R.B. Thurman's Blog, page 4

My Favs- The Silent Invader. (Part one)

(This is a repost of my May 8, 2018 blog. I like this one because I’m trying to elaborate on what I know about The Silent Invader, but struggling with being vague.  I know more than what’s in the book like you would expect from the author.  But, I can’t talk about what’s not in print.  At least, not yet… )

 

I’ve written the past few months about many of the main characters, the world they live in, what has changed on Earth, even (my) circumstances in developing the book. But I haven’t written much about the Silent Invader.  There’s a simple reason.

Telling you about the Silent Invader makes no sense outside the context of the book, even then I wouldn’t say whether this is definitive. What I do share needs a frame of reference and the book provides some of that.  But, more than anything, speaking at length about the Silent Invader would mean talking over the characters, and their interactions with the Silent Invader.

There are three things that you can be assured of regarding the Silent Invader:

-I know who the Silent Invader is (and yes, some characters also do)

-The Silent Invader is in the book (you’re probably wondering why I would say that…)

-The Characters will confront the Silent Invader.

Let’s consider each point I want to make.

The Silent Invader is known

When I talk about items in the book, I prefer to quote the characters or find the portion of the narrative that touches on the matter. One of the problems with talking about the Silent Invader is who I would use to explain who–or even, what–the Silent Invader is. While I know, I would still prefer the characters to make the explanation.  But there is a problem.

There are only 2 characters in this portion of the series who know who (or what) the Silent Invader is. And, by quoting either of them, you may miss what others are saying about it. Or even what they’re not saying about it.

While my goal isn’t to sow misinformation regarding the Silent Invader in the book, I did want to show that knowing for certain what the Silent Invader is could be difficult.  At one point in the story, various entities are referred to as the Silent Invader, and there is evidence presented to make their case.  Only one of these can be correct, though.  By the end of the book, You must decide for yourself if you agree with the characters (or even which characters) on who they define as the Silent Invader.

The Silent Invader is in the book

This seems obvious, but is it?  It was certainly possible to write this entire book, and the Silent Invader never appear, or never directly engage the main characters.

From a literary standpoint, I reference a series of Batman comics from the late 20th century known by the heading “Knighfall.”  In these, Batman was facing various foes, coming in successive waves and without let up.

And while the story might be the fact that he’s basically going out every night and facing down a major villain, what was interesting was the detective side of the story for me.  Batman was getting worn down facing all these people, and it was showing even to others around him.  But Batman also saw there was more there: someone else behind them all. The thing I found interesting about Knightfall is Knightfall doesn’t start with the first issue with “Knightfall” on it.  It started (at least) 12-18 months before, and crossed most of the Batman comics that I read (mostly Batman and Detective Comics, but sometimes Shadow of the Bat.  I also liked Robin, but it was still a limited series then). Then, after several months, Bane makes his introduction in, of all places, the home of Bruce Wayne.  It was an exceptional plot development since it showed that Bane was as much a detective as Batman, following the clues and drawing conclusions.

While there were several people Batman faced along the way that he could conclude was Bane, as this blogger states, it was only 6 months prior to this issue that we even knew who Bane was! (Unless you read “Vengence of Bane.” To this day I’ve never read it).

The point is that Bane was a character taking action in the comic, just not visible in each issue.  His lack of visibility didn’t make it impossible to see his influence; if anything, it made it more interesting.  Consider that for a long time prior to “Knightfall,” Batman was the only one saying there was someone else directing these rogues.  Everyone around him merely assumed he was succumbing to fatigue.

Like Bane, the Silent Invader is active in the story, though unlike Bane, the Silent Invader is in the story from the beginning.

Of course, this also means that I can identify the Silent Invader. This is through the characters’ encounter with the Silent Invader. I was planning to address the final point this week. However, I ran out time to finish my research on the matter (don’t remember what page everything is on). Till then, please leave your comments below.

 

Original Blog: The Silent Invader. (Part One)

Me of the Month – September 2018

I do try to plan things.  They just don’t always come together as expected.

It should be obvious to my regular readers that I was late posting my blog again.  Not because I didn’t know I would be away from my house this weekend (I did). Or even because I forgot to schedule the blog (I actually did that too!  I should be so proud, except…, yeah…).  So, why did I miss my deadline?

I blame it on ETP.

What is ETP?  Before I answer that, let’s clarify the events leading up to this debacle.

I was planning to complete another project by the end of last month (I didn’t), and also finish my blog for this week by roughly the end of July (didn’t happen, either). While the blog was actually 90 percent done (in my head), the other project was running aground in shallow water (I know it’s a terrible analogy, just run with the horses, and don’t get stampeded by the tortoises.  Just,… Whatever).

Now realize, I’m not describing the situation at this moment (as I type this blog, in September!), I’m talking about the beginning of August.  Well ahead of this post date.  Most could say there was still time for both projects to come to fruition.

But, alas, I had already given up on both (mostly the blog, but, yeah).  I had concluded that there wasn’t time to finish anything, so I was paralyzed into doing nothing. Probably a tad premature, but hear me out.  This is supposed to be my monthly blog about me, so please allow me to share.

After a couple days, I started on my project in earnest, to ‘prove’ to myself it wouldn’t get done in the time I set aside, and I can say it was a resounding success! I didn’t finish! YAY!

Of course, now there’s the problem of the blog. While I had given up on typing the blog (despite being 90 percent done in my head) I did start it, schedule it, and even laid it out.  The idea being that since it was ‘started’ I would have to finish it before the due date.

Then the date came, and the blog didn’t.

What was supposed to happen is that I was to have a sudden burst of energy overcome me, and facilitate typing the blog and then finishing it in the hours proceeding its publication. Further, this Epiphany was to prevent the blog from being published late and allow me to accomplish something in the waning moments before the blog was to appear. As a result, this Epiphany through Procrastination was a condition dreamed up as a methodology for performing relatively mundane tasks with alarmingly unnecessary stress.  Like testing a defibrillator on yourself. Not the practice one from your first aid refresher, a real one.

Obviously, there would be consequences for taking said action.  First, it wouldn’t work.  I mean, the thing would detect your heartbeat and tell me no shock is needed.  In which case I’d have to find a way to mask my pulse, while still allowing a shock to pass through.  Can’t help there, since I’ve realized I’m just not as smart as that little box of electric stickers.  But it doesn’t matter anyway, because I’m sure giving myself heart palpitations or even stopping my heart isn’t really my idea of fun.

Wait, what were we talking about?

Second, once you cut all the time away that you had to accomplish the blog, even if you were at least thinking it through, not allowing time to actually type it may not lead to the ideal conclusion being sought. If you recall, I type slow. And, to some extent, I still do.

Third, it has never worked.  Well.  It has, at times worked, but not well enough to make it a go-to method. ETP is dangerously inconsistent.

