official website of Erin M. Klitzke, historian and author of Awakenings and Epsilon: Broken Stars
Thought I’d share some of the theme music for When All’s Said and Done. Some of it’s old, some of it’s much newer.
The original songs for Kyle and Hadrian:
Kyle and Hadrian’s song: When I’m Gone, by 3 Doors Down
Hadrian’s song: Building a Mystery, by Sarah McLaughlan
New song for Kyle and Hadrian: Broken, by Lifehouse
The thesis is done, turned in, and will be out for binding next week. This means I suddenly have quite a bit more free time, and it’s high time I dedicated some of it to fiction once again. Not just reading fiction, but writing it as well. Since I’ve never been one for writing scripts, and April is Script Frenzy month from the OLL (the wonderful, crazy people who bring us Nanowrimo every year), I’ve decided it’s high time that I start redrafting my first even Nanowrimo project, When All’s Said and Done. The characters have been on my mind of late, and it feels like it’s time.
There’s going to be major changes from the original draft to the second, in part due to the ramble I started scribbling last summer, one that’s brought a character that knows what’s going on inside the Institute into direct contact with Ky again, rather unexpectedly. Because Ridley knows a lot of what’s going on inside, more than Hadrian ever could find out due to the rapid decline of his health, some of the twists in the original draft will need to be reworked. It’s all Julia’s fault, really. She brought him to Damon (her cousin who happens to be Matthew’s longtime friend), which means Damon called Matthew and everyone got involved with each other quite a bit faster than in the original draft, though I think that having Damon knee-deep from the start will work better. He can still be a little annoyed with Matthew, but not nearly as annoyed as he was in the original draft.
Having Ridley there and able to tell Ky and Matthew things, however, does throw into question some plot twists, including the one that involves Tim Thatcher. I suppose I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. Before I do anything else, I need to decide what’s going to happen with the installation at Andover Commonwealth…whether they abandon it, or believe it’s secure in the wake of Ridley’s escape from the village with Julia’s help.
I imagine Reverend Stonard might pop up in When All’s Said and Done, too. He seems as if he’d make a good villain. And Laren, of course, trying to lay low. The Tina character may disappear completely, since the new version will begin in August rather than November.
A lot to think about, and only a few days before I begin to redraft! What fun will this be…
So for the past week or so I’ve been feeling the need to put pen to paper (literally) and do some freewriting. I don’t do it often and so when the mood strikes, it’s strange. So between thesis and cleaning, I’ve been freewriting. I’m up to fourteen handwritten pages (almost fourteen pages, there’s only a few lines left on page 14 to write). Freewriting is a strange thing…you never know what’s going to happen.
So I started with a first person point of view and rambled. My narrator told me pretty quickly that her name was Julia (Julia Rhiannon, no less) and that she’d been living in this creepy little midwestern town for a few months because she’d been taking care of a sick (now deceased) relative that she’d been visiting there since she was eight. Most of the town, especially the good Reverend at the local evangelical chapel, give her the heebie-jeebies.
Then there was this boy–maybe about her age, maybe a little younger, a mysterious, broken thing that on the surface looked crazy, “special,” or drugged. He kept popping up, kept looking for her. She found out his name was Darien fairly early on. He came to her in moments of almost-lucidity and asked for her help.
Now…I knew by this point (heck, I knew by a few lines into the first page) that this story is in the same universe as my first Nanowrimo project ever, When All’s Said and Done, which has been on my mind in between thinking about Edward I and III because it’s about time I finally gutted the thing, revised it, polished it, and started sending it to publishers. It’s a strangely disturbing piece, probably because there’s elements of it that are just maybe a little too real to not be creepy. The freewriting ramble I’ve been working on was very clearly very intimately connected to the story of the Insitute, given Darien’s whisperings about the end and the Institute and how he’s very clearly reluctant to tell Julia the whole truth for fear she’ll either think he’s crazy or get herself into trouble with the sprawling installation just outside of the village of Andover Commonwealth.
I’m writing page 13 and 14 today, where Darien is giving up some of the secrets he knows about the place…and it hits me. Bam. Right between the eyes.
Darien isn’t Darien at all.
Darien is Ridley.
Now that revelation isn’t going to mean anything to anyone except for me and maybe one or two other people who may happen to stumble across this. And if Miss Jen reads it, she’s going to blink and ask me who Ridley is and I’ll tell her. And her eyes will get big and wide and she’ll be all “Ooh.”
