20030422, 0315 hours
I've had the closing chapter in my mind, which surprisingly turned into a "one camera" shot, for about a week and a half. However, lingering doubts about a very extreme personal crisis and a somewhat disabling cold slowed me down. I've finally committed it to text, and it's more "quiet denouement" than I originally believed, but it's best for all parties involved, I think. To be honest, since I've kind of known the end of the story for a while, I've been anxious to start something else that's bouncing around in my mind. I wanna get some legal paperwork done on that first.

Funny, I almost forgot the belt and stones part from Chapter 12. I'm worried that the suckerpunch worked too well, that Dare was too easy to dupe, but I'll walk away from the story for a while, come back and read with fresh eyes, and see what happens. I still think I'm gonna end up changing his name from "James" to "Kenyatta."

In other news, I'm making a great deal of headway on two other projects I have cooking (getting a lot of sketches from R/Kain Blaze and Allen Gladfelter, woo hoo), and the more I think about it, what I'm calling the "X-Files" arc and the "immortal hunters" arc can be merged into one story, which is good for me timewise, as I have tons of other things to do, and The Crown is only a prologue to a much larger story. I am gonna take a month or so off and get maybe a chapter or two ahead of the second book of The Crown before I start posting that stuff.

Despite a personal life that's in shambles and an ecomomic life that's far from robust, my creative life is at an all-time high. Ideas everywhere. I'm very happy that I've been blessed by spirit with such an abundance of creativity, and I only strive to capture as much of it as possible.

For anyone who has read this much, I want to thank you for your time and interest, invite you to contact me with questions, comments, concerns, and hope you'll look forward to The Crown: Book Two, appearing here soon. Oh, and of course, I'll keep Book One archived and available for your review and reference.

20030307, 1820 hours
I almost wrote myself into a corner with the whole "work for Dare" offer, but I think I've dreamed up a way to get myself out of it. I'll put what I'm gonna do in white text, if you wanna read it, you'll have to highlight it, copy it and paste it in a text document (at least with iCab, you can just highlight and read with IE, blah). My protection for people who don't like that much of a spoiler.

I'm never gonna have a face-to-face with Tonya and Dare. I'm gonna have James (Kenyatta? Dammit ...) deliver the means of getting her out of it, and picking up the items she needs as insurance. F'r instance, his fingernail, hair and saliva will provide DNA evidence that, if it doesn't match existing crimes, the databases can be hacked and edited to make it look like it matches. Likewise, since his physical material is different, that stuff can be used to shine a very unwelcome light on him which would disrupt his life in an ugly, ugly way. So she's basically gonna blackmail him into backing off, with a mystical prohibition that will surprise him and stop his aggression ... for now. I have plans for him, down the line.

Anyhoo, once that's done I can collect this whole storyline into a subsection and get started on the immortal hunters. Since this is the start of a billenia long story, I'm also toying with jumping to the end, and starting from there, but I don't have any concrete ideas for that. Onwards, heh.

Funny bit -- my brother, one of the only people I know is reading this, was furious that I went back and added a whole new scene to chapter 1 (I felt the romance was lackluster), but you can't please everybody all of the time. I'm contemplating an offer of my main R/Kain Blaze to publish the whole shebang as a prose novella, which appeals to me in numerous ways. We'll see how it goes.

20030219, 1515 hours
Introduced a subplot, which will turn out to be a family of immortal hunters who have been active since that pesky drama back in the tenth century. I was feeling too tied to the central conflict, which I'm feeling like it'll have a really ambiguous ending right now. I was rereading the Gamorra arc of Authority and the concept of families in extreme situations leapt out at me. I never delved into why the immortals came under siege in the tenth century, and now I can. I'll have to find a Greek saint of the period and tie him to the Byzantine church.

Speaking of, I originally thought that this first story would go about 12 chapters. That looks pretty delusional right now. I am looking at 13-15 to be able to finish up the first story, which I'll probably title a play on Dare's name.

In retrospect, I think I used Dare too soon, had him too up front, but his character was so compelling I was unable to keep him in the shadows. I like him better than I like the supporting characters, even the ones based on people I like from karaoke (Eliot, Steven, Brandon). I had to throw Ata and Scott in (Scott is the accountant from Hoodlum cast in a more modern tone) just because.

Now, if I can remember correctly, next up will be some action (which has been sorely lacking, even though I think the bit with Tracy Archard, based on my old school chum Tracy Blanchard, went well for suspense). I wanna keep the immortal hunter subplot bubbling below the surface to warm me up for the second story arc, and really get exciting. I can do the third story arc as my Planetary arc, the hidden histories of the immortal world (which I've kept putting off so many times), including the poor bastards I mentioned earlier who lost the ability to die, and actually meeting some immortals.