So how do I address ETP?  I’ll figure that out later.  Right now, I have an incredible project that I must complete!  Since I didn’t have quite enough time last month to finish, I’ll need this month to accomplish it.  I’m actually almost done, I just had to type a blog! Wow, it was sucking the life out of me to do it!

Since I shared your favorite blogs last month, I will share mine this month.  I will start typing the October MOTM (Now? Soon?) so you can know what I’ve been up to these past couple months!

Thanks again for reading!  Please like and share! You can follow on Facebook, Tumblr, and read excerpts from The Silent Invader @RB_Thurman (and follow!), in addition to the chapters I add here. If you prefer, you can also read my posts on Goodreads (I do a few book giveaways there, so you may want to check it out for that).  Your comments are welcome below.  Also, sign up now to receive notifications for when the next blog arrives.

#1 – Synesthesia (1/9/2018)

(This is a repost of my January 9, 2018 blog.  In my repost of “Clouds of Thought,” I included additional links to related blogs in this series. )

As I developed the book, I decided I wanted the princess to have an ‘unusual’ ability.  I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go, but it seemed being telepathic (see every thought), and later, empathic (see only their feelings), seemed the route for me.

Until I thought telepathy was cheating.  Allow me to explain.

Given the nature of telepathy and empathic abilities, you could potentially (and possibly, accidentally) create a character with unlimited insight into everyone and everything; you leave nothing to interpretation, and there is nothing to figure out on your own.  In fact, a character, should the story make it difficult otherwise, could simply explain a difficult plot point, rather than allowing the story to present it.  I’ve heard this described as ‘showing vs. telling,’ with telepathy being more on the telling side of the matter.

This was what I found Becky doing at certain points in the story.  She would basically start reading minds when I couldn’t get the characters to talk it out.  This mostly happened with Richard (actually, I think it only happened with Richard.  I’ll elaborate when we get to her), so it became a reliable crutch to get me through the story.  Till I got full on writers’ block.

What makes this ‘telepathy/empathic ability’ different from any other ever written in a Sci-Fi novel?

When I read back through the story in the 21st century, I noticed how much she was bailing me out, and I didn’t feel like her role should be a know-it-all.  I wanted to throw telepathic/empathic stuff out the window, but I was felt like I needed something operating in a similar manner. Just with well-defined restrictions.

This is why these sorts of abilities seemed like a ‘cheat code.’ Why struggle to get this to make sense? Just tell people what the character is thinking, and move on? I thought.  As I tried to place restrictions in my revisions, the restrictions themselves came under question to me.  Why can she use them here, but not there? (Because I said so.) Why is her range this amount? (Same.) Why does she use them here, but not there? (Well, um..)

This ability was still only being a crutch.  When I realized I didn’t have a good answer to the above question, I knew I had to get rid of it. Completely.

Of course, this meant I needed to take a different approach to this ability.

Which brings me to Synesthesia.

In the 20th century, I had read and heard stories (more likely, read AMA articles, see links below) about ‘Synesthesia.’ The simplest explanation I’ve seen for Synesthesia was basically when two or more senses get crossed, creating interesting associations.  Examples are sounds having color or words triggering a scent, or even letters having a color all their own.  The associations that had been discussed by the various websites points to certain types (at the time) being common, but really, they could be as unique as the person.  The research I did was exhaustive enough that I created a suitable ability that in its function it had synesthetic qualities.

One thing I will make clear about the research I did into Synesthesia: I did it a long time ago.  Long enough that I can’t be certain the sites I find now are the same ones I could then.  I remember them saying it was relatively rare, but some sites now say it could be more common than previously suspected.

Given the variety of types, you may be wondering which gave me the idea for defining Becky’s abilities.  It appears I chose emotion-color Synesthesia.  I say appears because I did this research on a computer I sold (see Lost and Found), and I didn’t move my research.  Oops.

And while I did appear to use this type as the foundation, it wouldn’t exclusively be the way that her abilities worked, or how she responded to stimuli. In fact, other types of synesthesia and other synesthetic features are involved in her abilities.  Synesthesia, in its purest form, appears to only be a response to what the senses pick up, and the signals being crossed in fun ways.  Or, a response to certain types of information, in the mind of the synesthetic person.  The research also seems to indicate that, like any sense, you can choose to ignore it, so as to continue undistracted in whatever task you engage in (like ignoring a flashing light or an annoying sound), or you can allow it to engulf your perceptions completely.  While aspects of this did make the cut for Becky, it appears I decided that even Synesthesia was too simplistic for the abilities I wanted for her.

The Clouds of Thought were born.

I now had an idea of how the abilities would operate to her, and Synesthesia gave a foundation to the methodology for the Clouds of Thought. This even made it clearer how it would help her know more things, while preventing her from knowing everything.  In a later blog, I may go into more detail regarding the Clouds of Thought, to help everyone understand what it can do.  The concept is more elaborate than this book allows for, and more encompassing than it first seems.  For now, let’s focus on what we do know, from this book.

Let me share an excerpt, with Becky explaining her ability:

She shakes her head. “Your thoughts will always be your own,” she assures. “A person cannot read your actual thoughts; they cannot see how you understand them. What we can see is how your thoughts influence the cloud, or sound of the world.”  She points to her ear.  “Most who can, are able to hear the disturbance the firing of a synapse makes on the cloud. Each thought type fires in different ways, makes different sounds and fire at different speeds. When you are watching a person, you will note when they make public a thought, and it helps you understand what you have heard. Our thought patterns, how our synapses fire for these thoughts is often similar between various persons, so you may understand the sounds of a thought, without knowing that person.” She looks toward Richard. “But if you are around a number of people, you will hear the sounds of many thoughts, making it difficult to distinguish an individual pattern. This is what is called the sound of the world, since in a group, there is always the sound of thought, and people who have this gift often seek this sound, or will separate themselves from it.”

Rebecca Maxia

I think @adele_domann put it best:

[image error]

I had a similiar thought when I started developing the Clouds of Thought. For me, thinking you know exactly what a thought is could actually be more dangerous than actually knowing a person’s thought. As technology has improved in our day, we can seemingly do something similar with a live scan MRI, and see how the brain reacts to various stimuli.  But likely anyone observing such a scan will assure you that such a scan is open to interpretation as to what you’ve just seen.  Are they reacting to the stimuli they just received, or did they just give way to flatulence?  The answer could become clear with time and repeated observations (let’s also hope for the former for that poor researcher).

What’s funny is I only shared a small part of how this works for Becky (I was afraid to share too much without an explanation of where the idea came from). In my tweet, I touched on what would appear to be the common form of this ability which she describes as the ‘Sound of the World.’