And then she’ll ask if she can read the ramble. And I’ll let her, because she’s Reece, and maybe someday Reece’ll actually meet up with this broken soul who feels like he’s betrayed people he cared about, people who cared about him in return.
All depends on what the redrafting process brings. Either way, this ramble…fantastic background and yet another layer added into what was originally a lot less complex than it’s going to become.
Nanowrimo went spectacularly well for me this year — I made goal with time to spare. It seems, however, that the story of The Last Colony is more conducive to a trilogy than than it is to a single volume. The whole of the story just can’t be told in such a small package, I guess. There’s just too much story to tell.
Speaking of too much story to tell, it’s high time I turn around and do the serious editing that When All’s Said and Done, my first winning Nanowrimo piece, requires. The work has some serious potential; I think if I can get through a rewrite I might even be able to put that together into a duology or trilogy (or even a single book) and start shopping agents. Hopefully.
However, the most important bit of writing I need to be doing in the near future is my Master’s thesis. I’ve gotten somewhat disconnected from it of late and need to bring myself back to it–and badly. That’s one thing that’s on tomorrow’s agenda, to reconnect with my thesis research. Before the semester ended, I had started reading From Scythia to Camelot and I should really get back to it. But I started reading Devil in the White City today, and I have a feeling I’ll race through that and then get back to research.
I have a desk, now, though, and it’s gloriously beautiful. It’s a library table style desk that my father made for me and it’s lovely. I can’t wait to start being able to use it, but that requires that the bedrooms be switched out so I can (my desk is currently in the larger bedroom, occupied by my brother). I’m very much looking forward to having my own space to work, though, where I can leave stuff out.
I’ll only be doing one class this semester–I was going to take seminar again, but financial constraints will prevent me from doing so. Instead, I’m going to work intensively with Dr. Chapman on my thesis and get it done so I can defend in the spring. There’s no other option–that’s the way it’s going to be.
And then hopefully, I’ll get into a Ph.D program for the fall of 2011. Hopefully.
Nanowrimo began on Sunday, and I was out of the gate with more than 2000 words before I went to bed at 2am on November 1. By the end of the day on November 1, I had almost 4,000 words in. As of this writing, I’m sitting at 5,465 words and counting–already above where I need to be for today (I would need to be 5,000 words in to be on par for the day — I will probably push for at least 7,000 before I sleep tonight).
My project is, of course, the project I’ve been doing the world-building for which I’ve posted here. The Last Colony tells the story of humanity in its twilight, with the potential for a dawn. The synopsis as posted to the Nanowrimo site is as follows:
Old Earth is dead.
A hundred light years away, New Earth is dying, murded by human hands.
Thousands of years after the human diaspora, another homeworld is dying the same death, promising that history does, in fact, repeat itself, and no one cares.
The Rose Foundation and the Psychean Guard have a plan. The world of E557 is their last hope to save all that is right and good in humanity. Sustainable energy. Virgin soil. Some of the best and brightest minds in a generation.
But the conglomerates of New Earth want what E557 has to offer, and damn the consequences–after all, it’s just another world. There’s always more where that came from.
War is coming to E557–the Oracle has fortold this. It is a fight humanity cannot afford to lose.
But can the galaxy afford for humanity to win?
The excerpt I have posted is actually the prologue to the story and takes place eleven years before the story’s start. My friend Mike is already hooked. Jen hasn’t seen the story yet (I should probably send her the first nine pages). One of my WoW buddies has it in his hot little hands, too, but I went to bed before I could see what he thought of it.
In addition to this wonderfully magical noveling experience, I’ve also started a few specks of new fiction. One is nowhere near complete (it’s in the beginning stages) but it’s an explanation as to why Quin’lisse Adama missed the wedding of one of her best friends. When it’s done, hopefully it’ll knock a few socks off. The other is a serial for the RoA and Sentinels Realm Forum entitled “The Devil is in the Details.” The frst few posts of it are below the cut line.
Back to 30 days of world-building. Only got a couple days to go before the commencement of Nanowrimo this year.
Skipping Days 17 and 18
Day 19 – Characters and what they’re all about
I’m not going to bore most folks with the character list. Hell, I want to keep a lot about the characters a secret, since characters are often the key to my success in writing. Instead, I’ll just offer a brief taste of some of them.
Here they are, in alphabetical order.
This particular directive — that is, starting to outline plot — is something I started a bit ago, as scenes started to form themselves in my head. Basically, the exercise for day 20 asks the writer to say what the story’s about — what’s the overarching plot.
