Reaction Pandemic Vaccine

 Two days after my 2nd Moderna shot, 60% of my body broke out in a rash, and my lower body hips down swelled like a helium balloon. This involved Paracentesis procedure, which is draining fluid from my belly. Not painful, the weekly drains, are frustrating. Life intervenes with writing of any kind.

Pandemic update

I got my last 2nd Vaccine of Moderma last Friday. Aching shoulder disappearing with exercise. Ending weeks of bloating and weight gain. Books are moving along nicely after settling on first chapters. 

Moving on

 I'm scheduled for a Covid final vaccine and tele-appointment on computer with my doctor, observing the usual 18 month physical in-office follow-up, which was close to 24 months ago due to the Covid-19 BS. Finally, I'm busy now revising my prequel and sequel novels. My memoir of my ghetto life growing up, leading to my US Marine service, and after the war in the sixties, is picking up steam. I'm planning to publish June 2021 to September 2021. That's the plan barring unforeseen outside interruptions like pandemics or nuclear war. Got to get back to work. 

Pandemic update

 Had a few Covid symptoms so my woman VA doctor sent me to test. Four days later report said I was Covid-19 negative. Four days after that great news I was sent to the VA to get 1st of a series of 2 Covid vaccine shots. Lockdown kind of cramped my writing for a couple months. Being possibly infected makes my skin itch. Back in the grind now rewriting novels are a pain. Ug. 

Finally

 Got back into Facebook.  Hurrah!!  Also got 21 followers on Twitter. Another Hu-ray!!  All my digital places are now set up. Now what do I talk about?? Hmmmmmm...

Following

 Got 17 followers after getting on Twitter.  Made changes and edits to new books. More to come.  Bear with me.

Half fixed

 Facebook still hung up. Twitter working great.

                                                            Book Oval 

Book Dinarchy

I have to clean this two headed snake up

Book Not A Legend

 

 

Old Picture

Social Media problems

 A week ago I opened my Kril book sites in Facebook and Twitter. Within twenty four hours Twitter locked me out because my information on my cancelled twitter account was not verified because they sent the verification to my closed email account from 5 years ago. Facebook took 4 days to lock me out after I tried to take my date of birth off. They told me to send a scanned copy of my Federal Driver's license, which I did 3 days ago. [Grrrrrrrrr ]. This mess is slowing down my writing on the Oval prequal and a Dinarchy sequel to my published Kril novel. My Marine Corps Autobiography Not A Legend is stalled too. I'm still waiting for both sites to unlock my accounts after waiting 72 hours. [ $#@%^*$* is my opinion of the situation. ] HELP!!!

New domain

Got new domain mikejeffordsbook.com and connected to my blog at krutchan@blogspot.com. Wringing out the wiggles and cracks. Constant updating.

Prequal Oval, sequal Dinarchy, and Not a Legend Memoir coming into focus. 

Finally

 Got back into Blog. Now I have to tickle and hammer new updates into place.

 

Struggles

Update:
Middle of my new books, Oval, No Legend, and Dinarchy.  Ugh.  Life under the pathogen crap is time consuming. I thought I'd have more time. Yup. Writing would be done daily. Yup. No writer's block. Yup.
Biggest problem: Way too much information in the thousands of words.  What to keep.  What to cut. I'm in a syntax tornado.

Pathogen

With the pandemic in full force I'm getting rewriting done faster.  Only bright spot.  Low point is writers are by nature depressives.  I'm using my depression and pathogen knowledge in my prequel to get off my chest the hypocrisy of folks caring little of their neighbors.  I'm saluting the caregivers and the ones sacrificing their health to help the sick.  Real heroes. 

Grudge Drudge

Yup.  Updates are a pain for a writer. I'm now doing the rewrite of all three books. Ugh. Time consuming and surprised at the paths my characters are developing. A few vanished, while a few appeared, expanding paths to follow.  From my former novel Kril, I anticipate three more adjusted rewrites of each book. Now I have to jump back into the novel waters in another universe. and my memoir.