The ‘Sound of the World’ can be thought of as a sound exclusively produced when a synapse fires, and like Synesthesia, only those who can hear the Sound of the World can hear the synapses firing.  Likely, given the traffic in our head, since our thoughts aren’t just what we’re ‘thinking’ about, but would also include things like bodily function (like telling your fingers to stop pressing the “/” key, for exa/mple.  Sto/oooop i/t/!), so there would likely be a lot of background noise with whatever else is being thought.

The closest equivalence I could imagine is a white noise generator. If you’ve ever used a white noise generator, you will discover that ‘white noise’ is only one of the forms it produces (on my phone the white noise generator includes brown, purple, pink, blue, and violet noise.  And they each sound different).  While it could be described by me as static, it is clearly a form of communication for Becky.  A language, if you will.

Like any language, if you don’t understand what you’re hearing, it’s all noise (thus the comparison). Being aware that a conversation is being conducted in your presence (should you hear, or even see it) will not make all that is being shared robustly clear. Which is what makes her comment to ‘make public a thought’ important. Much like learning a language, you need context and common ground to understand what you hear.  Making public a thought gives her the reference she needs to understand what she just heard.  I discovered (much later in life) this was also a very effective way to learn another language.  Jumping, while saying the word ‘jump’ in a given language will give you the activity (in this example) to associate with the word you’re learning.  A way of creating a synesthetic sensation for yourself, by crossing what you hear with what you’re doing, and your mind retaining the association.  You may not jump each time you say the word, but you’ll think about it.

Next week, we will go into more detail regarding ‘the Clouds of Thought,’ and the other two ways Becky can use her skill. Leave your thoughts below.

Thanks for visiting!  If you enjoyed this post, please like and share! You can follow on Facebook, Tumblr, and please feel free to read excerpts from The Silent Invader @RB_Thurman (and follow!), in addition to the chapters I add here. If you prefer, you can also read my posts on Goodreads (I do a few book giveaways there, so you may want to check it out for that). Your comments are welcome below. Also, sign up on my contact page, and receive notifications for when the next blog arrives.

Some references regarding Synesthesia:

www.synesthesiatest.org

Neuroscience for kids (multiple additional references can be found here)

American Synesthesia Association

Everyday fantasia: The world of Synesthesia

This doctor knows exactly how you feel (Pacific Standard)

www.synesthesia.com

 

#2 – Near Completion. (12/12/2017)

(This is a repost of my December 12, 2017 blog.  At the bottom, I will include additional links to related blogs in this series. )

Early on writing this book, I wanted to believe the story would continue. However, considering all it took to get this written, this seems a formula for madness.

The challenge for me wasn’t writing another book.  It was getting this one published.

One thing few will likely notice (until now) is that the copyright date on the book is 1996.  (Yes, that was a while ago).  After completing it, I sought out a literary agent to assist in getting my book published (While I speak in ignorance of all this profession entails, for me those were the dark ages of book publication, as you will soon understand).

As defined by the Cambridge English Dictionary, a literary agent is “someone who represents a writer and tries to get his or her work published,” or “a person whose job is to help writers sell their books to companies so that they can be published.” Like any agent, they would represent you before a publisher (i.e. … actually no, I’m not going to name a publisher), in order to get either a contract or ‘deal’ for your book(s), or sell any amount of limited rights to its publication and distribution.

As you may realize, a book deal can be their income, in the form of commissions or a percentage of the deal they get for you. Now, it would seem that an agent would be ready to jump at the opportunity to publish your new original work.

Before I answer that, let me give you an example of three responses I received from two agencies.  None of these are in my hometown, as there were not an abundance of them there, and I did enough research to know that it would be better to work with an agent that sought the genre you wrote.  One was in the Denver area, and the other in NYC.  The NYC agent I contacted my snail mail.  It seemed the better option at the time. I didn’t send a manuscript, because that would be a waste of paper, I told myself.  If they’re interested, they’ll let me know.

I received a response: A form letter, requiring that I send ONLY the first five thousand words, and, if contacted, send the rest, only if it is AT LEAST fifty thousand words.  Just so you know, my book is north of one hundred thousand, so I was wondering what kind of short stories this guy was getting.  The fun part was where I had to send a postage-paid envelope with it if I wanted whatever I sent back.

In the twentieth century,  I was very green to this whole process.  I actually did research on copyright law shortly after I got this letter, because I felt like this was an easy way for someone to steal my brilliant work of fiction! (I was so young. It’s awesome to think about this now).  Understanding copyright law helped quell my fears.

However, the problem wasn’t simply mailing a phone book to this agent in the hopes of consideration (The postage! The postage!), it was that I might have to do this several more times.  Me was not that kind of wealthy.

I decided to go an alternate route, using a newly available resource: The Internet!

That is how I contacted the second agent in my example.  Searching for agents then was … sketchy. It was hard to tell who actually knew what they were doing, especially from their websites. I found that most were of two particular styles.

A well-done site might give the impression of a person who was qualified, until you realized they had no real background as an agent.  They were basically me: someone who could design a CSS-based website when this stuff was bleeding edge tech, to host a resume that had two unrelated jobs on it, and very little schooling. All in the hopes of being a graphic designer or something.  It was beautiful, but lacking in depth.

By contrast, many of the other pages were basically text on a colored background, with all the information you actually needed, put together in a format that could be described as ‘transitioning typewriter user.’  The agent was clearly well qualified as an agent. However, they probably should have asked someone else to make their site.

The agency in Denver was the happy compromise of the two in this particular search.  I was able to contact them by email, and could send the book, should I so choose.  This seemed a good match for my wallet.

When it came to working with an agent (or really, anyone), I prefer to establish a relationship with the other party before I start blindly sending all my info (Sorry about that. No, just kidding. I will never be sorry about that). So I contacted this agency via email, to find out what I needed to send them. Now, I realize after I received the form letter email from them that I could have read the website more thoroughly and found the answer to that.  But the letter was a little … condescending, we’ll just say.

In my preparations, I ran across an interesting detail: please have your manuscript edited/proofread for print before sending.  I’m pretty sure they mean using more than spell-checker.

Writing was not my vocation; I do not live and breathe writing, I do not live in a writing enclave, the people I know are not ‘aspiring’ authors debating their nascent works. And while I would’ve like to engage in this, I was too young (and poor!) to visit such groups for support.  Online groups, at this time, were rarely credible to me in this field (didn’t trust the internet, I guess).

I did have friends who read my novel, and more than a few made efforts to edit the most glaring mistakes.  But these edits were unlikely to be suitable to qualify my manuscript as ‘proofread.’

I decided to contact them again, addressing my concern regarding the need for a proper edit, before I send the manuscript.  Since this wasn’t addressed on their site, I noted as much in the email, stating that I wasn’t ready to publish, but would like to find out who they would recommend for proofreads.  The request in my eyes was innocuous, but even if it wasn’t, the letter that followed made it clear it didn’t matter what I thought.

