Shinerdrinker: Blog

I'm trying something new. Contrary to popular opinion, I do listen to the critiques, and I understand the majority of them.

I, too, often want the writers of some of my favorite stories to post more, but I now understand why they don't or, more to the point, can't.

Simply put, it's not easy. The inspiration comes to many like a bolt of lightning, and to others, once in a great moon.

My particular problem is I write, and to me, it's all shit! I have honest to Bob trouble trying to pick the best stuff to go with for publishing. I have my outlines, but the in-between stuff is honestly, the hardest and most interesting reasons for writing this story. I want to show it all, but some of these are really downright terrible.

I'll bet there are a few out there wishing I had someone else reading then deciding since I'm choosing the wrong stuff. I've admitted it before: the secondary story was a spur-of-the-moment idea that really got the juices flowing. I think most can agree the initial idea of both simultaneous storylines co-existing was a good try, but it fell off the mark. Like, it's way off the mark. Rather than on my computer here in San Antonio, the fall hit somewhere outside Timbuktu.

The more I wrote for it, the more I realized I was not prepared for that storyline. The outline I came up with was less than perfect. In fact, I wrote the outline in a single sitting, and it went pretty much as I thought it would. But then it hits a wall, and the idea to get around that wall just never came.

Don't get me wrong! I think what we have of that storyline came out wonderfully, it just sort of petered out.

I've come to a decision. I will eventually remove the "Future Tim" section from "Mayhem in a Pill." I will make corrections and repost as an alternate timeline. I came to this final decision because I've been working on the next chapter of THAT storyline for at least three months. I have failed it. I think I need to start from the beginning with that one and retool it. It's worth saving. And I also think it would be nice if I posted something besides this one major story and a quasi-try at one of SOL's wonderful contests.

That one was written two days before the deadline, and I worked right up until the deadline on that one and then was told I missed the deadline an hour earlier. That's why the deadline now shows the exact time due, which is Eastern Standard Time.

That's another one I want another shot with, but I think I'll deal with it another day and repost with more detail. It deserves it and the current version reads like I cut it off too hastily. That was kind of jarring and I think it's salvageable.

As for Mayhem, I am working on it this weekend, with everyone worried about the coming cold into Texas and each home worried about the state's power grid holding up like the last time we saw these kinds of temperatures. We Texans don't do too well when the temps drop below freezing. The power grid does even worse. It's falling apart and the fixes for it have been slowly dwindled away to basically thoughts and prayers.

So let's regroup. Mayhem is not finished. The story will be fixed, and the separate timeline will be removed before posting for sale. And I will eventually also take another shot at "A New Quiver for Cupid."

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Some of you might remember another entry for another earlier contest, that was removed by my request and was another terrible try at that fabled contest. The story idea is good, but when I started writing, I quickly realized it would be much longer than the size specified for the contest. I cut out stuff with a chainsaw instead of a scalpel and I should not have done that. That's why no one has seen it since that fateful contest.

Ugh. Too longwinded. Back to writing or maybe MILF porn, I have not yet decided.

Tee hee.

--Shinerdrinker

Sadly, age has forcibly wrenched certain movie scenes from my immediate memory that deserve never to be forgotten.

But then a wonderful thing happens when surfing the sad listings from the overly-expensive cable conglomerate: you come across Grindhouse: Death Proof and stop for a moment because they are drinking your favorite brew, but suddenly the scene shifts, and Kurt Russell is sat in the middle of a cool bar in the middle of nowhere.

Vanessa Ferlito is picking a good song from the most excellent jukebox, and one of the most incredible scenes in movie history doesn't last long enough... or maybe it is juuuust long enough.

Yep, I need to start taking brain vitamins or something.

--Shinerdrinker

Most people who have read my blogs in the past know of my open obsession with all things Refusenik and my need for new stories from this wonderful author. I would happily give all of my neighbor's hard-earned money for new stories from that incredible story-telling brain.

But this blog is not about Refusenik.

This time, I am openly calling out to an amazing wordsmith with the beginning of a great story here on SOL. I know it is not exactly an original story with all the incredible stories that got started and never finished here on SOL.

"Stone Age Cabin" by Wildnature is already listed in my favorite authors list under my name. But I really enjoy that story. There is a great universe he created following in the footsteps of others like CMSIX, Monbade, Aubie56, Howard Faxon, and too many others to name.

The problem is that I find myself having difficulty putting my finger on exactly why I like it so much.

It is not perfectly written. The majority of things here are that way, including my humble stories I've posted, so far. But the story flows and the characters are well-written and easy to understand. The conversations between the dead human "Doc" and his introduction to the aliens who put him on another planet like Earth currently with humans in evolutional timing like our own caveman days here on the third rock from the sun in this solar system. Yeah, the pretty blue one that is putting a filter of trash over itself.

Okay, enough of that. Back to it, Shiner.

Anywho, Stone Age Cabin begins... you know what... fuck all that! I'm not gonna rehash the story for y'all. I could point you guys to it, but it is not that hard to find.

I'm just openly calling out Wildnature to continue the story himself. It has the potential to go down some interesting paths. And I for one, would love to see which one Wildnature was getting ready to take us down.

This is all a feeble attempt to get a fellow author back on that horse and post more chapters for a story that deserves to be read.

Now, before I go (yes, I hear you loud, few out there, "Why aren't you writing Mayhem?"), Well, zip it. I took a bit of a break over the weekend, returned to a story I had not read for a few months, and thoroughly enjoyed it again.

So now the writer's flaws are satiated, and it is time to return to Mayhem. The amount of football is dropping significantly with the end of the college football season quickly approaching. It has the last few weeks of back-to-back bowl games that I always enjoy, and then, of course, my beloved Cowboys quieted down many of the naysayers.

So until next time... Wildnature, you keep writing, and if you have a chance, tell Refusenik I'm still looking for him!

--Shinerdrinker

Apparently, my attempt at a joke went over too many heads.

The whole aliens and Atlantis side story was a joke!!!

Good Grief!!

Read the chapter and tell me what you think!

--Shinerdrinker

Yes, I'm yelling.

NEW CHAPTER!!!!

I have sent in the corrected version of the next chapter for posting. It should either come up this evening or in the morning.

You should be able to read it soon enough.

With all the rewrites I needed for this chapter, I'm proud of it. I think I threw a little wrench in the works, and hopefully, no one saw it coming. I mean the aliens attacking is one thing, but the way that Atlantis comes out to defend the planet... pure beauty.

Tee Hee.

--Shinerdrinker