T. MaskedWriter: Blog

I'm trying to get back to the old routine and that includes returning to my self-imposed schedule and deadlines. I've missed "Final Edit Before Sending Off Day" two weeks in a row now, and need to get it back. Chapter 7's mostly done, however, Wednesday is my usual day and it's still not ready. Rather than stress about it, I'm gonna give myself the time to get it right and state that I shall still strive for weekly chapters, however, can't guarantee anything just now.

T. MaskedWriter's SAQ

Hi, T. MaskedWriter here, and this, right in your face, is my SAQ.

When we last left off, I was unable to continue "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" for reasons already stated. My living situation has changed and is still in the air, so I've since been trying to clear my head and get back to writing. Again, for reasons already covered.

"A Road Trip Amongst Equals" is… well, spinning its wheels right now. I'm having trouble doing that thing Stephen King described as "Falling through the hole in the center of the page."

The Law of Averages and the support I've received in this time lead me to conclude that, with as many views as I get, I might have a fan or two by now. I'm not full enough of myself to think I'm some kind of "Author." Like, anyone would pay extra to wait in line at a convention for a Q&A with me or anything. I ever get something printed and you want it signed, no problem. Hell, I might become one of those people who'll see it on a shelf and randomly autograph it to whoever buys it. I'm nutty like that.

I know I'm not there. So, I'm aware that this is going to be, at best, cheap therapy and, at worst, masturbating onto the screen. However, talking about the stories has always spurred me on, and one of the people with whom I would have done so is gone from my everyday life.

Therefore, in an effort to retrieve my groove, show everyone I'm not dead, and to dammit, write SOMETHING; I thought I'd answer some questions. I don't get them often enough to call them Frequently Asked, so these are Questions that at least Somebody has Asked me at some point. I'm hoping that talking to someone, even air, will do it. If someone wants to ask something, provide increased awareness of my general overall suckiness, or just tell me what a wanker I am for doing this, comment where applicable. Feel free to punch me right in the SAQ, life does it all the time.

* * *

Why are the first three stories so hard to read?/Why did you start writing?

Two questions with the same long answer.

I started writing in my teenage years, and enough people told me that those teen scribblings were good enough to one day make money if I kept at it that I had little choice but to believe them. Everyone's parents tell them they're a genius, I think, however, when enough strangers say something like that, I always figure they might know something I don't.

Then, some things happened, and I was hit by a depression-induced writer's block. Here's where things are going to start sounding like bullshit, because all that time, something my mother said to me was "I wish you'd get back to writing. You could make a living off of it." The last time she did it was while she could still speak that final week of spending all night by her side until watching her stop breathing forever.

A couple months after that, an old friend told me he was near homeless Down South. Yes, I live in Alaska, the Red-Headed Stepchild State, and that's what we call the rest of the US. I thought "he just needs a couple months to get his shit together" and invited him to stay on my couch. It soon became clear that the plan was, in fact, "retire to my living room." It finally got far enough past the point of "Gee, it'd be cool if you had some manner of income and were, like, not a negative source of mine" for me to tell him "You got two weeks and you don't pay rent, so if there's any issue with that, we can skip straight to the 15 second notice." I'm a bit more selective about who I extend that offer to now.

I was feeling good about myself that night. So, I went over to my laptop, opened up Word and said, "Let's try something." I'd just re-read one of my major sources of inspiration that's appeared in my stories a couple times, Sammynona's Slaves to the Snake Goddess, and after years of reading Erotic MC stuff, decided to try that.

My problem was that this was literally the first thing I'd written in 20 years. The last time I'd written anything, I'd been a virgin and, well, hadn't had enough since to be confident in my ability to write a "sex story." As an exercise, I decided to do it as dialogue with no description. Two hours later, I looked up, and there was "A Conversation Amongst Equals." I did some cursory editing and decided while I still had some nerve left in me, to post it to the EMCSA.

That first question got asked a couple times, however, enough people seemed to like it that I felt I needed to follow it up. I knew that Troy & Julie, despite finding true love, had still been mind controllers throughout their teenage years, and thus, were probably into MC-based Poly from an early age. Thus, "bringing home a friend or two" would be something they both enjoyed too much to give up.

That spawned the idea of Julie bringing home someone to share with Troy, which would allow me to write my favorite kind of MC story: Lesbian Seduction. My problem: Having an even worse perspective on how one woman would seduce another than how a man might. I didn't want to let that stop me, so I decided that this, too would be dialogue, and turn out to be the story of how Julie brought Claire home. I then wrapped things up so the next story would have to be the one of how Troy brought Susan home. Hopefully, I've read/watched enough porn to successfully fake it.