I received the same form letter email. VERBATIM.  Not only did it not address my concerns, this email made it clear they didn’t even read mine!  At this point, I was less mad than annoyed.  What was the point of having this as a point of contact, if you had no intention of using it?

While this is only three instances with two agencies, many of my other interactions with agents at this time were similar.  Today, I attribute it to simply the sheer amount of available fiction that was seeking publication, and the inability of the market (i.e., the agents out there) to absorb it.  Still, it left me with a bad impression of the industry as a whole.

I decided then I would embark on self-publication.  After all, I would be master of everything, and it will all work out for the best.

…

…

Wait, what?  More work, FOR FREE?

Related links:

–The challenge of the written form.

–Lost and found.

–Near Completion (original blog)

–Publication, of ones’ self.

 

#3 – The Clouds of Thought (1/18/2018)

 

(This is a repost of my January 18, 2018 blog.  At the bottom, I will include additional links to related blogs in this series, and other related sites. )

In case you are wondering why I thought emotion-color Synesthesia was the inspiration, given that Becky just described something more related to hearing than sight, consider the next phase of the clouds of thought:

“There is a second form of perception, where you can see what appears as a light mist cast everywhere you look.” She pauses. “Depending on your focus, the mist, or cloud can seem close and very dense, or very distant. But, this cloud only reacts to the firing of the synapses of people around you. The density of the cloud determines the fidelity of detail you perceive in thoughts.” She smiles. “You can even see when your own thoughts disturb it, if you concentrate. Like the sound of our thoughts, the synapse can create images in the cloud, often geometric patterns, depending on the level of focus in the thought. They even vary depending on how the synapse fires, and thought patterns will change in size and color because of the intensity or even the emotion.”
“Like anger?”
She smiles. “Or happiness. Obviously, seeing the patterns a thought makes, and then a person making that thought public, you can learn quickly what they each often mean.” She puts her hands on her shoulders, on top of Richards. “When a person has a creative mind, like yours, the patterns are even vivid pictures, even colorful pictures, and they so wonderful to see.”
Richard smiles. “So you are able to see the patterns my thoughts make in the air?” She nods again. “Well, I guess that is not so bad.”

Becky (Maxia) & Richard Tyberius

When I was writing my book, I used to draw prolifically.  So, the visualization of the colors swirling around, taking on striking patterns and colors was mesmerizing to imagine. You think about what she has described, and you might wonder how your own thoughts would look.  Mine would likely be organized chaos.  But, I had to use the emotion-color because of how complex it could potentially be.  Consider: do you feel only one emotion at a time? When you’re sad, are you only sad?  When you’re happy, are you only happy?  There can be undercurrents of emotions swimming beneath, and if each has a distinct color, they may actually produce quite the visual.  This also introduced another nice point:  She isn’t so much looking inside your head, as looking at what’s coming out of it.

For me, it was more striking how visualization and auditory cues were both more interesting and more revealing ways to show thoughts.  Suddenly, you would wonder what these images told her about the person, rather than simply know what they were thinking.  I can only scratch the surface of what the cloud could allow her to do, but there is so much still shared in this book on the matter.  And to be clear, this is only two types mentioned so far

[image error]Since these are separate, it makes it clear that even with this ability, I could create rules that would apply in unique ways for each.  For example, She points out that seeing is clearer than hearing, which can make sense.  Consider: would be easier to identify a particular animal by a picture, or by the sound (spoiler!) it makes? Obviously, if you’re familiar with what you are identifying, one or the other may be all you need.  But, if you know little, and were attempting to identify it solely based on a visual or a sound, which would be easier for you? (Leave your comments below)

While I have pointed out that there are distinctions for the two mentioned, you can probably guess what the third, and (for this book!) final type of ability is:

“There are very rare instances of individuals who have both.” Richard frowns. “With both, you can both see the patterns, and hear them.  When you have both, your depth with each is greater. A person can gain clarity of a thought sooner than with only the sound or sight.” She glances at her hands before folding her arms, hiding her hands.  “When you can only see a thought, you would only know their emotion, their focus, and possibly its direction of intent. Only hearing the sound, you would know the weight and intensity, possibly the subtle variances of multiple emotions being displayed, or which is most dominant. When you can see and hear it all, the two give you a perspective of not simply how someone is viewing a matter, the nuances in each will tell you who they are, even from a distance, even in a group. You will see their thoughts and know them as people, not simply a sound, and as you learn more, you can even see them as clearly before you, like they are sitting in this room with us.” She pauses, taking a moment look up at the stars. “Being able to focus on the thoughts of each person, you see further and clearer than your eyes, you can then see and hear the patterns of these thoughts, and understand without their public expression.”

Think about what she is saying.  With the combination of the two, they amplify each other to give a skill that can seem limitless.  She mentions first that “when you can see and hear it all, … the nuances in each will tell you who they are, even from a distance, even in a group.”  I don’t want to imply that it is impossible to find someone with just your ears when you’re in a crowd or single out a particular person in a group picture.  Realize that she didn’t say how far away any of this is. In fact, one of her next statements that “Being able to focus on the thoughts of each person, you see further and clearer than your eyes,” she is implying that there can be some distance between the viewer and the subject viewed.  In the book, she is actually speaking of a specific instance that helps impress upon us just how far that can be.  How far?  Read The Silent Invader to find out.

Next week I will introduce you to the Princess, but let this little point sink in as you await this post:  When I wrote this book (the first drafts), not only was I single, I also had no interest in getting married.  So, imagine what a person like this would write about an arranged marriage.  Stay tuned.

Related links:

–Clouds of Thought (original blog)

–Synesthesia

–The Princess

–Becky

Some references regarding Synesthesia:

www.synesthesiatest.org

Neuroscience for kids (multiple additional references can be found here)

American Synesthesia Association

Everyday fantasia: The world of Synesthesia

This doctor knows exactly how you feel (Pacific Standard)

www.synesthesia.com

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Me of the Month – August 2018

My first time flying was near the end of the 20th century. It was awesome. But, I wouldn’t fly again for the remainder of that century.  There is a reason for that.

We should start at the beginning.  I have had the opportunity to travel many times when I was young.  I visited the Mouse, the Apple, the Ocean, the Mall (but, not that one).  I haven’t been everywhere in the U.S., but I have traveled.

Mostly, it was by car.  Which would make sense when you consider flying, even way back then was still expensive. And my parents needed a way to transport us kids in a cost-effective manner.

Now while Amtrak did exist, even this wasn’t a viable option for us (let’s assume the fact they didn’t travel to our little Hamburg not to be the factor), since many of the places I remember visiting weren’t always far, or you would need to secure transportation once there.