On the Nanowrimo forums, there’s a thread that was fantastic: the 20-word summary of your plot. This was mine:
Humanity has killed dozens of worlds. They’re not allowed to kill this one.
Thirteen words to describe the plot of The Last Colony. We’ll see what the ending holds.
I do have one major subplot already in mind, which deals with the rescue of America Farragut and Grant Channing from the Chinasia Corp and Eurydice Compact congloms respectively. Of course, Lindsay isn’t going to like the plan that Ezra (since it will be Ezra that comes up with the majority of the plan) comes up with for rescuing her parents.
Largely skipping this one, except for to jot down the note that there are various terrestrial species that have been preserved since the loss of Earth that have become semi-domesticated. Other species were used to populate the lands of E-557 long before the colonists ever landed there. No one’s really sure who terraformed the planet or seeded it with terrestrial species. There is some data to indicate that E-557 was a world that had once harbored life before being terraformed, but for some reason had been abandoned in a very distant past.
Skipped to Day 24 – Mood (again!)
Day 24 is all about artwork, mood, and music playlists for working on your project. Of course, this can take a long while to put together, especially the artwork. So, for the moment, I’m going to forgo some of the artwork but share some of the music that’s evocative and inspiring lately…
Other songs include “Keep Holding On” by Avril Lavigne, “Now or Never” by Three Days Grace, “Wonder” by Natalie Merchant, “Believe” by Staind, “Carry You Home” by James Blunt, and “World” by Five for Fighting.
Day 25 – The Sky (and what’s in it when)
This isn’t so important, since I don’t have any nighttime sequences in mind that will require moonlight. I love the moon in all its phases, and if it becomes important to have the moon be a certain way at a certain time, I’ll be sure to keep track of phases. Though the exercise is a wonderful cautionary tale.
The rest of the days on the world-building lists are mostly wrap-ups — finish up with this, that, and the other thing. So I’ll be spending my last few days before Nanowrimo working on school work and doing some outlining for November 1!
Back to my brainstorming fueled by 30 days of worldbuilding, of which I’ve skipped several days (in part due to finishing up a paper for the Great Lakes History Conference — which is almost done, mercifully, and will be completed on Thursday).
Day 8 – It’s all about the Economics and the Resources
Basically, the Foundation and the Psychean Guard control the resources–all of them–of E557. Other congloms would love to exploit the virgin planet. That’s not going to happen.
Skipped Day 9-11.
Skipped Day 13
I hope I’ll be forgiven for not sharing character notes that related to the above, though I did scribble down some stuff about Brendan Cho (a refugee from Chinasia Corp), Alana Chase (a refugee from the Eurydice Compact), Lindsay Farragut (the Oracle and thus a refugee from the Psychean Guard), and Ezra Grace (who was born and raised on E557 to an old Foundation family).
Skipped Day 15.
Day 16 – Refining and further detailing speculative elements
Psychics – Some psychics, such as the Oracle, who are particularly strong can and will suffer sensory overload when all six of their senses are available to them in most types of “public” settings. The overload can cause discomfort ranging up to causing eventual brain damage in the most powerful psychics due to repeated “trauma.” Training can alleviate this for most psychics, but for the most powerful there is simply no way to prevent psychic “seepage.” Some use drugs to control their abilities, but this isn’t considered an entirely viable solution and is only turned to (within the Psychean Guard) when absolutely necessary.
Cyberware/Wetware – Often used in military and technical applications, but very, very hard on the body. The most heavily cybered individuals often don’t live long, either dying or going insane. In most congloms, this isn’t a problem, since most of the time these people are expendable.
– Cutting-edge, less invasive wetware techniques have been pioneered on E557. They’re also the leading experts on decybering, which was prevously thought impossible.
—-> Part of deybering requires genetic engineering and limited cloning technology.
– Very few psychics can tolerate cyberware. More can handle basic wetware, but usually not too much. There has been some research that suggests it does somethign ti kill psychic ability because of chemical imbalances caused in the brain as a result of installation.
—> The Psychean Guard developed techniques for determining whether or not particular individuals could handle wetware/cyberware.
FTL Travel – Faster than light travel is possible, but tricky and dangerous outside of known corridors. Even in known corridors, 1 in 50 ships never make it to their destinations–and no one knows what’s become of half of these vessels lost. When traveling outside of known corridors, the number jumps to nearly half of the ships lost. As a result, most travel is restricted to known “safe” zones and ships drop from FTL usually days from their intended destination (the system surrounding New Earth is an exception). For example, “safe” routes to E557 have ships coming in 5-7 days away from the planet.