Here, I was trapped. Since that third story would begin immediately after the second, I'd be forced to do the same thing with Troy & Susan's story. I worried that if I did it a fourth time, it'd become "my schtick," and didn't want that, so I decided to retell that story and the aftermath from Susan's perspective. Nowadays, I tell people "Go ahead and start with 'Long Day's Journey Into Susan' and come back to those first three some other time."

Are all of these going to be that long? (Self-asked)

Fuck, I hope not. I'm not out to bore people. It's more writing than I've done in a month, so Spider-Sense is telling me "Run with it."

Most of the recurring characters have first and last names now except one: Why doesn't Claire have a last name?

Claire was meant from the start to be a side-character. An example of what happens when everything goes right, and Troy & Julie make a new fuckfriend. The two of them are weary of "Pick someone up, seduce them, never hear from them again" and want something more rewarding. Alaskans are a neighborly people. Even if you hate their guts, if the neighbor comes pounding on your door at 2 AM, they might need help and you might be the only one who can for miles around, so you still get up and answer it. You'd rather that person be a friend, so you're as friendly to them as you can be. They're building a life together, they want real friends. There are friends they don't have sex with too, like Denise and her parents. Just that the ones with which they do tend to be part of the story more often.

So, are you Greek or something?

Why yes, indeed I am. My father was Greek from the Old Country and my mother was American. There's no such thing as a half-Greek, though. When you're a Greek, you're a Greek all the way, from your first Raki shot to your final meze.

What's the thing between Helen and Daftpunk?

Between Helen and Daftpunk.

Why does Susan get title billing in her stories?

She's got a great agent.

Sometimes you refer to people "nodding in the negative" or "nodding the Greek way." What's up with that?

Greeks have a different way of visually signifying "yes" and "no" than most cultures. "Yes" is indicated by single downward and to the left nod of the head. "No" is indicated by a single upward nod to the right. An eyeroll is part of the gesture, so if they give you one with it, context is vital to determine if you're being an idiot or they're just telling you "No." Because I was raised with both, I get them mixed up sometimes, so non-Greeks have "nodded in the negative" as well. That's a Me thing, like "Never say 'among' where you can say 'amongst.'"

How many languages do you know personally?

English, mainly. And NADSAT, the future-slang from "A Clockwork Orange." My father never taught me the language and it's one of the biggest regrets of my life, that's why Helen knows all of them. With the Greek I've picked up on my own, I can start a fight or tell a lady she's pretty, and I'm slowly working on the rest. Google Translate plays a huge uncredited role in all the languages, so I'm sorry if I parse yours incorrectly.

Why do you give the backstories so often? Don't we know them by now?

I'm a Marvel Man. Something I recall Stan Lee saying about this question was "Every comic is someone's first comic," so you bring them up to speed some way in each issue. I sometimes worry that it's excessive myself. I mean, how many ways are there to explain "Being able to control everyone around you makes you super-confident, so you become super-good at the things that matter to you?"

What's the thing about Julie's hair?

That's my fault. I wanted to give her a distinctive look, however, it wouldn't have come up in the first story because whatever it is, it's been a part of their lives forever, and wouldn't come up. I've since been told what a bad move that was. By the second story, the reader already has an image of Julie in their heads, and here I go fucking it up for them. So yeah, Julie has weird hair, and it's sort of been relegated to a background detail, along with "no poker face."

But ya know, the only people whose ethnicities or races have really been established in the stories are Troy, Helen ("we're about to do something that only rich, famous, pretty white girls can get away with"), Maria, Stavro, Mander, Colleen, Ramirez, and Velazquez. If, in your head, you want to picture Julie Black, Claire Asian, and Susan Cherokee, that's fine by me.

How was Helen ready to be the highest-priced call girl in Paris after giving birth to twins?/A number of other sex-related questions.

It's a porno world. We don't worry about stuff like that.

I want to see Helen humiliate and destroy people more. Can you at least make her fart on someone?

First off, yes, that was a real question. Asked by more than one person.

Second, Helen is trying to follow the Path of Redemption. She doesn't always succeed. Maybe you guys have read different stories about a person who was bad trying to make up for her past and do right but ending up having to do things HER way instead. Which is the one that involves farting on people? Even with the Greek Deep and Philosophical Understanding of Revenge, I can't imagine Propappou sitting up in his Clash of the Titans-like Heaven and smiling proudly at his Petalouda Mikro for farting on a dude. Stop trying to make it a thing, Gretchen, it's not going to happen.

