A Festivus Miracle

While it is a couple of days past the December 23rd, Seinfeld-created holiday of Festivus, I still count a new entry to be a minor miracle. Another miracle is the content.

I talked a long, long time ago (feels like a galaxy far away) about one of my other writing projects, a zombie story that takes place during Romeo and Juliet (though barely featuring the titular characters). It does not, at least in any significant way, overwrite events of the Shakespeare play, but instead takes some of the supporting cast and lines from the play to create a new story and help explain some gaps in the plot of the original (Benvolio, a character with a decent amount of lines and ties to Romeo, disappears during Act III, never to be seen again).

It has probably been 2-3 years since I've done any significant work on the story (I know, probably best not to admit that). The story itself is...fleshed out (a bad pun that didn't work very well. Sorry), and I was in the fourth draft or so of editing. The one thing that I could never nail down was a sonnet that was both a parody of R&J's that incorporates the walking dead and sets up the story.

However, with the time past, it's hard for me to get down the same voice and tone that I used. So, anyway, enough babbling and time to get to the point. Without much further ado, here's the first chapter of A Plague Upon Thee. Enjoy (and if anyone requests it, I can put up a .pdf or other file format so it can be read properly on e-readers and tablets):

Chapter One - "In Fair Verona Where We Lay Our Scene…"

"I am hurt

A plague o' both your houses! I am sped.

Is he gone, and hath nothing."

"No, ‘tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a

church-door; but 'tis enough,'twill serve: ask for

me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I

am peppered, I warrant, for this world. A plague o'

both your houses! 'Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a

cat, to scratch a man to death! a braggart, a

rogue, a villain, that fights by the book of

arithmetic! Why the devil came you between us? I

was hurt under your arm."

"Help me into some house, Benvolio,

Or I shall faint. A plague o' both your houses!

They have made worms' meat of me: I have it,

And soundly too: your houses!"

Romeo shielded his eyes from the blinding, mid-afternoon sun. Sweat mixed with dirt and blood as he watched Benvolio, his stick of a cousin, gather their wailing friend under his arm and shuffle off towards the nearest dwelling, leaving Romeo startled and bewildered in the streets.

"A plague o' both your houses!"

The words bounced inside Romeo's head. Dropping to his knees, he ran his hands through his shaggy, dusty brown hair, his eyes like those of a wounded, cornered animal. The blood of his friend made his hair stick up in crusty, copper tuffs. Something warm and sticky touched his midsection. Pools of crimson gathered on his shirt. His hands flew under the cloth and searched his stomach for a wound. Finding none, his hands returned to pulling his hair as though he could somehow decipher what had happened by pulling it out of his scalp.

"Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm."

Mercutio had been run through by a sword. Mercutio! Romeo's best friend and a kinsman to the Prince. With eyes bulging like a bloated corpse, his hands clasped over his mouth.

Oh! The prince is going to be pissed!

Benvolio struggled up the crumbling, yellow stone steps and crashed against a decayed, yet deceptively heavy, wooden door. Pain exploded in his shoulder and he let out a sharp hiss as he stumbled. He was no doctor, but he thought he might have separated his shoulder, all in his effort not to jostle his injured friend. Tears welled up in his eyes and he shifted his weight to hold onto Mercutio.

"Just hold on, Mercutio," Benvolio said. "We'll get you inside and your boy will be back with a surgeon before you know it. You'll be fine. Everything will be just fine."

That last bit was just as much to reassure himself as it was for Mercutio.

Mercutio gasped into Benvolio's ear. Mercutio was already dead, and he knew it. It was just a matter of time until his body caught on.

The door opened, a wrinkled woman peered out from the doorway. With fear wrought eyes, the elderly woman looked the visitors up and down, nodded, and opened the door to let them enter.

"A plague…" Mercutio choked out through chapped lips. The old woman stepped aside to let them pass. Benvolio looked left and right for a place to put down his friend. The house was dimly lit, the only source of a light, a small candle in the hand of the old woman. Benvolio took a couple of steps inside and stopped. His eyes needed to adjust. To the left, behind the old woman, was the home's bedchamber. In the waning light, he could make out stain covered sheets. The very thought of being draped in such filth made him gag.