Every time I work on this, I debate changing James' name to something ... more African. Or at least interesting. I mean, he's based on Malik, so he needs more flavor. Ooh, that reminds me, gotta spice up the character page too, maybe do a subpage for supporting characters.

Now that I really think about it, this story arc, and the immortal hunters, will end up as a prequel to whatever I'm doing. James (or whoever he'll be by that time) will be a considerably more together character by then. He's still kind of floundering, which makes sense but is bothersome to me. Oh well. Onwards.

20030115, 1800 hours
Feeling very confident in the voice of chapter 10, even under the spectre of unemployment and economic madness. I have a feeling I will find a new path this year. Anyhoo, Damian throws a wrench in their plans -- I'm really getting a feel for him, he's almost always a surprise. I am also playing up the love story aspect some, as it's what I really want to do, as it gives me hope it can work in real life.

Also, seamlessly worked The Crown as an adjunct to a really large, multi-millennia story I wanna have as a backdrop for most of my writing. The Crown will serve as the mystical engine for it all. I gotta finish the Damian stuff by chapter 12, and think about some Planetary-esque ideas I have for the second story arc. Romance and wild adventurous exploration, now that's it. In the mean time, I'm introducing immortals left and right, and I think I'm gonna throw a Corleone-esque curveball in to Damian's "reconciliations" just for fun.

Spinoff idea: Damian Dare as Mister Glass, a villain in search of a foil, through the centuries? Mmm. Moving on ...

20021213, 1935 hours
Doing some minor spicing up of early content. It's not as bad as I expected. Some klunky transitions cleaned up, nothing major.

Did notice in Chapter 3 some talk about "other immortals," two who "lost the ability to die." One is "not very much use to anybody, even himself." That implies a bitter loner, someone who would live far away from everybody ... maybe shades of The High on that mountain throne. Hm. Anyway, both cases of forced immortality were "horrible" accidents. Hm.

20021209, 1700 hours
After some really irksome problems with bad RAM, back in the saddle. Hoo hah!

The story is moving more slowly than I want, so I've ratcheted up the tension a little bit. Nice twist near the end of Chapter 9, and it's longer, which I like. I'm getting some intensity out of James (who I debated changing his name to "Kenyatta" for about a half hour, laziness won out), and I'm liking some of the conversations between him and Tonya the last two chapters. Truth be told, I'm much more interested in early development, but I really wanna see this through to some kind of conclusion, so I'm plugging away at it. I have a vague idea we can have a good clash with Dare and a kind of finale by issue #12, opening me up for more exciting things and maybe a really ruthless killer metahuman to be introduced later. No idea. We'll see. Rock on.

20021113, 1329 hours
Uploaded two chapters. Have engineered a chase/conflict. Also have introduced Nigel Hawthorne, a British immortal (although, technically, he's a Saxon) who I'll need to update in the "characters" section. Going well. Still feel like I wanna put more nuance on the walls and floors and detail of early chapters. Soon. I feel like I really got it right on chapter 7. Mostly. Damian is an evil sumbeyotch, and he's drifting a bit from his Darien-esque roots. I need to spend some time with some New York brothers, "universal, unique ..."

Writing a refuge from the horrors of life. Too many ideas, not enough time to write them all. Just gotta keep plugging away.

20021024, 1816 hours
Eating lunch and editing in Hooters. Now I've decided to thrown an X-Files spin on it, much more comfortable with incorporating action. Need to flesh out conversations between romantic leads better. Characterize more thoroughly. Figured that Damian should have been looking for her, an old score to settle, probably start that an introduce another minor immortal in chapter 7, one who'll be able to find people, point him in the right direction.

Been hard to keep up with this project, what with other stuff happening and the life thing. Wanna go back through early chapters and spice it up. Moving on ...

20021004, 2025 hours
Uploaded chapter 5, have the information design of this section pretty much the way I want. Chapter 5 is shorter than I like, but it accomplishes everything I needed it to. I think. Also decided to start recording my thoughts on what happens, via the front page.

I love working in BBEdit, it's so crisp and unadorned. Lets my thoughts do all the work, such as it is.

I have to work in some action scenes. I plan to use the foil from Floyd (if you know it, fine, if not, it's my ultra-top-secret Image Comics project that's stalled before it's even approved. Let's move on, I get irate) and have him use his powers to save somebody from something. I like fires. I'll probably have something random and unrelated blow up. Or maybe it's not unrelated. I'm not sure. I gotta force a conflict between Damian and James, I just haven't worked out how to do so. I also have a twist ending in mind for such a conflict (no pat "beat the bad guy" ending, as I could use Damian Dare a lot of other places in stories, more like a Kriegstein with a spin), but the less said the better. Right.

Must remember to put new blog notes on top of old ones. I always screw that up. Hm. I don't think I'll make 'em linkable by date, just a long freakin' scroll like my sci-fi novel notes. Yeah. Rock on.