Futurist: Blog

Their were two leaders from the responses.
A/R/I got about as many responses as all of the other current stories combined, and the new story idea got the second most votes.

As my editor, and friend has been urging me to use an edit of A/R/I as a way to get myself back on track, I will be pursuing those two options. Additionally, I plan to submit the new story to NaMoWriMo.

I plan to start submitting the edits for A/R/I this week, and keeping you appraised of my progress on the new story, "Gateway", and only post it at the end of the month.

However, it is very difficult to jump back into a story, as I would like to think I had established a writing style in each one, that requires...a particular mindset.

As I am YEARS removed from each of the stories I have posted, it would be easier to start a fresh story to remove at least one of my blocks. So, I would ask, which would you prefer? Please respond with one of the following choices.


New Story
A. Summary - A magical civilization in another reality is being overrun. As a last, desperate attempt to flee their enemies, they open a portal from their reality to ours, right on top of the Yellowstone Super volcano. An unintended side effect of this portal breaching the Angelic Wards on our reality causes all of the energy stored in the Yellowstone Caldera to change to magic, sweeping across the globe and changing people and animals into the magical representations of their inner selves.

B. Second Age of Discovery
C. Lost Colony
D. Abort/Retry/Ignore
E. Harry Potter: The Spectacular Spiderman

So, one of my closest friends passed, too. I even used his name and some of our conversations in my story SAoD. Troy Swallow, you are missed already. By your wife, ex-wife, daughters, and me.

Just couldn't muster the drive to write. Over the past couple of years, that is the third death of a person inside my closest dozen people in my life. I promised my editor I would get back to writing. He wants me to finish all of my stories...no promises on order, just getting something out at this point seems more important. So, stay tuned!

All too many of my friends have been dying too young. I buried one of my best friends, Troy Swallow. I was the only non-tribal member to serve as a pall bearer. He didn't make it to fifty, left two daughters by his first wife 19 and 17. Plus a daughter from his second wife, who is only 11.

I, I have been struggling to deal with his death. On top of the deaths of Paul Combellack and William Clark, also former Marines that worked at the Bannister Federal Complex. Paul was only 47. Yet, NIOSH insists that there is not, nor could there ever have been a health issue at Bannister Federal Complex.

This, despite Bendix/Allied Signal/Honeywell (depending on the year), paying for early medical retirement for hundreds of workers. Despite the site having been designated a Superfund Cleanup site like Love Canal. They have been hiding their medical and environmental records under the umbrella of "National Security", with NNSA (National Nuclear Security Agency) as their patron, is it any wonder?

I WANT to get back to writing, but I'm struggling to find my center, and my emotions are still flying all over the place. Sadness, loneliness, loss, anger, righteous outrage...until the government sends some people to jail for the blatant abuses and subsequent cover up, I will have difficulty. If I DO post anything, give me a little leeway...

Sadly, I buried another friend last month. He was 48. As more and more of my fellow Marines that served with me at the Bannister Federal complex die, I become more and more convinced that our government has lost the moral imperative to govern. They KNOW that that site was contaminated by (by their own count) over 1173 toxic chemicals. They KNOW that the only National Nuclear Emergency Response team call was for a systematic spill of highly radioactive, water soluble Promethium. And yet, publicly they deny any POSSIBILITY that there might be or ever has been a safety/health issue.
And wait for more of us to die. At last count, there were less than 200 of the nearly 4000 people that worked in that building in 1987 left alive. When the government is willing to lie and conspire to reduce its liability, is anyone safe?