Novel writing

When someone finds out I’ve written a novel.  Automatically they say, “What’s it about?”  Ever try explaining, what it took you two years of hard work-pain, into three concise blurb sentences.  Even scriptwriters don’t stick to their original concept and bang out a treatment in twenty-four hours.

Letting them read the novel invariably creates total indifference.  It irritates me when I hear, “The words are too big.”  Not realizing their ignorance is huge.  I suggest writing children’s stories.

Then they say, “I think I could write my life story or a novel of my experiences.”  Sure it’s possible but keep your old job as insurance.  They quickly find out it isn’t like the movies.  Author gets an idea.  Sits at his typewriter and cranks it out in a week.  Bullshit!

Finishing a novel is the first step of hundreds of miles on a mountain climb.  Rewriting, then rewriting, and rewriting is the normal drudgery; trying not to be sick eventually of reading the book.  Like running in a twenty-six-mile marathon.  Both legs inside a burlap sack adding conflict.  While uphill struggling.  Beaten down in the rain and mud.  If lucky, the author will throw out half of the book and revise it while rewriting, rewriting, rewriting, and…yup…rewriting.

That’s why the majority of folks stop after the first page and throw the novel and its research, to collect yearly dust in a closet.

So many writers have told so many aspiring writers, over and over, until it became a cliché.  “Shut up.  Stop planning.  Start writing.”

I tell my friends, who are positive I’m hiding the truth from them, my secret to novel writing.  “Sit on your ass, alone, staring at a blank page or screen that contains an invisible universe, and create a world.”

Want to...Meant to...Will do

I changed my Outlines to Acts 1, 2, 3 for simplicity.  First Act is the toughest.  All characters attitudes, hate and love, are just blossoming.  Groundwork for the Second Acts locking horns withe Aliens, Each other, Planetary survival, and struggling against Enemies.  Third Act changes each character, bad or good; completely different from the First Act.  Suspense and not-said-issues propel the stories.  My Seech Field's life has begun again.  Thanks to my ancestors.   

Epiphany

Been six months of dribbling, rejecting, and adding words to all three books.  What a waste.  First thing I realized was I was writing too much, too many words, thinking I could revise later after editing .  Bad process.  I forgot I learned in my first book, my best writing developed from an outline  Which I then added information on scenes, character, and sights later.  Much better for me.  Moving the action on, never pausing to watch unicorns.

Second thing was my characters background had to be concise and largely back story.  Not explaining their hates, jealousies, and loves which bores me and the reader.  The same reason no one cares if Hitler was a failed painter.  His mental attitude after his war is shown, never explained, except for Satan believers.  As if that explains his megalomania.

Lastly, I found my writing voice in my book Kril.  Why the hell I tried to reinvent myself was stupid.  Costing me and my new characters wasted time.  I'm going to stop procrastinating, by going to that other dimension.  If two guys cross paths on a junction in the road aren't they still in different timelines, oblivious to each other 99.999999% of their life.

Not wanting to fill this blog with meandering.  Now to get my novel productive-writing done.      . 

Doldrums

Two months of dribbling out paragraphs while going to doctors and hospitals.  Nothing life-threatening, but soreness reminds me I'm still alive.  I can handle the pain but I lose focus and procrastination occurs.  Hopefully, I'm back on track on Monday.   

Time-time-time

All three books are progressing but going so-o-o-o-o slow. Holidays were the reason.  Back at it in 2019.  Shooting for June finish before rewriting.

Characters running with stories.

Finally, Oval and Dinarchy books are starting to hum with the characters doing things I hadn't anticipated.  Both books are writing themselves.

Who knows what's going to happen next.  The Ovals are tough schemers, the majority peaceful, and never allowing violence to females or children of any fauna or flora species.  Ignoring and chastising any male defying their degrees against murder, rape, and felony crimes against females.  The exception occurs during the Uayebs of War in Intergalactic space for Kril survival.  Males have no rights or property. 

