Mushroom: Blog

And yes, I am starting to publish the newest in the "Night of Madness" series. But this time, it is going to be a bit different.

Not a single narrator, but five. Each will be narrating their own stories, in very different points of view. Most will be familiar, but some are completely new.

Clint makes a deal with Control, and "goes Rogue" under the name of "Monk". Trying to track down Mastermind, outside of the normal role of a Paladin.

Kitsune is not as happy as she had thought she would be in Control. She got her dream job of working with their Investigative branch, and even attended the FBI Academy. But some politician sent her on a crusade to try to find evidence of "mutant slavery". So she finds herself stripping once again, having to take her clothes off and search for any proof that mutants are being turned into sexual slaves.

Sonny is a somewhat embittered mutant. He was happy in the Army, but he became a mutant and soon found himself kicked out as it was the kind that the UN had forbid any in the military from having. So not knowing what to do, he approached the Mafia and soon found himself as a bodyguard for a mid-level boss in the organization.

Tina from the River City series is still with Lester, but gets some revelations from him when he realizes that he now knows who all of the main Paladins in Compass City really are. She is shocked, and decides she needs to be a bit more active herself.

Marcy was like most people. A wife and mother, who sees things getting worse and worse and knows they are not being told the truth. Then when a Paladin with a bomb almost kills her and her daughter, she decides to become more active.

And yes, both Sunny and Marcy are new characters, but Marcy has been seen before even if in a "minor role". And not all chapters will use the format of the opening one. I may have an entire chapter dedicated to a single character, or two or more. Some may not appear for several chapters. But I wanted to introduce (or re-introduce) all of them in the first one, so people will have an idea what to expect and who they were.

And I am sure more than a few will be going "What the fuck" when Lester tells Tina-Frank more about his past interactions with the Paladins of Compass City.

I have had several comments now on "Country Boy in the City", and basically they are all saying they do not like how big of a douche George is.

And yes, he is a douche. He is arrogant, self-centered, and thinks the world owes him a living. In short, he is what many think of when they hear the term "Millennial Generation". Think of him as kind of a combination of Pete and Linda.

He has a lot of the potential of Pete, but is following a path close to that of Linda in how he is living his life.

He is not very likable, and tends to piss others off. He holds others in contempt, and does not understand why they are the way they are. He is positive he is always right, and can't seem to understand that might not be the case.

However, this is also on purpose. And as in most of my stories that involve people like that ("Valley Girl", "Pippi Langstrumpa", "Loss Prevention", "Uncle Bill's Watch"), eventually there will come a time when he is smacked in the face hard with a 50 pound sledgehammer and realize that.

In Valley Girl, Linda realized what she was doing and fixed herself. In Pippi, he never did realize and continued that way after the story ends. In both Loss Prevention and Uncle Bills' Watch, they only realize it when they are about to die, or after they die.

To give an idea, I recently posted Chapter 14, am about to post Chapter 15, and am writing Chapter 19. Where he is in some ways shitting on most of those around him, and does not understand why they are so mad at him. And like Linda when I told her story, he is starting a downward spiral.

However, like her things will get better at the end. But he has a hard road ahead of himself of his own making before he gets there. I admit, he is an arrogant turd at the moment, and not very likeable. But like any "story", the idea is telling the story. Not always that the characters are likeable (or likeable all the time).

And to give an idea, there is a series of popular books that were started in the 1970's called "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" by Stephen R. Donaldson. Which also had a rather distasteful main character. Who among many things rapes a woman that cures him of leprosy and heals his injuries. Then later on discovers he had a daughter from that rape, and beats her when she tries to seduce him.

He is a very troubled person, and in many ways is a classic "Anti-Hero". Like the Punisher, or Venom. Or even James Bond, who has no problem raping a woman, and does not feel much if they are killed.

However, at the end George will come out a different person. But he still has a ways to go first. Ultimately, this is a story of a person's fall, then recovery from self-destructive behavior. And you can't have one without the other.

Yes, I finally posted the last chapter of The Sensei.

It will likely be a few months before I return to the Night of Madness, as I have to get back to CBCG. But I already have the next book in the Night of Madness series lightly outlined. And no, it will not be picking up with Clint, but somebody else. In fact, I am still toying with the idea of it featuring two main characters and switching back and forth between them.

Well, I am finally able to clean up the backlog of editing that needed to be done, thanks to my readers that submit to me corrections where I screwed things up.

To give an idea why, for almost 20 years I have worked with two monitors. My main one in front that I use for all my work and play, and a second that sits slightly to my right. For the last 5 years that has actually been a 32" TV, and when writing that is what I use for my notes, and the various pieces of research I may be doing for the story.

Things like when a movie came out, the force needed to break a bone, something like that. And also when I am editing, that is where I read the message I was sent, as the main monitor has the story I am editing.

Well, several months ago the one I had used for that purpose died. That meant only having a single monitor, and that was annoying in the extreme for anything other than more basic uses. So the editing corrections just sat in my mail box, until today.

And only because I know some will ask, I got a TCL 32" Roku TV from Wally World for $150. Considerably cheaper than a similar monitor, and decent resolution for most of my purposes.

And thanks again to all those that have taken the time to point out to me where I screwed things up. It is greatly appreciated.

Yes, I am still (trying) to write, but it has been increasingly difficult lately as my depression has been making me start to turn stories "dark". As in, nowhere where I wanted to go.

For example, I had written and rewritten the latest chapters of The Sensei many times, but they kept turning me towards a situation that would have had Lucy dying. Which of course is not the intention, so I would change them, and it would start to happen again.

And I ran across similar problems in Country Boy. Having George start to become hooked on hard drugs (which may or may not happen, but not at this point). So what keeps happening is that I write a chapter or two, delete it, and then try again.

I would rather wait until I can write the correct chapter, than put something out I am not happy with just to publish new content.

However, I did add onto both stories with stand alone ones, that are a tad darker. In "River City: A New Life" I finally tie in characters that have been around in the Bohica universe, but now make it more obvious who they actually are.

And another Honey Silver one, also a tad dark but where she starts to make plans to leave her career.

And yes, I am over half way through a Kim Peal Investigator one. Kind of the same. As unlike the first this one actually gets a tad dark with actual rapes (while the victim is unconscious), so it has been tricky to not go into things I simply will not write about (I find rape disgusting and horrible and never "sexy").

So yes, I am still writing. I am simply having a problem completing something that I feel is worthy to publish. And would rather delete chapters I do not like than publish them then try to make them fit when they went against the original concept of the story.