Monday, December 31, 2018

Ghoulish Instincts II

>That feel when you work on the same chapter for 14 months.


"No Son, you've still got to post new chapters."





On a more serious note, I spent about 11 or 12 of those 14 months writing zombies and necromancers and things like that, sort of inspired by Scooby Doo Zombie Island, but nothing ever worked out the way it was supposed to. So I went really far back to the roots of it, which was inspired by the Doom that came to Sarnath, and I made it more Lovecraftian-ish. That was the last major rewrite, because my editor liked that one better.

So now you have it. More to come.

-EDR

Saturday, July 7, 2018

The Space Between Collected Works Reading List (Will be updated consistently)


Reading List (Mostly Chronologically)

Main Story – Blue 1
Efflux – Orange 1

Notes: Chapters will be added as they are written or posted.


SB: Part I: Prologue
Efflux: Part I: Prologue
Efflux: Part II: Discovery
SB: Part II: The First Jump
Efflux: Part III: Troubled Waters
SB: Part III: Hero
SB: Part IV: The Wastes
Efflux: Part IV: Land and Sky
SB: Part V: Unity
SB: Part VI: Honor and Prophecy
SB: Part VII: Ghosts
SB: Part VIII: The Harbinger of War
Efflux: Part V: [Redacted Title]
SB: Part IX: Nocturna
SB: Part X: Lost
Interlude: I
Interlude: II
SB: Part XI: Round Table
SB: Part XII: Alone
Efflux: Part VI: [Redacted Title]
SB: Part XIII: Sorcery and Specters
Bonus: #1
SB: Part XIV: Descension | [The Tower of Trials, Pt. I]
SB: Part XV: Homecoming
Efflux: Part VII: [Redacted Title]
SB: Part XVI: Exaltation | [The Tower of Trials, Pt. II]
SB: Part XVII: The First Noel
SB: Part XVIII: The Tomb of Clea Strange
SB: Part XIX: Horizon
SB: Part XX: Obsidian Sky
SB: Part XXI: Glass Roses
SB: Part XXII: The Hunter and the Moon
SB: Part XXIII: Stir Crazy
SB: Part XXIV: The Day That Time Stood Still | [Time Lock, Pt. I]
SB: Part XXV: The Defender of Time | [Time Lock, Pt. II]
SB: Part XXVI: Date Night
SB: Part XXVII: Silver Moonlight
SB: Part XXVIII: Gravity
SB: Part XXIX: Fate's Design | [Battle of Fate, Pt. I]
SB: Part XXX: Damage | [Battle of Fate, Pt. II]
SB: Part XXXI: Changing Fate | [Battle of Fate, Pt. III]
SB: Part XXXII: Aftermath
SB: Part XXXIII: Underworld
Interlude: III
SB: Part XXXIV: Break
SB: Part XXXV: The Council
SB: Part XXXVI: Groundwork
SB: Part XXXVII: Girls Night
SB: Part XXXVIII: Ghoulish Instincts
SB: Part XXXIX: The Crossroads

Sunday, February 25, 2018

Ghoulish Instincts In Depth

So, this was a difficult chapter, for a slew of reasons. I had first written it months ago, and as my editor told me, it had a good start and a terrible resolution. Whenever I reread it, I was always disappointed because I wanted the part to have a certain feel to it, and it just seemed like it was super rushed at the end.

In the original version, it had the group (the same group, being comprised of Stephen, Kitty, Franklin, and Barbara) coming upon a group gathered around a dead body, then switched to Jack Holmes where you learned through his internal monologue that it was strange because nobody ever died in Nath. He then suspects Stephen, since he was at the scene with the group of people, and Jack could easily pick him out as being someone who isn't part of Nath and THEN INVITES HIM TO HIS FLAT LIKE THE SILLY IMPULSIVE PERSON HE IS (While he goes and does some other stuff, then they meet later).

It all ended when Stephen tries to portal them out of there (Including Jack) and they end up back on the street that they had first portaled into. Then they go fight a necromancer in a graveyard.

So while I had a good lead-up as far as characters and the mystery of how a man could die when he lived in a city where no one could die, I couldn't properly wrap it up at the end. But not only that, in the original there had been a lot of unanswered questions that I just couldn't seem to explain. So I rewrote the ENTIRE thing and told it all from Kittys' point of view.

After a few small rewrites of the new chapter, I had it ready (As it has been put up now), but my editor/husband still thought that it had too many unanswered questions. So right before it was supposed to go up, I tried my best to rewrite it in a way more information was given and tried to do so without either adding more questions or answering the current questions in a wooden info dump type way.

I did not succeed.

This part was supposed to go up on the 14th, but to make a very long story short, both my husband and I got the flu, and then I found that there was TONS of mold growing in my closet and had to clear out the entire thing and bleach it all down. Just yesterday I noticed the the mold was coming back, so we had to bleach it again. We'll have to wait and see if it comes back a third time to see if we have to take the walls out or not.

So there wasn't really much time to do anything, and whenever I did have some time, I just couldn't think of anything. When I finally did do something to change it, I wrote a chapter for Jack Holmes, and realized that it gave too much of the later part away (Specifically that Lady Eva was evil, to which nobody would be surprised when she turned evil at the party) (And that the party was a trap, so then nobody would be surprised when the party turned out to be a trap), and I felt that it sort of interrupted the flow of Kittys' POV that I had achieved.

Moving on to about the ACTUAL part.