Across the Universe the Dinarchy are the 'good old boys', with fanaticism bordering on insanity.  No surrender, no pity, and no straying from their code.  As an afterthought of tradition, keeping their females impregnated and shoe-less.  The fratricidal society respects only power and overwhelming force.

History

The Prequel of the Oval Empire is progressing faster than the other books.  Alien females with alien morals, thoughts, and plots are coping with the Seech Field Zabin-Krils from earth.  Difficult not to make them sound like Valley Girls.  Background of their Empire is loosely laid, for a jumping off point.  A former Queen has been assassinated and a young Queen is picked to be monarch between two conflicting War or Peace Factions.  As the Protagonist, she employs a war weary legend on a special mission.  Can she survive the chaos?  Now the action starts, from the Oval views of the faraway Invasions.

The Dinarchy Sequel is about their growing battlefield tactical errors and losses.  Far from beaten, the male Dinarchy King adjusts his battlefields closer to the home planet.  He is the antagonist, using a protagonist double-agent.  The agent's amnesia leaves him wondering who he really is, faithful to the Dinarchy King or the Oval Queen.  The main plot is a King facing the Dinarchy opposition from his War Counsel wishing to have a ceasefire.  The book gets background on the Empire and starts when he decides to go all out.  Using his crown to motivate his male subjects either to total victory or total annihilation.  Will he succeed or not?  Who will pay the price in any outcome.

My Memoir educating my children, who their father was, is the easiest.  But, it is highly inaccurate, because past memories are shaped, edited, and watched through a foggy windshield. 

I'm planning on having one book done by the first of the year in 2019.

Back to my insane characters

Finally recovering, thanks to a great VA doctor; she tells it like it is, without using sugar.

At last, I'm leaping off the writing cliff , diving head first back into my prequel and sequel books.

My memoir is easier, because of my flawed memory after living my life.

I've completed the opening scenes for both prequel and sequel.  Just starting to add the endings in both books.  After that comes the grind of filling in the middle, with the daily cursing, joys, frustrations, laziness, anger, and satisfaction.  Journeying to another dimension, crossing the Oval Universe in an endless Intergalactic War.  Stubbornly wrestling with my creations; trying to keep them on a short lease.  And having the good sense of releasing them when they break off on their own.  Going and doing things I never anticipated or condoned during book-birthing.  [Is that a word?]

Once these books are done, the reader can, if needed, fasten their seat-belts to survive the turbulence.  Going mentally to places they may not want to visit.  Becoming part of the scenes, rooting for their favorite characters, and hissing in hate at unethical, sneaky antagonists.  My final hope is my readers got an emotional release or flash of inspiration after closing the book.  We'll see

Will keep this blog informed.

        

Stalled

Irritating medical anomalies stalled my writing for a month.  Any excuse.  Right? On top of Insomnia issue.  Starting up again today on all three books. 

Alone writing, as usual. But the new characters are acting up.

Here's the progress on the three books so far.

My Life Story.  This book is not being written to publish.  Before she died, my wife asked me to write down for my sons, the who, what, why, and where their father became who he was, before they were born.  Memoirs are based on lies, whether done by historians, or the individuals themselves recalling their actions in the best light.  Which is why I prefer flawed life stories.  My sons will understand, I tell all.  Truth depends on the writer-editor of a story written with their perspective.  I don't name names, I prefer to stick with my inaccurate memories.  The story is so clear to the narrative, but not entirely the truth.  Which is why when telling a story someone else, who was there, interrupts with corrections.  I believe pronouns are better for telling stories than a tombstone cemetery alignment of ' I 's'; which are insufferable to read.  My editing will eliminate any relation complaining I insulted or defamed some honored dead relative of theirs.  As I have found out, every saint has an inner bastard nagging constantly at them.  I begin the book the day I boarded the bus to go to O;Hare in Chicago to begin my Marine Corps adventure.  Why not?  As I write, the characters I met are oozing out of my keys onto the blank computer Word document.  I'm just getting to Boot Camp, at night, shocked-shitless, at civilian semi-attention before receiving barracks, standing on yellow painted foot prints....