"Hrm?" Benvolio asked. "What's that?"

"A plague on both your houses…"

"The plague?" the old woman asked. "He doesn't have the Black Death, does he?"

"Of course not," Benvolio said. He lifted Mercutio's hand to reveal the fountain of blood pouring out from his friend's gut. The woman clasped her hands over her mouth. Benvolio pushed Mercutio's hands back to his stomach. The lanky blond coughed and hissed.

"A plague…"

Benvolio attempted a wry grin, to little success. Not only was his friend very quickly bleeding to death, but said blood was getting all over his clothes, and everyone knows how hard it is to get blood stains out of anything.

"You keep saying that, but you forget I am a member of the house of Montague. And I have never done a thing to harm you," Benvolio said. "Or anyone for that matter."

The slender blond man continued to gasp and wheeze as the pair was led to a stone table in the middle of a sparse living area.

"You can set him there," the woman said. She motioned to the table, put down her candle and, with a sweep of her arm, cleared the table of her belongings.

The candle was knocked on its side, bathing the house in an eerie, flickering glow.

"A plague…"

*Cough*

"A plague…"

*Cough*

"He keeps repeating that. What does it mean?"

"He blames the feud between the Montagues and Capulets for his current predicament."

"Oh. Seems to be more serious th'n that, way he keeps prattling on about this plague. You're sure he don't have the plague now, does he?"

Benvolio shook his head. His cocoa brown hair swayed gently with each turn.

"No, he does not." He frowned. "At least I don't think so."

"Good. ‘Cause if he did…"

Benvolio didn't know how to respond to that, so he just nodded along in agreement, lest he make the old coot angry.

"Ben…Benvolio…" Mercutio choked out. Benvolio remembered he was carrying his friend, felt the warm blood on his skin and gasped out a quick apology. In his haste, he dumped the body onto the cold, gray table.

The body landed with a thud, one arm fell over the side, the other still pressed to his stomach in a poor attempt to keep as much life fluid and entrails inside.

"Sorry," Benvolio muttered. Mercutio managed to twist his mouth into a smile.

"I wouldn't worry." Mercution forced a smile. "Not like it'll make me deader."

Even at death's door, Mercutio cracked jokes. He coughed again and blood erupted from his mouth.

The housekeeper, as the old woman must have been, as it was inconceivable for women to own property, gasped in horror and clasped her hands over her mouth to keep herself from shrieking. Her eyes looked like two ripe grapes ready to burst.

"Shouldn't…shouldn't be long now..."

"Oh, Mercutio," Benvolio said, looking pitifully at his dying friend.

With an unexpected surge, Mercutio thrust his arm from his wound, which had stopped overflowing, to grasp Benvolio by the collar, blood smudging against cloth.

"I didn't forget."

The light from the candle burned Mercutio's smile into his brain. Mercutio laid back down on the table, wheezed once, sputtered out another, "a plague," and then was gone.

Horrified, Benvolio looked down at his bloody, soiled clothes as though the devil himself had just laid his hands upon them. This will never come out now!

"Well. That was something."

Without so much a second thought, Benvolio spun around to address the old woman, who stood unmoving, her mouth agape and unchanged from the moment blood first spurted from Mercutio's mouth.

"I must go tell young Romeo what has happened."

"But what about him?"

She pointed to Mercutio's bloody corpse.

"I shall return for the body momentarily. I must tell Romeo that Mercutio is no more."

Before the old bat could raise another protest, Benvolio had gone. The current left in his wake blew out the candle. The house was now completely dark and as silent as the tomb, which, technically, it kind of was.

Out in the blinding sun, Benvolio stumbled down the steps and fell down onto the street.

"Oomph!"

Great. Now I have dirt and blood on my clothes. Can this day get any worse?

The sun was still high and bright in the Verona sky, exactly where it had been before. Though it had seemed like an eternity, the passing of Mercutio had taken no more than five minutes.

Turning the corner, Benvolio saw that Romeo was still exactly where he had left him; on his knees, crying like a little girl.

Jeez! What a whiny little woman! Is there anything that won't make Romeo break down and cry? His cousin looked up and watched him with bloodshot eyes. Oh, he sees me approaching. Better pretend to show some concern.