Why did we skip Helen's entire pregnancy?

I didn't want to do any "wacky pregnancy" stories. And I felt like the only other kind I could do were ones where Troy and/or one of the ladies keeps having to drop everything and rush to San Finzione to spoon up to a pregnant and brooding Helen and reassure her that their childhood and upbringing is going to be a lot better than her own and they'll be here, so there's no need to be worried. A "Helen is trying to quit smoking and we have to keep outwitting her ploys to get smokes" story didn't appeal to me for the same reasons, so I decided that between "A Night Away From It All" and Susan's explanation of why motherhood only put her smoking on hiatus; you can be certain that the first thing she did when she got out of the castle was to light up, I'd got all that out without having to write stories I didn't want to.

Is there really a Star Fleet Academy Camp? How do I join?

Sadly, I made it up. It seems like a wasted opportunity with some money to be made if anyone else wants to start one.

How do you make a Cookie-Bar Sundae Rainbow Explosion?

I figured that Troy & Julie would have a special dessert that they love. And that it'd be the kind of thing you come up with when you're ten and your best friend is spending the night and the adults are asleep and you have unfettered access to the kitchen. It starts like a brownie sundae, except instead of a brownie, you use a bar cookie, chocolate chip preferred. Ice cream of your choice, 1-3 toppings of choice, whipped cream, and three cherries like Sinatra's martini olives: One for me, one for you, and one for whoever shows up. Then, to get the Rainbow Explosion part, you cut up Starbursts into little pieces and use them for your sprinkles.

I've only tried it a couple times due to how obviously unhealthy it is. So yes, it's a special occasion treat, like proposing or torturing some guys in your basement.

Why, in the descriptions, do you alternate between "Helen" and "Helena?"

I can call her Helen because we go back like that. I recall reading the foreword of a Batman graphic novel where the writer told us about a note in DC's Batman "Bible" that stuck out to him: "Bruce Wayne is the mask, Batman is the real man, and he's NOT crazy!" It's to differentiate her mental state at the time. When she's in charge and on top of the world, she's Helena. When she's "feeling her roots," she's Helen. Which is most of the time. If you go back and re-read the scene where she visits Wade in prison, she starts out as Helen, and as the scene goes on, becomes Helena.

Is Helen evil?

No. Helen is, as Troy describes it, "Unfettered by principles," but she's certainly not evil, and I'm happy I made that decision. I had her set up to be an arch-enemy, and there were one or two scenes in "As Day Follows Night" that were originally quite different from what went into the story; and yes, she DID start out fucking The Count to death to get the throne, until I wrote her conversation with Troy at the ball and decided she'd work better not as an enemy, rather, a friend who'd lost her way and needed some help coming out of her shell to get it back.

What was that picture Helen grabbed from her desk in "Night Brings The Hunter?"

It was for a scene that got cut. Originally, Igazi was going to keep Helen in The Box, rather than The Tower; like Sir Alec Guinness in "Bridge on the River Kwai.". However, because he still thought she was a witch and would need to prepare her magic, she would be allowed to keep some of her possessions, and she'd pull out the picture and smile at it to keep her spirits up. It was the aerial photo of the fornicating people in the park spelling out "Fuck You, Helen," and she'd remember the dear friends who played that joke on her, giving her the fortitude to endure her day and night in The Box. I don't really do "drafts" or "outlines," I'm more of the Hemingway "sit at the typewriter and bleed" school of writing. So yes, that got cut, but because I write and post these things approximately a chapter a week, it was too late to go back and change it. I spend a week writing each chapter, then I spend the rest of my life editing it.

In "So Night Follows Day," Susan makes reference to dropping Helen off Nakatomi Plaza. The building itself was called Nakatomi Tower and the business park it was in was Nakatomi Plaza, so shouldn't that be "drop you off Nakatomi Tower ONTO Nakatomi Plaza?"

Yes, it should. This was, in fact, a "deliberate mistake" to see who'd call Susan on it and maybe get a comment or two out of whoever spotted it. Nice work.

Is Susan Bailey a real, separate person than you? If not, should we be concerned for your mental state? Is that going to be your name once you've killed enough women to make your woman-skin suit?

Hi, my name's Susan Bailey. Mind if I take this one, O Foul and Profane Masked Thing That I Worship? (I'll call that a yes. Thanks.)