NOTE:  I have not traveled much outside the U.S., but I’m told public transit eases this need for personal transportation to move around a particular city or metropolitan area, depending on where you are going.  I even noticed the benefits of this in NYC.  But, for everyone living outside the New England states, public transit can be a guessing game.  I will also state that even with extensive and robust public transportation available, I still often needed personal transit where I’ve traveled, so neither solution was ever the perfect one for me.

For our family, this only left one viable option: getting other people to drive you around.  I’m sorry, I meant it left ME with only one viable option.  But my dad didn’t mind.

Perhaps in another installment, I’ll relate some adventures in automobiles.  But today, let’s focus on my only flight in the 20th century:

 

[image error]While this is an airplane, it wasn’t one like this.  I just thought this was a neato airplane. Neato!

 

It was, in fact, to New York City, one of the few places my dad didn’t drive us.  While it wasn’t for distance, I’m sure (the Mouse is further than the Apple, and we did drive there).

So, I got to experience flying!

I think the hardest part of the flight for me was sitting on the ground, waiting to get into the air.

ANOTHER NOTE:  You will notice there are some variations of how flying happened then versus now.  Sorry, this is what I experienced. I guess I’ll try to compare it to today.

I think most would consider the wait to get on the plane a bigger deal.  That little kid has no idea what you’re talking about.  I’m pretty sure we got there shortly before boarding, like maybe 30 minutes at most.  I actually don’t remember what the departing airport looked like (I did sleep most of the way there, and didn’t do much other than slow my parents down) because we weren’t there long. It seemed like we sat in that plane FOREVER…

The reason was that our airplane was waiting its turn to take off. I remember seeing about 4 or 5 planes lined up, seeing “707” or “727” painted on their tails (Yeah. This wasn’t O’Hare, folks) as they lined up to jump into the air.

Then I started to notice how this happened. I’m not sure how I missed this, but I realized that each of these planes was racing down a very long road, and at the very end, they were suddenly moving … up.

It was then I realized I’d never been that high. Sure, I’d climb Pikes Peak in Colorado, which isn’t a short walk up a hill, but this was above even that!  And, I’m not on the ground at all!

I can laugh now, but then I was quite serious in my head about making a case for not flying. Like, Let’s jump out this window right here and just walk!  It can’t be that far!

It would soon be our turn to make the big jump, and the part that seemed the scariest was the race to the end of the runway, going faster and faster.

Until we left the ground.  It was a bizarre sensation for me, falling upwards, and continuing to do so for several minutes.

 

[image error]I don’t think 727s had 4 engines.  Just saying…

 

But once fully in the sky, I was good.  And besides, we were getting to the best part of the flight.

First was a snack: a bag of peanuts.  it seemed nice enough.

But since we were on such a LOOONG flight (I remember it seemed like 4-5 hours, but given where we flew from it couldn’t have been longer than 4 hours, likely less than that), we got DINNER! But, I don’t remember what it was.  I was picturing a hamburger (a common choice for me then), but it was food in the sky no less.

While I had a reasonable amount of room in my seat (I was years from being able to drive, so pretty young), my Dad, who was dramatically taller, had to turn his legs into the aisle.  Today that might seem typical, but be assured at 6 1/2 ft,, he was tall enough that this would be a problem under even favorable circumstances. But, it was only a little tight, and he had no complaints.

While I could regale you on my adventures in NYC, this was a bad time for that city.  While we weren’t there to specifically see a lot of stuff in the city itself, The one place I did remember vividly was Times Square.  Most areas had people walking around a lot, with cars driving on every inch of pavement.

Times Square was a wasteland.  It was the one place I remember I could walk around in the street (any of them) and not likely ever see a car.  Or people, but who’s counting at that point.

But, the flight was pretty fun.  Other than the taking off and landing.

Oh yeah, landing.  Nothing is quite as fun as a controlled drop through turbulence.  Let’s just leave it at that.

Why no more flying?  Well, did you read last month’s MOTM? I could barely afford a car! Seriously?

While I would like to continue this conversation, I’ll stop there.  Next month, I have yet another project I must finish, and it will take me away from my blog. However, I’ll be reposting the most popular blogs (thus far), leading up to the most viewed blog at the end of the month.  You’ll hear more from me when I’m forced to talk about me again.

 

Thanks again for reading!  Please like and share! You can follow on Facebook, Tumblr, and read excerpts from The Silent Invader @RB_Thurman (and follow!), in addition to the chapters I add here. If you prefer, you can also read my posts on Goodreads (I do a few book giveaways there, so you may want to check it out for that).  Your comments are welcome below.  Also, sign up now to receive notifications for when the next blog arrives.

Project M: Why it failed

Last week I explained (through the absence of pictures) my plan for an online comic.  One that did get made, though it died soon after (did I mention I do not have exhaustive financial resources?  I did? Just checking…).  There were two initial problems with the previous iteration, beyond a lack of money:

-A misunderstanding of how the internet works

When I first published that comic, it was hosted on a Yahoo page.  You probably are old enough to not know what I’m talking about.  But that’s not nearly as bad as not remembering what these ‘site groupings’ were called: it has been that long since it was there.

What I’m describing is this:

At the turn of the century, most people were not venturing into the open space of the internet.  Or, they were not exclusively doing so.  They typically started from specific websites.  One many may actually remember was America Online®, a Time Warner company (unless you didn’t live in the United States, then you were so fortunate). It was the largest in the States at the time (though shrinking), but it wasn’t the only hosting site on the internet.

The one my site was hosted by was Yahoo Geocities.  Geocities seemed to get more traffic from the internet at the time (it’s how I found it), and a lot of comic sites and artists used it to some degree.  So I planted my site there to see what people thought.

The problem was the nature of the internet.  Obviously, someone needs to know you’re there to come looking for your site. And given that much of this was driven by either word-of-mouth or advertising, not telling anyone that your site exists didn’t help my cause.

Now there were ways to get incidental traffic (basically, people just looking for a comic page to read).  You only got hits from this for a short time after you posted something new to your page, like when the new comic came out.  The only other free method was to list your site on a ‘top online comic whatever’ website, and like Geocities, your site would bob up a little when you updated so everyone could give it a look before it disappeared again.

DISCLAIMER:  I want everyone to understand that I was not an expert on any of this, certainly not on getting stuff done for free.  There were probably a lot of hacks to get boosted on these sites (there were a few I remember seeing that were not only worse than mine, they actually managed to have less content than me, and they were still ranked higher!), so I am certain there were methods I missed.

But like today, this is not my vocation, so I wasn’t invested as heavily as I could’ve been, and when I tried to make it my occupation, I had my own curiosity as an obstacle.