"O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio's dead!

That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds,

Which too untimely here did scorn the earth."

There. That was good. I should be an actor.

"This day's black fate on more days doth depend;

This but begins the woe, others must end."

            Wow! That was laying it on a bit thick there, don't you think? Oh crap! There's Tybalt. I am not going to stick around for this…

With Tybalt's approach, Romeo's sorrow boiled into rage and he rose steadily to his feet like a snake coiled to strike. Sweat poured from Romeo's forehead like wine at his father's parties. Benvolio knew what his cousin was about to do and there was nothing he could say to stop it.

"Before you do this, which is just a fantastic idea, by the way, I'm going to fetch Mercutio's totally dead corpse from where I left it. I kind of promised this old shrew I'd be right back and you know old people, they find just about any reason to complain."

But Romeo paid him no mind. Romeo was already shouting a threat to Tybalt, who looked like he couldn't have cared less about the young Montague. That was, until Romeo decided the best approach would be to shove the Capulet. Tybalt sprawled to the ground, twisted his supine body to gaze at young Romeo, and stared as though he himself had just been run through by the blade.

"Right. I'm just going to go, then," Benvolio said. He scampered off towards the house where the poor, slain Mercutio laid waiting. Now if he could only remember exactly which house it was.

"Ah. There it is."

Shall We Begin?

So...progress on just about every personal project that I had going came to a screeching halt. That includes the work on the Kindle Edition of Project Zero, editing the second book in the series, typing out the third book (as you might recall, I write just about everything by hand and then type it out later), writing anything in general (I had a new story going...), finishing those short stories I've been writing, as well as other...stuff...that I can't remember right now.
And, truth be told, I'm ok with that.
Why is that, you might ask? Because, I got a new job! For the last school year and a half, I had been working at a Behavioral Reassignment school. What does that mean? It means that the students that I worked with on a daily basis were removed from the major urban school district in which this school resided for a myriad of reasons. Usually violent. Or drug-related. And most have been or are in some sort of trouble with the police.
Last year alone, I had two former students killed within weeks of each other and even more busted in a nation-wide police operation. So, to put in that kind of effort to get those kinds of results takes its toll and, along with an administration shake up that left the site without a principal with a week until the school year was to have begun, I felt weary going into the school year. So I did something that I probably wouldn't have otherwise done in the time frame I did it in.
Long story short, I took a position with a traditional school and am now teaching English 9, American Literature, and Analytical Reading and Composition. Yay! (Note: that was a serious yay.)
But, yeah, prepping for three classes (with a total of six sections) has persuaded me to put those projects on hold. Also, GTA V. Kelly preordered it for my birthday from Amazon and it should be arriving on Tuesday. So...there goes my productivity...
And, as I said about a month ago, I'd look into where my brother's comic book was available digitally. Here is the link  I believe the first issue is free and the second two are available for less than one dollar each.

I don't really have a title for this one...

While I plug away on my "To-Do List," I figured I'd take a break to do some writing, including doing some mini-reviews for summer stuff (movies, games, mostly movies, as I haven't gotten a new-release game in awhile...)

Man of Steel - Great movie. Quite probably the greatest Superman movie ever made. Henry Cavill surprised as both Superman and Clark Kent (even if filmmakers still insist that an actor looks younger because their hair is mussed up). Not sure I agree with what happened to Pa Kent, but I was OK with what happened to Zod (read a comic before you complain). The film had some humorous moments (my favorite were in the part after Superman destroyed the very expensive spy satellite) and I didn't feel like it was too dark (when they said they were going to 'Dark Knight' Supes, I thought 'Oh no..."). Jor El's speech about how humanity will look to Superman as a god and a role model and that he is the symbol of hope for the human race summed up how I've felt about the boyscout. He is a symbol of hope and the movie translated that nicely.

That said, I  am concerned that the plan is to introduce the new Batman in Man of Steel 2 (and no, the studio did not offer Bale 50 million to reprise his role as Bats, that was just an off-the-cuff remark about how Bale could get that much and the studio wouldn't blink an eye at it). I think Superman (and Snyder) deserves at least one more solo film before a team-up film (I know, WB and DCE are pushing for a Justice League film and want to get that ball rolling. That's also why it's being rumored that the Arrow series (and potential Flash spin-off) is set in the same universe as MoS.