Oval.  The prequel history of the Alien Oval females; before Kril.  Why, when, and who they are as a race facing extinction.  The time a hundred years before my book Kril.  This Oval book tells of the time prior to the awesome OvalChanHalach Queen, Xmucane, and the reason she poisoned KrutChan into a physcotic rage.  This Queen in Oval, ZacSky, is a middle ground choice between the War faction and the Peace faction Oval leaders after the former Queen has been murdered by her KrilChan, the leader of the Kril Army.  Right now BalamEk, a non-Oval, is her chief advisor.  ZacSky has spent her entire life in the middle, skillfully walking a tightrope.  Happy to be trusted by both sides thinking she has been converted to their mission.  After ZacSky's election, they begin to see the Queen may be more of a problem then they perceived.  Right now, ZacSky is reorganizing her Kril Army her way.  She has appointed BalamEk to set in motion a Commando unit to strike deep into Dinarchy territory.  If they succeed, the Ovals will begin to take back the parts of the Empire they have lost.  But, at a high cost.  The enemy Dinarchy will never surrender; prolonging a five hundred year war.  The Kril hero named, BhacDarg, nicknamed Chalk, is a soft-spoken loving individual for three hundred-sixty Kin-days while at home.  On the Planet invasions, being a veteran to ten of them, for five Uayeb Kin-days he is ruthless and cold blooded with his Kril Bot-unit.  Right now he is just saying good-by to his lover, watching the alien ceremonies, and packing to go on the first Uayeb Intergalactic planetary invasion....

Dinarchy.  The sequel to the book Kril.  The hundred years after BalamEk, KrutChan, Xmucane, and Jaguar have died, been banished, or disappeared from the Oval Empire.  This is near the end of the Jaguar's Kravid Palatine's cease-fire; which has been a lingering sore between both Empires.  The objective of the Dinarchy King, Cynan, is to regain his race's stolen diamond standard, and win the five hundred year war against the Oval Queen, SeeNata .  The hero is an Ambassador-Hostage named HiroCo, a Kril traitor sent by the Ovals; kept as bait while negotiations a re proceeding to move from a cease-fire to a peace treaty.  Right now  our hero is facing a quandary; submit to execution by the Dinarchy, or prove to Cynan he can help recover the stolen standard....

The stages are set, the plots laid out, the characters are snarling, and I'm stirring the prejudices of all of them.  We're on our way. 
          

Dual personality

Friend of mine made a recent observation after reading Kril.  He was fascinated by the fact the character 'Ord' was the 'good' guy in his reconstituted body and 'KrutChan' was the 'evil' side.  Both mixed together in one person.  Each side fighting to gain control of themselves from the Red Osil drug, but not succeeding.  Both of them hating each other; different attitudes of the same person.  Could Love for another human overcome the hateful side?  Would the battles inside him bring down the Plot against him?  Interesting.  I never saw his perspective.

Dying is the end?

He was killed during a war, like the others from different Earth Eras.  He awoke in a bizarre dimension, becoming a Zabin-Kril warrior in another Universe.  Controlled by Alien Females, who hated his kind.  No way back to Earth for any of them.  Racism. Slavery. Boredom. Hate. Killing. Rage. Love.  The Krils experienced all those emotions as they daily survived.  For five unholy Uayeb-days of battle, they experienced eighty years of Faster Than Light lives under regressive-ageing time-pause. Going on Intergalactic Invasions. Burseeosil time-looping in minutes, across the Universe onto another Galaxy's Invasion planet.  Remembering parts of their dim past, trying to survive the insane present, and never knowing, as Krils, if they had a future.    

Spending time in other Dimensions, other Universes.