I am a self-aware fictional character like Deadpool, Ambush Bug, She-Hulk, and so on. For my work helping The Unhallowed and Blasphemous Masked Entity That Controls My Universe out of the writing corner he'd painted himself into, he granted me Free Will and Fourth-Wall awareness. (It's how I'm able to stop and turn to you and say a few words like this, then when I turn back, the story continues.) I have an account of my own on several forums and a writing business email if anyone has any questions or comments for me, personally.

So, who's based on real people?

Troy is the sort of person that I wish I was. I try not to let him become a Mary Sue, which is why the stories tend to focus on the ladies more than him. He knows how incredibly fucking lucky he is and doesn't push it.

Julie is sort of an amalgam of every woman I've ever loved. I know a Julie or two, and if one of them is reading this, she's not you. I wanted her to have a classically beautiful name, Julie is a classically beautiful name. Then I thought that she didn't like using her last name and figured "What's the worst last name that a girl named Julie could be forced to live with, and "Andrews" was the only choice.

Helen is based on a real person. That's not her name, though. Unlike Helen, she's not bi, and I'd like to go on record as saying that her family are all cool people, none of whom I can prove are criminals, and I know the real Helen's dad and he's a cool guy; nothing like Wade. You might've noticed in "A Remembrance Amongst Equals," Troy tells Julie that the hot realtor "looked kinda like Helen, but older." Not that much, but yes, the real-life Helen is the one who sold Contessa Helena de San Finzione the Andrews and Medina houses. As for why I named her Helen? Because if your male lead's name is Troy, OF COURSE the slinky femme-fatale from his past who still carries a torch for him is GOING to be named Helen!

Luc's name is based on me mate in Manchester. Always wanted one of those.

Others have been based on "fans." I'm not full of myself enough to take that word out of quotes yet. Jeanne, Colleen, and Rachel are all readers who've made their way into the stories. So, hey, talk to me, if you're cool, you might make it to San Finzione, too.

Is there an order to the stories?

Yes, there is. Remember that, as far as I think these days, because of the way they were written, starting with "Long Day's Journey Into Susan," then going back and checking the first three sometime is a good idea, but here's the order. In paragraph form, because if I can get ten pages out of this, that's my approximate chapter length, so that'll be my snatching the pebble from the blind master's hand.:

A Conversation Amongst Equals, Great Day For It, How My Day Was, Long Day's Journey Into Susan, An Intermission Amongst Equals, The Day Before The Day, As Day Follows Night, A New Day Dawns For Susan, Night Brings The Hunter, A Walk Amongst Equals, The Continuing Education of Susan, A Remembrance Amongst Equals, A Little Night Music, So Night Follows Day, What This Night May Bring, A Morning After Amongst Equals, A Night Away From It All, Susan Takes Charge, Whatever Gets You Through The Night, and the story that might go in-between the last two that I'm working on is A Road Trip Amongst Equals. My head's still scattered at the moment, though, and also have an idea for something for Susan.

Why aren't there any Tales From The Pink Zone up there?/When are you going to do more of those?

Tales From The Pink Zone are a different world and have nothing to do with "The Equalsverse." I have to go to a place in my head of which I am not overly fond to write those, which is why there've only been two to date.

Whereas these stories are meant to be fun, and in Helen's case, exciting, Tales From The Pink Zone is meant to be a dark, looming apocalypse masquerading as some MRA asshole's fantasy come true. Humanity will eventually fuck themselves to death, and "something else" will eventually emerge. So yeah, not a good thing for me to be writing right now.

Do they really make SAM batteries that can take out drones?

I honestly don't know. Helen funds the Ministry of Science, so maybe they've worked out something. There's also the fact that the Equals live in a protective field of Happily Ever After. Velasquez and Maisson don't have a lot of work watching them, so they're free to spend most of their time "maintaining appearances."

How did the trick with the six Humvees in "Night Brings The Hunter" work? Shouldn't the satellite still be able to tell which vehicle Helen's in by thermal signatures, etc.?

The special IR/Thermal Baffling smoke grenades they used were provided by Santori. Again, Helen FUNDS her Ministry of Science!

I can't find San Finzione on the map. Where is it?

San Finzione is on the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. It borders Genovia, Latveria, Svenborgia, and Corto Maltese. If you can't find it from there, then hey, how about you start paying your Geography teachers like people?

Looks like you put some work into that last joke. Care to explain?

