What I don't get...

So I see a lot of crap on the internet being the sad, pathetic, lonely, man-child that I am.  A lot of the crap I see these days, due to the Ghostbusters remake, is about sexism.  Two big issues people really like to argue about are these:  Why do men feel uncomfortable if their wives make more money than they do, or are more successful than they are, and Why do male gamers treat female gamers terribly online? You see, I don't really understand why these two things are an issue for any man.  I mean, is that not the dream?  Marrying a woman that makes so much money that you don't have to work?  Meeting a woman who shares your hobbies, so that you can do them together?  I don't get it.  Why are these even issues at all?  I mean, if I met a woman who was actually interested in me, and had a much better career than me, I would make my best attempt at a backflip, probably ending in a lot of pain and hilarity.  My most recent girlfriend Kaye and I actually MET playing video games online.  We became friends in the game, found out that we actually lived very close to one another, got together in the real world, and dated for more than a year before she moved to California to further her career.  A lot of our date nights ended with heading back to my place or hers to play two players games for a bit.  It was awesome.  She's like the only woman I've ever dated that actually plays more video games than I do.  She also made more money than I do, if not by much.  So I see stories on the internet of successful women that make a lot of money, and female gamers just being treated like crap by men I just don't get it.  I mean, why would you treat a woman who can pay off all your debt without breaking a sweat, and who shares one of your interests, like crap?  Makes no sense to me.  Apparently a lot of men out there are absolutely stupid dicks.

Thar she blows!!!

I'm done!!!  Finally!!!  I've finished the first draft of Memories of What Never Was.  I've posted Chapter 40, the Epilogue, and the full first draft, and you can find them at the bottom of this page if you are so inclined.

This basically just wraps things up and gives a bit of a teaser for what happens in the next book, which I plan to write while doing edits to this one.  We'll see if I'm able to juggle them both.  And look, counting the prologue and the epilogue, there's 42 chapters in this book.  Coincidence?  I THINK NOT!!!  BWAAHAAHAA!!!

But seriously though, I'm taking a bit of a break before I start in on the next book, and editing the first one.  I, unfortunately, just parted ways with my girlfriend of a little over a year.  She was accepted into a doctorate program at Stanford, and I am not able to pick up my life and move it to San Francisco as easily as she was.  We were talking about breaking up for a bit before that, so this just sort of made the deal for us.  One of those, we're really good friends, but we're not making any progress on the romantic side of things, so maybe we should see other people and keep in touch sort of things.  So, anyway, you can probably tell exactly when that happened by when I started writing a lot more a lot faster, looking back at the dates on my blog posts, haha.  It's amazing how much free time you suddenly have on your hands when you find yourself single again.

Memories of What Never Was Chapters 37-39

I finished up Chapters 37, 38, and 39 of Memories of What Never Was today, and if you feel the great urge to read them you can find them at the bottom of this page.

So, this is the climax.  I think it works a lot better than the one I originally planned for this rewrite.  This one focuses more on the characters, especially Kriss, who is the hero of the story, as she overcomes her trials and becomes who she needs to be for the rest of the story.  Something anyone who has read I Am Nobody, another book I wrote a couple years ago, might notice is the inclusion of Mia.  In I Am Nobody, she is the daughter of the Grim Reaper, being tested to see if she is worthy to take his place.  This is around 12,000 years later than when that book takes place in my gigantic timeline.  So in those 12,000 years she has, obviously, taken his place and is now Death.  She also give some really important information about what's going on, confirming that reality itself is unraveling, and she tells why Brand is special amongst Heretics.  He's not just the son of a human and a Fey in a human body.  He's the son of a dark god and a Fey in a human body.  I have more stories to tell about Mia, and how she becomes Death, but they'll have to wait for a while for me to finish this trilogy up.

There's just two more chapters to write and the first draft of this book is complete... but I've been writing for the last eleven and a half hours, so it'll have to wait for tomorrow after work.

Memories of What Never Was Chapter 36

I've finished up the first draft of Chapter 36 of Memories of What Never was, and you can find it at the bottom of this page

This is the beginning of the climax.  We've got Brand facing off against the one of the Seven he's been seeking vengeance against since the beginning of the book, Kriss trying to get herself killed, and the others trying not to die, while a Crusade army moves to surround everything and the Mage Knight get ready for a fight.  And yes, I realize that a lot of the details and crap are kind of glossed over, and the characters don't have an awful lot of personality.  It's the first draft.  I usually add all that stuff in later.

This is it.  This is the end of my previous attempt at writing this story.  Everything from here on is completely new.  It feels good to have finally gotten here.  And I'm kind of glad that I stopped, because the ending I have planned now is SO MUCH better than the one I was going to go with before.

Memories of What Never Was Chapter 35

I finished Chpater 35 of Memories of What Never Was and it can be found at the bottom of this page.
 

Raven's old girlfriend shows up and is understandably pissed at him.  I mean, he left to go get milk and has been gone FOR SEVEN YEARS!!!  Well, not really, but she's still pretty pissed.  It could possibly have something to do with the fact that he murdered all her friends, but I could be wrong.  In all previous versions of this story, Tryssyn a girl, was Tristan a boy.  Why the gender swap and previous love story?  I felt it gave a deeper relationship between these two characters.  The relationship between them as bros was okay, but the two of them needed a bit of a deeper connection with each other for the climax of book 2 to really work.  Plus I like the idea of this respected and powerful soldier also being a mom.  Did Raven father her oldest child?  I'll never tell, and neither will she.

And speaking of climaxes, we're almost there.  Originally, I had planned for this big, epic battle to take place, with a point of view character, Jonathan, directing the battle from the Crusade side.  But I've come to realize that I just don't have enough story for him this early on to justify a plotline for him in this book.  Keeping the story focused on Brand, Raven, Kriss and Temari removes a lot of the epicness I had planned, but it fits the narrative of this book a lot better.  I had to ask myself, which is more important, a huge battle for the sake of a battle, or a smaller look at the battle from the inside with a smaller group of characters that keeps the integrity of the story a lot better.  What is this book about?  Is it about two armies fighting each other, or is it about Kriss overcoming her past?  It wasn't a very difficult choice at all, really.  As Jonathan plays a much bigger role in the story in the next two books, I thought that I could move his introduction chapter in this book to the beginning of the next, and give a recap of the battle from his point of view after that to start book 2 off with a bang.