The Wolverine - A step up from 2009's awful X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The first two-thirds or so was the Wolverine movie everyone was waiting for. Then the final act came, and there was a giant robot samurai and some things happened to Wolvie that kind of messed up the character (and didn't really make all that much sense, considering they had a suit of Adamantium to work with and obviously had a way to heat and mold the metal). As with most of the Marvel films, sit through the credits (seriously, there are people who haven't seen The Last Stand's after the credit scene and, therefore, didn't know that Xavier is alive. That's not a spoiler. If you didn't know that by now, then, well, I can't really help ya there...). Hugh Jackman is as good as he's ever been as Wolverine and the story is pretty decent. Well, except for the bits with Famke Jansen. I never really bought into the Wolverine loves Jean Grey story from the movies (it was never really a thing in the comics until the Animated Series in the early 90's) and here it just gets...I don't know, weird. Creepy. Obsessive.

I saw World War Z and Monster's University, too. They were both better than expected. Despite knowing how MU was going to turn out, the journey still had enough twists and turns that made watching the movie enjoyable. WWZ was good, not great, but I hear it could've been worse. Kinda glad they dropped the whole "Brad Pitt has to fight his way through Russia to get back to his wife, who is in a semi-consensual relationship with Matthew Fox...", but I am interested in seeing the Russia battle itself. While it's been said that World War Z has nothing in common with the book, I could totally see how that movie evolved from the book.

Watched through Hemlock Grove. That...was...something. Not something good, mind you, but it is something that exists. I haven't read the book it was based on, but the show sucked. Hard. Like, I can't believe it is a real thing level of suck. The acting is terrible on a level that goes beyond Soap Operas. The writing isn't any better. But, the show is such a train wreck that it's hard to look away. Not that looking away matters, as the plot is so non-sensical that watching the show doesn't really help.

No matter what happens job-wise, it's my last full week of summer vacation which, if you recall, started August 1st. I lost my train of thought again, so, yeah. Enough for tonight.

I am seriously thinking about trying to find an agent or publisher again, but I'll probably rethink that by tomorrow.

To-Do List

Last time, I talked about my plans for Project Zero and a couple of the obstacles that I face in putting out a new edition (and any other of my work, honestly) and I forgot the biggest one (to be fair my neighbors were fairly loud. Also, they were playing the bean bag game...for hours):

I hate editing. No, it's not a dislike. No, the thought of editing my own work makes my skin crawl and my stomach churn (I have no problem doing this to others' work, but I curl up into the fetus position and cry when it comes to my own).

I tried to quantify why in the hopes I could overcome it (didn't really work) and I this is what I think my problem is: what if I take out or change the one thing that would have gotten me published? I know for the most part that this thought is ridiculous. I mean, if I want to change it, then everyone else who reads it probably wouldn't miss it, right?

Anyway, enough of my self-pity for now. As the title says, I have a to-do list. You'd think it'd be stuff I have to get before school starts or something. Well, it's not. Instead, I have a stack of ps3 games next to our TV. A stack of four or five games that I vowed to get through before purchasing any more games.

The stack started with the Zone of the Enders HD Collection and includes Lego Lord of the Rings, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Resistance 2,  and Assassin's Creed I and Revelations. And that doesn't even include the games I wanted to play through a second time, like Arkham City (I platinum'd on Asylum) and Bioshock Infinite (psyched for the expansion DLC), or the games I get for free through PSPlus.

This time I'm sitting at the DMV waiting to renew my license and I'm typing this on my phone (I upgraded to the GS3 back in March. Handy for doing things like this...), so I'm keeping this one short.

However, if any of my author buddies see this, can anyone recommend a magazine or something like that that publishes YA, supernatural, and/or general fiction short stories?