Three books, three different scenarios; two science fiction, and one a memoir.
The Oval prequel has me observing the alien female OvalChanHalach, Queen of the Ovals; her foibles, harsh reality, strong antagonistic sisters, and her failing Kril Army.  Led by her obstinate Celt KrilChan, who believes females are useless in war.  She strives for respect and love of her subjects.  The female mind is not that easy to write about, though the only thing in my favor is women and men never fully understand each other's motivations or feelings.  I've outlined the book, using mental baling wire to form individuals.  Hoping they will soon come to life and take off; going to places, doing things I never outlined.

The Dinarchy sequel isn't much easier.  The alien King of the Dinarchy Empire is a ruthless, conniving bastard, wanting glory, Dictatorship, and the Willows in the Dinarchy fearing his every glance.  This guy is a poster boy for all the Willows, hating a cease-fire being forced on them.  Wanting to go back to the old Kin-Days when they invaded, raped, and pillaged in a thousand galaxies.  Still outlining, but the Willows are forming faster than the Ovals in the prequel.  If I'm lucky they will begin to write their roles soon and let me go along for the ride.

The memoir I'm writing is based on my life, so it's free of fiction or bragging.  I do composites of characters and never use the real names of my enemies; or my friends.  I'll always know who they are and I'm not insufferable enough to think I always correctly remember their motivations, lives, and actions.  Memories are like a wave-particle in Quantum Mechanics, neither the same at the same time or place.  Most memories are a wild-ass-guess; that's why I've protected the ghosts.  I mainly want my descendants to see my cracks in my armor, the love I had for our family, my meanness, and rage that accumulated over the years.  I hope they understand.  No excuses, no whining, and only one regret.  That in my past regretting I could have better understood when I was wrong.
 

Kril status

Got a couple of good reviews for Kril.
Also, the prices have been reduced on the paperback and Kindle addition.

Today I'm working on the outlines of my prequel Oval and sequel Dinarchy to Kril. Writing in earnest soon.

I built a writer's cave in my fictional other Universe; where I'm not welcomed, but what creator is appreciated by his creations after breathing life, hates, loves, and flaws into them.  I can't wait until they grab the narrative and do things I never outlined for them.  At that point, when I relinquish control, is when it becomes fun and scary.

My third project, for my sons, will receive the least amount of my time, for now.
    

Update June 2017

My Prequel to my published novel Kril, named Oval, about the earlier Oval Empire that existed before Kril's time era, is  six chapters coming along.
At the same time, I'm writing the Sequel to Kril, named Dinarchy, about the hundred years after Kril; like Oval, six chapters have been written so far.
I'm going to post some rough drafts of the Prequel and the Sequel books in this blog as I write them, or have a day of writer's block to climb over.

Recently, I've started a personal story that is being outlined and put on the back-burner for now.  My deceased wife of forty-two years, Myra, suggested I write my experiences from early adolescence, through the Vietnam war, and our early marriage.  Not to be published, but passed on to our children and their future descendants.  That will be personal and not as legendary as she thought it could be for the kids.  Because there will be real people in that one; I'm not moving as fast; the research is staggering and I don't want to offend any living relative.

  

Who is a Kril?

Once unbearable pain ended his life.

Now they've got a chance to live in a second life.

Another timeline in an alien place.

KrutChan must deal with his past, his future, and his present in one continuous alien timeline loop.

Human soldiers, from Alexander’s time to a future war in Antarctica, were Seech Field blasted into another Universe, in their wars over three millennia.  Never able to return home on earth, in the new Universe home was alien to everything they knew.  Finding themselves in a five-hundred-year war, trying to survive fighting alongside former human enemies and ancestors.  Looking for love, while being coerced to breed with aliens.  Humans struggling with immense fear, facing alien enemies in galaxy's deep into the new universe.  Fighting alongside enemies, who still hated them, in their own Kril forces, with the odds against them, on alien planets.  Sent by alien females to fight their alien males.  Survival was the goal of all of them.