Sure. Genovia is the fictional country in "Princess Diaries." Latveria is the country ruled by Dr. Doom in Marvel Comics. Svenborgia is from a joke on "30 Rock" about "One of those countries in Europe that only rich people know about," and Corto Maltese is both a comic known for a lot of violence, and in the world of DC Comics, is their generic war-torn third-world country. There is always fighting going on in Corto Maltese. Seriously, though, pay your teachers decently. Children are the future, people.

Are you as obsessed with Warren Zevon as Helen?

I didn't have only his music for comfort as I was freezing under a stinky fishing boat, so not so much. I do consider him "Helen's muse," though. While coming up with "Night Brings The Hunter," the chapter quotes started to be all his work. So, if you hear a lot of his stuff coming from my writing desk, it means I'm working on a Helen story.

There's one. What's with the song quotes at the beginning of each chapter?

Sometimes, they reflect the mood I'm in, sometimes they reflect what's going to happen in the chapter. Occasionally, I'll try to get clever with them. I think the best example of that is in "A Little Night Music," where the beats of the story were sort-of bookmarked by the song "Seven Seas of Rhye." If I'd given it a little more thought, I'd have done the same with "Mr. Bad Example" for "So Night Follows Day." And sometimes, it's for the same reason Julie was having trouble starting her painting in that story; that first stroke that says "Ok, you've officially started this now, keep going." Mainly, they serve that purpose for me.

Why is there such a huge gap between "As Day Follows Night" and "So Night Follows Day?"

I was still getting the naming system down at that time, but I knew that when I named the "Troy & Julie Go To San Finzione" story "As Day Follows Night," the inevitable "Helen Comes To Their House" story would HAVE to be called "So Night Follows Day."

Why did you break "A Little Night Music" and "So Night Follows Day" into two parts when they're obviously one big story?

My original ambition with "A Little Night Music" was to make it a "crossover event." Helen gets stabbed, then we get the individual stories of her friends getting the news, which would then lead to their appearances in the main story. That turned out to be a MUCH bigger check than my body could cash, so I combined them into the main story. I realized that I'd set things up so that this event that started in San Finzione would finish in Seattle, with the rest of the family backing her up. So, let's make it a two-parter, and let's give Helen one of those "The End, but Bond Will Be Back In…" endings.

To prove that whole "ideas can come from anywhere" thing, the entire story was based around the image popping into my head of Helen stabbing some guy and telling him to "Go apologize to Raymond Chen." The image of a guy wearing some kind of tech gizmo to get around Helen's powers came a bit later, and Springheel was this goofy idea I've had since I was a kid that needed to go somewhere.

Are you as obsessed with James Bond as Troy?

It had to come from somewhere. I'm more of a Whovian than anything else, however, yeah, I've owned multiple formats of "the complete James Bond collection" over the years. As I wrote Helen and Igazi's conversation, I thought of the scene in Goldfinger where he's telling Bond SOME of his plan, and Bond fills in the gaps himself. Helen's used this method of problem-solving a few times since. I also think of Helen and Whyte's final meeting as the "Before I kill you, Mr. Blofeld" scene. I didn't have to look up that Bond's holster is a Berns-Martin Triple-Draw.

The idea of The Auctioneers came from the thought "You know how they always say they're gonna 'sell it to the highest bidder?' What about the guys that Bond DOESN'T stop because he's busy with Goldfinger, so they get away with it?" HOW do they then "sell it to the highest bidder?" Answer: Someone's gotta really be putting on secret, underground auctions where they move this shit.

In "So Night Follows Day," when Troy and Whyte are on the phone, Troy gives Whyte a lot of information about his knowledge of Helen's dark secrets. Why would he do that?

The same reason Helen does later, Troy's just being polite about the fact. But deep down, he too, knows that he's talking to a dead man, he just wasn't going to be rude enough to say it. Just because he was oblivious to Julie and her relationship doesn't mean he hasn't noticed some of those "Things We Don't Ask Helen About" over the years. I thought about making Whyte a "more so than" evil version of Helen, but then I thought that it'd be more interesting to make him an evil version of Troy instead, so their talking one-on-one was inevitable.

Julie has said a couple of times that she would have been OK with Troy using the power to have sex with her if he'd ever wanted to. Does this mean that she was OK with the idea of Troy raping her?

That's not what she means at all. She means that if her best friend had ever gotten that lonely or desperate, she wouldn't oppose. And it works the other direction as well. If she'd ever decided "I want Troy to be my boyfriend, I'll use the Emergency Trigger to make him fall in love with me," he'd have been as ok with it as she would have been. Another "thing you can't relate to unless you can control minds yourself."