Episodic Content

Yesterday, I mentioned that I was prepping an Amazon version of my first book, Project Zero: Bulletproof. The plan is to release it in chunks, with each chunk getting a work over and unique covers for each section before I post it. There's a couple of concerns/complications/whatever there:

First, even with new edits, would anyone even want to buy a book that's been available on Smashwords for three years? I mean, the whole purpose of doing the Amazon Edition is because Smashwords hasn't uploaded the latest edition to Amazon's Kindle Store. Why? They haven't said. The only explanation given is on the distribution channel, which states that Smashwords is working on "technical integration" with the Kindle Store (I actually just checked the Smashwords' site again, and that message is no longer there, though the book still hasn't been "shipped" to Amazon). Again, not sure what that means, but Smashwords is nice enough to write it into the publication agreement that I am allowed to publish my work through other avenues (like Amazon).

Second, I'd have to find someone(s) and then pay them to do the covers for each "episode/issue/chunk/section." Because of the nature of the story, as it's about super heroes and such, I'd like the covers to look like comic covers (fun fact: I tried to make the cover to the current edition of PZ:B to look like the Marvel's Civil War comic covers). For the same reason I had to skip Chicago Comic-Con, I don't have a whole lot of disposable income. Or the time to sit down and collaborate with someone for what is planned to be ten separate covers (the '13-'14 school year starts in three weeks where I live...) My brother owes me a commissioned piece for donating to his Kickstarter project (to fund a special edition cover to his comic, Bombshell (I'll get links to where you can check it out as soon as he gets home from Comic-Con)) so...that's one cover, I supposed. If there are any book cover artists reading this, I can tell you this: I don't have money, what I do have is the ability to negotiate a lucrative royalty rate for your work...

I swear I had more to say, but you'll see why I lost my train of thought below. Next up, I go into what I've been doing with my free time this summer (including reviewing things) and how I plan to spend the remaining few weeks until school starts up again (which, I still need three college credits to renew my license...and need to figure out how to start my professional development portfolio...)

As an addendum to my last entry: This is also the first summer since 2004 that I haven't spent it working at the Office Depot (I quit there back in March after a new store manager started late last year and I finally just couldn't stand working for the guy any more) so...yay for that, at least.

New distraction of the night: one of my neighbors is like shooting or throwing something or something (sounds like it could be a staple or nail gun). Either way, constant and consistent loud noise interspersed with loud shouts and cheers. But, at least it's still nice enough out that I can sit out on the balcony and enjoy the weather.

Aw, I missed Summer

This summer has  been a summer of firsts for me. No, not like that. Pervs. This summer I had the privilege of teaching summer school for the Pewaukee School District. I pretty much had to make up the curriculum as I went (which I am pretty much making a career of) and a couple of the supplies that I had asked about in the interview (namely a SMARTboard or projector) weren't in the room when classes started. I don't blame the summer school principals, mind you, as they are teachers at the Middle and Elementary schools and those schools do have the interactive computer board tech in every room. And they were extremely helpful in answering all of my questions in a timely fashion. I should probably send them a thank you card or gift or something.

The students were also incredibly awesome. Like, I forgot what students who don't come to every class high (if they show up at all) are like. And...I think they learned stuff! I almost wish I had more time with them so I could really get into certain things (like Shakespeare, which we skimmed).

The only downside really is that summer school last from about three days after my school year ended and went until the end of July, which is when the cool front settled in on Southeast Wisconsin. So, yeah, as the title implies, I kind of feel like I missed summer. Still, great experience and something that I hope to repeat.

It's also my first summer in this apartment, which is nice. It's quiet most of the time. Except that we live in the pet-approved apartments (though I've noticed a suspiciously large number of cat toys and paraphernalia in non-pet units) and some dog owners don't know how to keep their pooch quiet during the day.

It's also my first summer owning a dog, which, aside from his occasional barky or stubborny days, is also pretty enjoyable. I have a 16-month old Daschund/Cattle Dog mix named Willy (he is pretty adorable and I will be posting pictures later).

However, it's the first summer since I graduated that I have yet to have a single interview (even if the others never really came to anything, it was nice to know that, at least on paper, I had been considered a viable candidate). It is also the first summer since 2007 that I haven't attended Wizard's Chicago Comic-Con, which kinda really sucks. But, I need to save for that wedding thing Kelly and I want to have.

My goal is to have an Amazon draft of Project Zero: Bulletproof done some time in the near future (I know, I said it before), but I actually started work on it (I swear!). I wonder if I could Kickstart enough to self-publish the first book. It is three years old now, so I don't think the demand would be there.