I named the city Nath, and that's not just some made-up word (Well, it IS technically, yes), but I named it after the fictional city Sarnath in H.P. Lovecrafts' The Doom that came to Sarnath. I was inspired to write this part from that story, in that it was a city that was destroyed and was left with nothing but ruins. In Ghoulish Instincts I wanted it to be more about an 'Atlantis' type city that disappears from the Earth, and its' people are subjected to endlessness at the hands of a dark sorcerer who uses them to lengthen his own life.

As for Jack Holmes, I took inspiration for him primarily from Ronald Howards' portrayal of Sherlock in the 1954 TV Series. In it, he played a Sherlock that was much younger and still sort of learning and growing into the detective role, whereas portrayals of Sherlock before him had shown him as completely infallible.

"In my interpretation, Holmes is not an infallible, eagle-eyes, out-of-the-ordinary personality, but an exceptionally sincere young man trying to get ahead in his profession." -Ronald Howard [Source Link (Wikipedia)]

This, along with the fact that he has a lot to live up to considering his name and his lineage, is what ultimately shaped him for me, along with the fact that I just think that a supernatural detective who is actually one of the supernatural really just gets me.

One of the big things that I tried to do with the last minute rewrite was to add a chapter for Jack, as this will be the first time that a character that has been added to the Space Between hasn't had a chapter to themselves in the part that they were introduced in. (Don't worry, he's got a chapter coming up in the next part).

Now, he won't be part of the main roster of Space Between, that's not what I wanted for him. He's not really going to be going on jumps with them, and in fact he's going to be part of a side story that I'm currently (trying) to write, of which he'll be one of a few main characters. I don't want to give too much away from it.

I do also have another side-story coming out BEFORE then though, so you'll just have to wait a little bit for more information. :P

Back to Ghoulish Instincts - and this is probably going to be my last point on it - is Lady Eva. Originally I had a necromancer who fought them, but then it was changed. When I wrote her I had more in mind the Siren boss fight from BioShock Infinite.


Obviously she wouldn't look EXACTLY like the Siren from BioShock Infinite, but I definitely drew inspiration from her and the boss fight (That I can remember, anyways. It's been awhile).

Also the ending, when I had originally wrote it, Stephen had transported all of Nath, including the citizens, over to the Space Between. It really brought up a lot of unnecessary things, like the fact that they just weren't quite ready for all of that, beside the fact that these people had lived for a few HUNDRED years on some sort of life-lengthening magic.

I changed it because I thought that it fit the story better that everyone who had been trapped there were sort of 'released' from the magics' hold. It made way more sense, and it was just a much better ending to the story.

-EDR

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Girls Night In Depth

It's not very often that the women of the Space Between get to interact with each other on an extended sort of level, especially in a relaxed situation, so I just wanted a part that was exclusive to them. All of the chapters are female perspective, they get to go out and have a nice day out together, and we've got an android now!

It actually started off with just the idea of having an entire part with only female characters, but it was also around the time when I wanted Queen to be introduced in the story (As more of a minor character, mentioned from time to time), so the most logical thing for me was, 'That android needs some clothes'.

I had some difficulty with Queen before, in that Queen wasn't going to be the first android to be made. It would have originally been Adora, who is a much more curious mind and is more prone to impulsiveness that can get her into a lot of trouble.

When I originally had it as Adora instead of Queen, there was going to be a (roughly) 12 chapter short story about her, as Adora was allowed to live in a different universe for a set amount of time to experience what it's like, before ultimately returning home. I'm not sure if I'm still going to have this short story, but it's a thought. I'll only be able to know when we get to when she's actually made.

Also originally, Queen (and the other androids) were going to be fully made of vibranium, but my husband/editor made the argument that if that were the case, they would unintentionally be dangerous to civilians around them. I changed it from a full vibranium skeleton to just a vibranium skull and super-steel skeleton. From my point of view it may not actually lower the danger to civilians, but it would certainly save on vibranium.

...

I've never actually been to brunch.

-EDR

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Groundwork In Depth

So... Today (1/10/18) was the day that I had scheduled for an update, and I thought everything was great, until my husband/editor pointed out that the chapter that I had scheduled for today was The Council, which had been posted last month. It was then that I realized that Groundwork needed a few rewrites, so I've been avoiding it all day, and now it's 10:30PM as I write this.

So, after some last minute changes, it's finally up! The part I've been looking forward to for several months! Because I finally get to add the Kal/Tony relationship into the tags!

The relationship itself took me by surprise because I hadn't actually planned on them getting together (officially), but they were always just going to be two guys living and raising a son together. And then, this just happened. Once I had written it though, it quickly became one of or my favorite pairing, because they just work so well together.

Early stages of writing I thought about pairing Kal up with someone else, (Actually, I had a few different thoughts on who could be paired up with him), but either they worked better with someone else, or I thought that they wouldn't have worked as good together as they could have. So then it eventually just morphed into this. :D

Another big thing about this chapter is that it first introduces the idea of the Ringworld into the series! :D!!!!

(My copy of Ringworld + our sleepy doggo, Dipper)

The Ringworld being the thing that they live on has literally been planned in the story further back than Kitty as a character has. And Kitty was introduced in the second chapter!

My original written piece for this (Which was basically a 'pilot' that I gave to my husband to look over) started years and years after where the story is right now, when the Ringworld is already built, and there's already thousands of different species and billions of individuals living on it.

I just love the idea of a megastructure out in space that people live on, and in the Space Between, they don't have to worry about any debris colliding into it.

I've tried to introduce the Ringworld (as an option/idea) before, but each time I did it felt a little forced, so it kept getting pushed back and rewritten, to the point that it felt like I've tried to introduce it at least a hundred times. I'm so excited that we're actually to this point though!

Hope you enjoyed the chapter~

-EDR