When Helen gets off the phone with Maria in Whatever Gets You Through The Night, she ends the call with "Love you." Is this an American thing to say that at a time like this?

It's more a Helen thing. She doesn't make friends or let people into her life easily. She's just learned that one potential friend died, that her great-granddaughter's boyfriend might've been hurt, and that the little boy at the center of all this is ok. So, kind of a "say it because you don't know what's going to happen in the next five minutes" deal.

Who is your editor and can you replace them someone who knows what they're doing?

Damn, do I wish I could, but it's me. When I'm able to get back up to speed, which I'm hoping that posting this somewhere will spur me to do, I usually say that I take about a week to get out a chapter, and then I spend the rest of my life editing them.

I just had to correct the question if that gives you any idea of how good I am at doing it myself. I can't afford to pay anyone, though, and like La Contessa, I'd never expect an artist to work for free.

What does "ghamoto mouni pou se petage" mean, anyway?

"I fuck the pussy you came from."

Thought I'd share this lovely message my last blog entry got:

From: Esox 12/18/2018, 4:37:56 AM
this is not a mental health site!
please take your problems somewhere else...
best whishes
F

Does anyone have a Going And Fucking Yourself, Cocksucker page to send Esox for his Being A Cocksucker problem? If so, I whish you'd tell me.

NOTE: I am going to be talking about suicide, however, at present, I am NOT suicidal. My diagnosis is "Clinical Depression with Suicidal Ideation," which means that I'm never completely free of the thought, it's just a matter of what level it's at today. My mother raised me better than to lie, so I honestly can't promise you what's going to happen 20 minutes from now.

However, I CAN assure you that there is no current worry.

He'd dealt with mental issues his whole life. Two years ago, he was diagnosed with MS. Based on his note, it seems the stress of the still-ongoing aftershocks might have pushed him over the edge.

I've been there. I've held a bottle of pills and stared at it for an hour. I've selected the song that I want my body to be found to. Again, I have NO current intention of doing these things! I love him, I love his wife; I could not do that to HER!

Unless you count Susan, I try not to speak for anyone other than myself. Therefore, the following statements apply specifically to me, however, may also apply to people in your own life. It is for that reason that I am sharing these thoughts with you all.

People say that when your depressed friends look for someone to talk to, you should listen to them. I say that you may need to go one step further and reach out to them. When I'm depressed and feel the need reach out, if you're someone I specifically choose not to, one of two things has likely happened:

A: I did so on at least one occasion and you gave me the kind of "get over it/pity party/feeling sorry for yourself/everybody has problems" response that established you as "Someone I Can't Come To With This Shit." Seriously, you gave me the psychological equivalent of asking an upset woman if she's on her period. Why would I trust you with something serious ever again? If anything, you just put yourself on the "reasons to do it" list.

B: I'm past the point of hope or seeing any reason to go on and have already figured out in my head the many ways that you will be better off without me; one of which likely being that I won't be bothering you with my pity parties anymore. We all know that once the monster dies, everyone else lives happily ever after. And if I've somehow wrong someone or caused someone who doesn't deserve it to fear me, that is exactly what I feel like. I have seriously Googled how one goes about buying a cave, because that's where monsters are supposed to live.

Allow me to dispel a suicide myth for you: It's not some one thing that the person just can't hack. It's a pile of little things that keep adding up, and life continues to suck and suck until one day you order scrambled eggs and they bring you sunny-side up and that's it.

I still have no plans to do it. I'm looking forward to doing a bit of game-streaming with a friend tomorrow and I just spent a shitload of money on new Call of Cthulhu stuff. The new Masks, if you know the game. I bought the prop kit too, so I absolutely want to run it. I'll be here tomorrow, is what I'm saying one last time.

Writing started as how I went on after my mother died, and I want to keep doing it. Right now, though, I'm just not "feeling" writing a murder mystery. "Whatever Gets You Through The Night" will continue. However, I can't promise when now, except that it's going to take some time, and I'm probably going to have to do a Troy & Julie story to be able to get back into it.

I'm aware of the irony of delaying a story where Helen is refusing to stop a movie. Like Susan, though, I am not Helen, and I need to figure out how to deal with this.

Yes, I'm in Anchorage, and yes, everything's on the floor now. Fortunately, my dad's business was construction and he quake-proofed the house long ago, so nothing big fell over.

It's safe to say that chapter 4 could be delayed, though.