In the meantime, I'm sitting on the balcony overlooking a YMCA parking lot and, I swear, I just listened to a five-plus minute conversation that consisted of nothing but, "Naw, bro..."

Ah, summer time...

Super Heroes and Summer Time

My summer has been filled with super heroes.
While technically not the summer, The Avengers started the summer blockbuster movie season with a bang. Literally. Lots of stuff blew up. It was pretty spectacular. Plus, it means Joss Whedon can pretty much do whatever he wants. Whedon and Nathon Fillion could make a 2-hour movie that recreates Shakespeare's King Lear with shadow puppets and studio execs would literally (figuratively, whatever) fight to the death over who gets the rights.

Next came Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes. At first, I had no interest in this game. I own probably a half dozen other Lego games aside from this one, and they all play exactly the same: Break stuff, collect studs, repeat for a couple of hours. But it was the subtitle that got to me.
DC Superheroes!
A chance to play as Superman and Green Lantern? Hell yeah I want that. So, I preordered the game the day before its release at a Gamestop to get the exclusive Villains pack (I had a giftcard to GS and I didn't know about BestBuy's Hero pack). After waiting for the obligatory patch download and installation (seriously!? A day one patch?), my brother and I started our trek through the cutesified version of Gotham.
This game does boast that it's the first Lego game to use voice-acting (though, look at a messageboard about that tidbit and there're plenty of internet nerds...er...users to tell you otherwise (apparently, there was voice acting in, like, Lego Island 2. Who knew, right?)) Level after level, I kept waiting for the other DC heroes to show up. Superman finally made an extended appearance half way through the game (after a two minute cameo after the second level), but the rest of the Justice League only show up for the last five minutes or so. Between that, the fact that you fight a giant Joker robot, and the stupid new splitscreen (the spitscreen shifts based on which character is where) and I was pretty disappointed in this game.
It also felt like the shortest of the Lego games, with the story mode completed in around 6 hours (and this was with my usual OCD, must break everything in the level to collect studs, antics). The developers expect you to go through the "open world" and collect every gold brick, red brick, and unlockable characters once the story mode is over, but, other than pittering around Gotham with a different hero (or villain), there really isn't much use for these characters (yeah, you can replay the story missions, but most of the collectables can be gotten on the first play through).

Wow...that blurb about Lego Batman 2 went on much longer than I thought. I'll have to try to wrap up the rest of this quick.

The Amazing Spider-Man movie- Yeah, it's only been ten years since the first of Raimi's Spidey films came out, but those films were cheesy as we were still stuck in the, it's-based-on-a-comic-book, so-it-has-to-be-goofy, right? phase. I thought the ASM was enjoyable, even if some of it was rehashed from the Raimi films, and Garfield got a little too neurotic as Peter Parker in some spots. Interested to see where they go from here and if Webb/Sony has the cahoneys to kill of Gwen Stacey. Oh, spoiler-alert, in the comic, Gwen Stacey dies. Shouldn't be too much of a spoiler, really. Emma Stone has already stated that this is where she wants her character to go.

The Amazing Spider-Man game - It takes place shortly after the movie ends. The gameplay is like a marriage of Spider-Man 2 (still considered by many to be the best Spider-Man game) and the Arkham series (which, really, had a lot of Spidey-like elements to it, anyway...). Liked it, but, again, nothing to do once the story ends.

The Dark Knight Rises - I liked it. That said, I didn't love it. Not the way I loved The Dark Knight. It feels a lot like a sequel to Batman Begins instead of a sequel to TDK. That sounds weird, I know, but that's just the vibe that I got. Also, Bane's voice was...weird. I likened it to a Shakespearean actor who has to over annunciate every word so the audience can understand him (even if one of the biggest complaints about Bane is that he's difficult to understand). But, yeah, overall, liked it. Nolan and Co. could make more if they so desired to, but, seeing as DCE is rebooting the Bat-film franchise to make it more Justice League friendly, I don't see that happening.

So, yeah. A lot of super hero stuff this summer...and next summer...and...wait, when does Avengers 2 come out...?