Considering I coded my site with CSS and in HTML 4.0 when maybe one browser allowed CSS to work and none fully supported HTML 4.0, I was basically creating a webpage for a reality that didn’t yet exist.  I even tested Dreamweaver (hated it; I then preferred just writing the CSS code myself), so I knew about some of the tools.  I just didn’t understand getting the eyeballs.

Which led to a second mistake:

[image error]My old site. In most of its former glory. This is the second more recent attempt in the late 2000s.

-People don’t look for random sites on the open internet

When was the last time you just typed in a word or phrase at the top of your browser to see if it found a site?  It’s probably been a while since now that’s how you start a search, instead of the browser just assuming you knew where you were going.  When I started using the internet, you could still put in IP addresses and find a website (because there were that few.  A few sites that existed then may retain their original IP address, like Apple.com is still 17.172.224.47, but most can only be found with DNS), and this made it more interesting to see what was out there.  But when I started, I mostly had the internet at work and was using it for that, so I didn’t explore.  My boss mostly showed me what you could do.

Once I was employed by CAW, I could get the internet at home, and even registered a domain for my online comic.  Though this proved to be worse than using Geocities.

With both my trouble was traffic: as in I had none.  I have more traffic on my blog today with no advertising than I did then with it! (I do advertise today, just very limited.)

So, I ran a few ads in a few places, and it helped.

A little.

I’m not sure if it’s the difference in scale or scope, but I don’t remember spending much more than I do today.  I do remember it being largely useless, since most places I placed ads didn’t seem to generate any traffic.

I tried to run ads on the ‘top online comic whatever’ site, and while it could be targeted, I think that was almost a fault. You could specify ads to appear by genre, and while you could target a specific genre and lock up all the ad space, there was probably a reason you could (that is, nobody was looking at it).  Targeting broadly didn’t help, since you were competing with too many other people willing to ‘spend’ more than you.  I say ‘spend’ more because, in some instances, you didn’t necessarily have to ‘spend’ anything to get ad placements.  Just by having a popular site, you would be in the top 10-20, so you’re featured more prominently, and as your site got more traffic, it would give more traffic (people would come back and look at other stuff), so the site would incentivise your traffic coming back and making their ‘top whatever’ site more prominent still.

To be fair, most of the sites I competed against, even in whatever genre I had my site had years of comics to read.  I remember going through one, starting at the beginning, and taking a couple weeks to get to the current page (And they updated 2-3 times a week!). I think I updated weekly, and I struggled to put anything out once I reached a certain point (drawing like that sucked the fun out of drawing, so I didn’t want to anymore).

I can’t say that this whole endeavor was a bad idea.  I think my approach was deeply flawed and relied too heavily on people ‘accidentally’ finding my site.  Oh well.

If you notice, the actual ‘website’ is the more recent iteration.  I had another that was the starting point then, but I can’t get it to display correctly, even on my older computer (I think I’m missing some things it needs).  If I do, I’ll add it to the end of this blog.

Now, it’s time to address the 800lb. gorilla in the room.  Next week, I talk about me.

Thanks for reading!  Please like and share! You can follow on Facebook, Tumblr, and read excerpts from The Silent Invader @RB_Thurman (and follow!), in addition to the chapters I add here. If you prefer, you can also read my posts on Goodreads (I do a few book giveaways there, so you may want to check it out for that).  Your comments are welcome below.  Also, sign up now to receive notifications for when the next blog arrives.

Project M: The Premise

Why destroy everything?

Just for a plot point?

Maybe…

In the comic, as was mentioned before, this is a post-apocalyptic world. Only, as you dive into the story, it didn’t seem that way.

At first.

At the start of the series, when they depart the facility (once outside, they meet with little resistance), they actually build a house on a vacant stretch of land, close enough to see the nearest major city, but well away from it that few, it would seem, would venture out to investigate.  Outside the team tasked briefly with their return.

The focus of the first few issues was to be on the characters, rather than the situation.  Getting to know their social dynamics and interactions.  It would actually be when they decide to be ‘superheroes’ that they realize what kind of world they’re in.

For example, the vacant land they occupy?  My notes indicate that the area would still be affected by the nuclear fallout, and while it would be milder than when The Event occurred, I would compare living there now, to moving to Chernobyl in the late 90s. Too soon, maybe?

That’s not the only issue.  While the nearby city (covered in a dome) has millions, there are few cities like it on Earth.  I don’t necessarily mean a few domed cities; I mean there are few large population centers of any kind.  This particular city wasn’t a big one before the event, but many arrived who survived it.

As the series progressed, my notes indicate there would be less superhero stuff at the start, and more figuring out what’s going on (the city appears not only to survive, but continue to develop, despite no seeming outside input.  Like a food source, or raw materials, or even various technology that may not be native to that spot).  But, as they explore, opportunities to be a superhero would present themselves.

I can’t say I recall why I needed to destroy everything for the premise of the story, outside of the fact that it was possible.  Beyond that, I think I was exploring how you would start over.

One exciting thing I had in my notes was one of the Richest persons in the city would venture out periodically for apparently no reason.  The reason this would matter is by the time this would come to light in the story, you would realize that whatever conflict that was started with The Event, actually wasn’t over. It had merely become a ground war, and the sides (I’m not sure how many for sure, but I think it was getting a little out of hand trying to plan this nonsense) were entrenched, and little movement was being made.  It would seem a lack of central governments devolved the conflict to the level of provincial (or in the US, state-level) governments taking the lead, or even city-states forming a more robust government. Which is the reason for the many ‘sides.’  It wouldn’t always be clear who is sided with whom, despite what the historical precedents may show today.

The group would also face the threat of invasion from an alien race, though this was more a comical event.  Not because they weren’t dangerous, but because it wasn’t as much an invasion as one would think of it.  It was more a visit from unwelcome guests, or a heavily armed ‘squatter’ (look the term up in relation to US housing laws.  I don’t know a better term to use at the time of publication).

So, what is the overall premise?  One creature is given insight into it, at the beginning of the series (in fact, it is the first few panels).  I think today I’d probably not do it the same way (I don’t like where that was going; that’s why it’s not in the blog), but the premise wouldn’t change:  At a specific point in time, all life on Earth will cease, and only these young people can stop it.

No pressure.

Beyond that initial mention, time would actually pass in the story before this one would begin to even talk to them since he’s trying to find who they are (Hint: he doesn’t know at the outset). Before he would meet with them, we would see them all in the story (Another hint: they all wouldn’t actually know each other, though they would all cross paths).  The timeframe where this being is trying to find them is when the first few set out to be superheroes.

There were a lot of overlapping plots in the story.  So many, I’m not sure I have everything that explains this.  But, I would also point out that my notes only cover certain details that must happen, and then a number of things I wanted to happen.  Beyond that, I was trying to keep it flexible.

So, if I had the story ready to go, why did it fail?  Likely, even if all I did were produce what I had notes for, it would create its own buzz in a short time.  Next week, I’ll address this.

