more bullets being fired behind him and shouts to stop and get on the ground. He did neither and began to examine the box, all the while thinking to himself what he had forgotten. Nothing as coming to mind and the voices and bullets were getting closer and closer. He started to tear at the box, looking for a clasp or something to open it, but it was perfectly smooth and appeared to be all of one piece. Then the first bullet found its mark, one in his right shoulder, then another in his left leg. He toppled, but then quickly struggled to get back up, then another hit him in the back and came out the other side through his chest, and then another, his blood gushing and splattering all over the box. Time seemed to slow again and he examined the bloody box, his breathing was raspy and very slow, while he turned the box over and over in his blood soaked hands, when a realization hit him and he threw the box at the prison at the same time the last bullet found its mark and robbed him of his life. The box slowly spinning in the air, end over end, as he slowly fell to the ground.

Upon his final collapse, the box had hit the prison, and then was immediately absorbed into it, the box fading out of existence as a glow of pure blueish-white light illuminated the inside of the prison and several feet surrounding the outside of it. To the outside observer it closely resembled the shape of a star, at it floated to the woman's body and was immediately absorbed into her chest cavity where her heart would be. Following this interaction the prison shattered and the surrounding woods was illuminated with an intensity that demanded that all remain still and just watch the spectacle that was going on before them. The pursuers had lowered their guns, awe-struck, and were only a few feet away from the scene now. The woman slowly floated to the ground and took in long breath of air, as if she had been holding hers all this time, while her eyes came to life with the intensity and blueness of the ocean. She looked down upon the figure of her rescuer and noticed his still form, and then bent down and kissed him. The previous illumination was set ablaze and grew into a blinding intensity, and then both were gone, leaving all witnesses baffled as to what had just commenced. Their shoulders slumped and they slowly walked back to which they had came, looking of defeat.

The man was embraced with a light and a warmth on a level he had never felt. He seemed to be floating endlessly in pure light and smiled to himself, for he was ready again, and as he did so the warmth increased slightly, and he knew it was her surrounding him. His smile spread wider as he closed his eyes and rested, knowing that the trip was not a short one, and he was internally exhausted from his previous adventure.

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!)

Brief Update and "Spring Break" Goals

So it is slow at work this evening (wish I was outside enjoying the weather) and I figured I would take the time that I am allotted to catch up on some reading and writing while I am at work, as well as fire up some new posts and maybe get them out.

This weekend was one of the best weekends I have had in a long while, despite just doing a lot of work and hardly any play. I think I just needed to feel like I had accomplished some things, and this weekend I did. I holed myself up Friday and Saturday and caught up on quite a bit of chores and other things I have been neglecting. The end result was me accomplishing the majority of my goals this past weekend, with only a few odds and ends left that I can take care of over the course of the week due to a lighter working schedule (the majority of our customers are early year grad students that still get a week off for Spring Break this week). On top of this, Sunday at Amory's was a blast. A lot of people showed up (even if the majority of them were late) and much creativity was flowing around his place all day because of it. I was able to knock out a prologue to a story that I've had an idea for awhile that has mutated over the years and mutated even more over the course of being at Amory's all day Sunday. Once he gets it scanned in and posted on his art blog, I will go into more detail about it. Regardless, I am going to continue working on the story as things come to me and as free time opens up, all the while still working on my other projects that I want to put time into (like my weekly flash fiction pieces, and my Mr. Pickles short story that I would like to finish before my birthday (May 23rd)). Anyways, just as an FYI, I am already working on Chapter 1 (started some writing on it this morning while at school) and am outlining it right now as we speak as well, so keep checking back if you are interested in the unfolding of it. I know I was able to get a few praises while I was at the party from those that had read my finished product.

Looking forward to the end of the second quarter I am going through at IBC for the Veterinary Technician program, it's gone by fast, but has probably been the most stressful amount of time to date since I went back to school. Things have started to look up for the last few weeks and continuing to improve, so maybe here on out I can just go to school, work, write, have a little bit of a social life, and not stress over anything from here on out, plus I am hoping that doing so will help me meet my academic goals too that I haven't been making as of late. I get one week off (my Spring Break) in between quarters before I start up on my third quarter and the beginning of the my halfway point towards receiving my A.A.S., so I am going to write out some goals that I want to meet during that week off, nothing huge, just something to accomplish and give me the sense that I did something productive.

• Get at least two chapters written and posted during that week for the God's Right Arm story I am currently working on (I did the prologue at Amory's b-day bash this past Sunday)
• Post my usual flash fiction piece for the week
• Start working on finding a part time, second job for the summer on the weekends
• Hope to be back to where my weight was before the holidays and the case of laziness I accrued afterwards late last year
  
• Ponder and solidify where I want my externship to be for my last quarter at IBC and keep looking at bachelor degree possibilities at IUPUI (though I'm 99.9% sure I already know what I want to take)
• Take a mini vacation somewhere out of the city on that weekend (since I usually have them off at work) for a day or two

That's enough goals I think, as well as enough writing for this particular blog post.

Now excuse my while I go sit outside and work on this outline while watching the store. :)