(UPDATE:  I found the art! But, this computer only 48 hours ago connected to my home network.  And, since it also is SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOW, it is proving difficult to get stuff off.  Or, even to know if I did.  I’ll share the following, even though this is not from the original series, just ‘concept art’ for other characters in the series)

[image error]

Thanks for reading!  Please like and share! You can follow on Facebook, Tumblr, and read excerpts from The Silent Invader @RB_Thurman (and follow!), in addition to the chapters I add here. If you prefer, you can also read my posts on Goodreads (I do a few book giveaways there, so you may want to check it out for that).  Your comments are welcome below.  Also, sign up now to receive notifications for when the next blog arrives.

Project M: The Agency

I mentioned last week that I would talk about what proceeded my comic, or the history prior.  There was a group formed that would address the immediate problem of the things following ‘The Event.’

What was that problem?  People with superhuman abilities.  While this portion of the premise of the story is very “Toxic Avengers,” the reason they exist was not that it was becoming popular to bathe in toxic sludge.

The Event

The nuclear fallout from a nearly earth-wide holocaust would create a new element (of sorts).  This element affected human physiology by making some develop abilities beyond your typical human.  There was endless variety to the genetic ‘mods’ and rarely did one person have abilities identical to another (when they had them).  The one thing I didn’t have as a change was a dramatic change in physical appearance.  Outside of two characters having an unusual hair color, the changes would seem to only be to what a person could do.

The story of the agency that proceeds the comic was not an exhaustive one.  The comic’s canon did touch on what happened before since once everyone realized the fallout was causing some people to be unusually strong or can suddenly fly, studying the changes was secondary to dealing with the new law enforcement problems presented.  By modern standards, the typical ‘show of force’ in an American police drama may not be up to the task of dealing with a person with bulletproof skin.

But it also presents a new dynamic:  What about the ‘regular’ people?  The comic presented a reality where there were people with these abilities, but the overwhelming majority of survivors would not.  So you still have individuals trying to make a living, trying to advance their situation, but now competing with people who are genuinely smarter and more capable than they will ever be.  I even had in my notes a licensing approach, to allow people to be rated on their superhuman skills beyond a typical person.  The scale would be a numerical scale of multiples greater than the absolute best a person was capable of before ‘the event,’ with the idea of presenting the stark the division that there could be.

I even added an element of people who would be known as 0.9s. With a 1 representing the best an elite person could ever do, a 0.9 would be someone so close to that it would present a separate concern:  Are they still ‘superhuman,’ possessing an abnormal ability, or are they just really good at what they’re doing?

The Agency

The agency is formed both to assess this and thereafter address it.  They conducted both the research and the de-escalation ops.  The research they conduct is what would fuel the second phase of ‘creating’ children with these abilities and putting them to work at adulthood (they don’t make it there before they break out).

I would mention that I was about their age when I came up with the comic, and while today I look back at the development notes and at times cringe at what these ‘kids’ were into, I also realize that I was working from a premise that they had limited parental guidance.  To me now, it seems absurd to institutionalize these kids just because of their abilities (ones that were given to them, not that they were born with).   I think officially The Agency was supposed to be where they came from, but I never got that far along with deciding the shape of the bureaucracy. And given the secrecy that was to surround the existence of the program it would appear that once they did come on the scene, it became a PR mess that was never fully explained by me (I’m still trying to figure out what would make me think everyone would be okay with this).  Before they could use them, they would need to use somebody, so I developed a back story explaining (to myself) what would come before Project M.

The First Wave

One of the first Agency recruits is an abandoned child, left on the steps of a government agency (I didn’t specify; I wasn’t fluent in ‘government’ then.  I’m still not, but let’s not dwell on the present..). The person who would adopt him would eventually work for the Agency, and would soon discover her adopted son manifested skills that would make him an ideal recruit.

I would point out that a lot of what I will describe is likely illegal in most developed countries, and may even be ridiculous to consider as even a viable option against a known threat like ‘superhuman’ bad guys.  I’m thinking my justification was after the event, with earth’s population in the hundreds of millions instead of billions, it became essential to do some things that might be distasteful.

Like using child soldiers.  Which is what I see this kid was now.  Then I thought it was neat to have a young person (someone my age) doing all this cool stuff.  Today I’m glad I never would’ve experienced anything close to what he would have, given what he was tasked to do.

His gift was called Clarity.  He basically had vision like that of an eagle, which allows him to see long distances away.  But he also had the intellect to determine how to strike an object over that distance and the mechanical prowess to develop the tools that would allow him to.  If you haven’t figured it out, he would be employed as a sniper.

I had composed a scene for his introduction that was almost as ridiculous as the premise of child soldiers saving us, one involving him taking a shot from the belly of a commercial flight at cruising altitude. Never mind the logistics of moving from inside to outside the plane undetected, but the idea that this was the best approach?  I still love the idea, but woefully unrealistic.

While he would have two people who would work with him, the first a ‘Minder,’ basically a regular person to evaluate him and ensure there are no problems (like what, PTSD? I really don’t know where I was going with that).  But this person (she would be a covert ops-type) would also provide cover for this kid traveling the world. Since a little kid with a sniper rifle is not typical in most places outside the US.

Which brings me to the naming of this team.  Rather than tell you, I think this is a better way to explain my thinking.  Just so you know, he is a young African-American child from the central US, and she is not.  This part of the story was all notes, so even the premise was in flux as I developed it, so rather than nail anything down, I’m just leaving it in the air.

His second partner is the one that he actually appears in the series with.  And while she also has abilities (flying, energy-based weapons, and protection, etc.), her reason for her gifts is entirely different.

She was an alien.  And though she reveals this early on to readers (duh, thought bubbles), no one else would know for quite some time.  Or it would seem.

In some of my notes I was wondering if the Agency would know, even though it would seem a dangerous precedent to allow her to come to the aid of ‘humans’ when they knew she wasn’t (I would also point out that I was also the young guy who thought child soldiers were a good idea, but let’s not dwell on that part of the past), and possibly even he may have known (Their cover was that they were married, and I wrote her in such a way that it was very much how she felt about him, though I’m never sure if I really had a chance to put his thoughts to it.  Also, I don’t remember why I thought that this was a good cover story for a sniper team. Yes, they were old enough then to be married). She would be one of the first aliens to appear in the series, though not the first.

In case you’re wondering, her appearance still maintained the premise of their codename. Unlike the previous woman, though, she would have fair skin because of Albinism and would otherwise have the features of an African-American woman.

These two would cross paths with the escaped kids early in the series (to return them to their facility), though they wouldn’t follow thru.  The reason, though is lost, other than I didn’t want them to be fixtures in the series yet.

The final member of the team would be introduced in dramatic fashion, both to the story in general, and their entry to the team.  We’ll talk about her next week.

(UPDATE:  it appears that the only copy of my former site is on a computer I haven’t used in 10 years, so I’m in the process of resurrecting it and see if I can get the files off. If I do, hopefully by the next blog post, ALL the blogs will have their intended pictures.  Stay tuned!)

Thanks for reading!  Please like and share! You can follow on Facebook, Tumblr, and read excerpts from The Silent Invader @RB_Thurman (and follow!), in addition to the chapters I add here. If you prefer, you can also read my posts on Goodreads (I do a few book giveaways there, so you may want to check it out for that).  Your comments are welcome below.  Also, sign up now to receive notifications for when the next blog arrives.

A Government Project

Once, long ago, I thought I could draw.

I mentioned in an earlier blog that I had the ambition of publishing a comic.  Self-publishing.  As the final decade of the 20th century closed, I knew print wasn’t going to happen (I was not wealthy), So the internet became a haven to the series.

Briefly.

There was a small problem with that ambition that comes to light as I put together this blog.  In attempting to present a small portion of the ‘original internet sensation’ that was my brief online comic, I realized my goal of showing parts of the first issue have reached an impasse.

I have no first issue.  Nothing.  Perhaps at a later date, when I actually allocate enough time in the blog planning calendar to ‘do research’ (i.e., unbury my art and rescan it all), I’ll add some.  For now, I’ll add in a few random images from my site as I converse with you regarding this endeavor.  And I want to apologize in advance, this is not a curated selection.  This is very random…

 

Well, maybe.  I started composing the idea of this blog before looking for the images I would feature.  I did this because in the late 20th century I drew prodigiously.  I also had a color flatbed scanner, so I also scanned and colored many of my drawings in Photoshop.  So I was sure I had a massive catalog of digital art to draw from.

Well, I did have a massive catalog of digital art to draw from, but as I mentioned before, I had a break in the continuity of digital storage from that time till now.

In fact, I’ve actually had several.  One more recent one is the jump from my current computer(s) from my tower.  One that hasn’t actually been turned on in at least 7 years, roughly 3 years after Apple declared it ‘legacy.’  The last time I turned it on to ‘use’ it likely then, and to my dismay, many of the programs I used were apparently unable to use modern versions of files, and in some instances, I found myself at a weird crossroads.  Where the ancient files from the previous century could not be opened on the slightly newer versions of my programs (I didn’t realize that the last time they updated), but I also couldn’t open anything I was given that day. It was suddenly very useless.  The only thing I could use it for was archiving and playing DVDs.

Which means my archive needs to be raided for me to share the artwork.  My apologies for not being more exhaustive in my research into the matter.

I can give a brief overview, beyond what is here regarding the story.  There were to be four (plus three) principal characters, and the four (plus three) would protect the portions of civilization that still existed after ‘the event,’ also with trying to put the pieces back together to understand why it happened in the first place.  The story would officially start about 20 years after the event, so there were still people alive who would remember what was before.  However, by this point, there is so much effort invested in disconnecting from the past that the phrase ‘the event’ (or something similar) was becoming commonplace in nearly all languages and cultures.  The four characters are not only born well after at the start, but they are also raised (from a very early age, like 3-5 years old) in isolation to prepare them for interacting with the rest of us, so to speak.

The story starts with their forcible departure (they decided to leave), made possible by the late entry of the fourth character.  This particular character was sedated until then, so she is meeting them as they are leaving.

(At a later date, I’ll have to add some of the team pics to the blog, but I’ll otherwise attempt to be as descriptive as possible).

This team of four (and later, plus three more) would start with four young ladies and one young man.  The idea was the ‘guy’ would be the team leader in the development of the team.  While there was to be an issue (much later) to address why this dynamic, I’ll just say that it had more to do with availability than anything else.

And while I do state the guy was to be the leader, that was only how the project was structured.  In reality, rather than this be a guy with three submissive ‘wives’ who happened to be insanely powerful, it was more like a group of ladies who allowed this guy to hang out with them because he was harmless.

The actual character development was plotted out for only a few years of the series (but none of that was ever published, even online), far enough that I wanted to add three more characters to the mix.

Two of the characters are part of a separate (but parallel) government program designed to start the defense element immediately with whoever they could find.  The back story for these two characters was a rather bizarre combination of events (to me today) that leads to them being on the same team. I’ll discuss them next week. That is a story in its own right.

The final character I’ll talk about in two weeks.  She is less a character I was adding for some specific need or goal.  I’m pretty sure the series could have ended without her ever showing her face.

She represents a reality (much like Maria, like I spoke about here) that I’m not familiar with.  This character is a supermodel (duh, why would I know anything about that?), and was the last child of another pair of supermodels.  Mom was to be born in Sweden, platinum blonde, porcelain skin, blue eyes. Dad is from Lagos, Nigeria, carved from a stone of pure ebony.  This was not so much a ‘what if’ like Maria for me, as a justification for someone I had already heard of with this as their heritage.  I’ve only had the person described to me, but I could definitely draw the likeness from the description.

And while the ‘real’ person with this heritage had a more golden-brown color to their hair, the supermodel version (in my comic) would have bright lavender hair. I apparently liked this color for hair, as you will notice here.

The four would also meet another who would help them in their efforts to not only figure out the cause of ‘the event’ but try to stop another, more devastating one in their future.  And while the series wouldn’t reach that climax till the final issues, there is only one thing I can take away from this endeavor.

It’s not finished.  In fact, it was barely started years ago, and I’m further from its completion now than ever.  Not that I wanted to start yet another thing, but it was surprising how much I left in the air and completely uncharted.

I will admit carving in stone every plot point wasn’t needed, but I think it made it harder to know the pace it should’ve moved. Because I think not having that in mind prevented me not only not finishing the series, it prevented me from giving it a decent start.

I mean this more in an overall way.  The pages (as I recall; I’ll try to post them later) were not finished, and barely colored, and this is with technology and time on my side!  So, working without a deadline can be convenient, I have to see that I need one to keep the ball rolling.

Next week, we will touch on two additions to that series.  Hopefully, by the end of July 2018, I’ll have some additional pictures added to this blog, so that you can see the team.

 

(7/10/2018) – To those who saw my ‘incomplete’ blog, I want to apologize.  I was supposed to finish before some traveling and realized (too late!) that it was already scheduled to make its’ appearance. Please now enjoy the completed version.

Thanks for reading!  Please like and share! You can follow on Facebook, Tumblr, and read excerpts from The Silent Invader @RB_Thurman (and follow!), in addition to the chapters I add here. If you prefer, you can also read my posts on Goodreads (I do a few book giveaways there, so you may want to check it out for that).  Your comments are welcome below.  Also, sign up now to receive notifications for when the next blog arrives.