Taking A Break

So, I haven’t blogged in about a week.

I’m not apologizing.

Get over it.

Just kidding. I’m not that mean or harsh. So, a part of me is sorry for the distance between my last post and this one here, but a part of me is just a little bit relieved. Truth be told, I got a little burnt out from everything, not just blogging.

I started my blog on October 15^th, 2012 and between then and now I have posted over 260 times, blogging every single day except for one time in November, a short break at Christmas and one day this month. (That’s not including this last week). I’m really not sure if I ran out of ideas, because I don’t think that I did, but I really just got tired and overwhelmed. Perhaps it was not the time to start a second blog.

I had just finished finals at the end of April and yesterday was my FIRST day off after 28 days in a row working. I was putting in 60-70 hours a week between two jobs. That’s my plan for the rest of summer – I need to save money for school next year (which is really in about three months). So, I really needed a break. I haven’t had a day off (as in not working) since before my last final, so yesterday was pretty nice just to sit down and do nothing.

To be honest, for a while now, blogging started to feel like a chore. When that happens, I think you should take a break. It helped me get myself a little more organized and gave me a few extra hours each day to just relax. And now, I’m going to be going to British Columbia to visit my sister for a week. She lives up in Dawson Creek, which is fairly North (close to the south border of Yukon Territory – which is right beside Alaska). So, unfortunately, I will not be blogging during that time, either.

This means that I will be taking the rest of May OFF. I won’t be gone forever, however! I promise to get back to blogging as soon as June starts! I’ve already got some fresh ideas rolling around in my brain, and I’ve even written a few new posts already! I’m hoping a little bit of time away from blogging can reinvigorate myself and get me to realize why I started blogging last year. I can’t wait for you to see what I have in store (including more Chapters from Demonria, finishing off my Evolution of an Idea posts, more book reviews as I re-start my Bookends Of My Life series, new poetry, updates on my writing goals for the summer and the year, and much more for What If It All Means Something and new poetry for Messages, of course).

So, thanks for being dedicated readers, and I hope you ALL come back on June 1^st. I will be here – after I have a nice trip to BC!

Until June,

-Will

Demonria – Chapter 18

Demonria

A Novel By William Louison

Chapter 18

Kharma found that walking helped to relieve her muscles. If she sat down or stood in one place too long, they cramped up on her. She made good use of the empty, stone corridors connecting various training and equipment rooms. When she felt like she could wake good enough, Kharma decided to head out. She desperately wanted fresh air, which might also help her relax and relieve some of the pain.

Kharma was making her way towards the exit of the Arena when she stopped herself. She heard aggravated voices arguing back and forth. The source of the voices was in the direction she wanted to head. She thought nothing of it, just some spectators arguing, when she heard a man’s voice say her name.

At hearing her name, Kharma paused again. She was still too far away to make out what they were saying. She took a deep breath, ignored the pain her body was in, and slid up against the wall. Up ahead the corridor turned to the left, leading directly out to the exit. She slid against the wall, slowly approaching the corner.

“I’m the Deputy Guard of Camborne,” an impatient voice snapped. Kharma recognized the voice, but she was trying to put a face and name to it.

“On what grounds to do you have to come here like this?” Kharma knew the voice of the gatekeeper.

“She’s a criminal,” the man who identified himself as the Deputy Guard of Camborne said. “I have grounds to arrest her.”
Kharma’s face grew wide with shock. What was he talking about? Who was this man? Her thoughts were going crazy. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Kharma’s breathing quickened and she tightened her muscles in apprehension. As a result, a jeering pain exploded in her stomach area. She clutched at her side, trying to stay on two feet.

“In that case,” the gatekeeper stuttered, clearly shocked, “go right ahead.”

Kharma heard multiple sets of footsteps approaching the corner. She tried to calm herself, but panic was growing inside her. She heard the man who claimed to be a guard say, “Thank you.” In that moment, she realized who he was. The image of his face flashed across her mind and she mouthed his name in horrified silence.

Kharma turned around, attempting to get away. Her wounds were too bad and she moved too slow. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw several people turn the corner. If she had only recognized the man sooner, than she might’ve had a chance to get away from him. Now, however, she was too late.

She tried to increase her speed, but new there was no point. That man’s voice, which was like a haunting scream from her past, shouted out her name in a rage-filled voice. The several sets of footsteps quickened and Kharma froze. By the time she realized that her life was about to be completely flipped around, they were upon her.

Not The End.

Thanks for reading!

Till Next,

-Will

Character Sketch Anyone?

Well I told all of you about my involvement with the writing project Ten To One. If not, you have read this post.

If you did read that post, you know that I have been included in the top twenty writers, and need to submit two pieces of writing which will be used to determine whether or not I am selected as one of the final ten. The first piece I already finished, which is a character sketch of a character that I created. If I am selected as one of the ten, this character will be the character that I am to write about in the novel. Now, I cannot share everything that there is to know about my character or this novel, but I can share my character sketch.

And I am going to.

Any feedback would be much appreciated (although it’s already submitted so I can’t really change anything). I worked with two of the other twenty writers to help smooth out some rough edges, and come up with a few interesting characteristics to make my character a little more interesting. I hope it worked, because this is 50% of my final judgement for the project.

So, please enjoy reading this character sketch because I really enjoyed writing it.

Oh, and do share your thoughts!

Elijah King

Elijah King had always known exactly what he wanted to do with his life. From the time that he was a young child he had wanted to become a doctor when he grew up, just like dad – Dr. Timothy King. Even his mother Caroline, despite being a teacher, pushed for Elijah to study medicine. There was a kindness in Elijah’s eyes that found it hard to speak untruths, a charming warmth in his personality that could set even the most nervous at ease and a void in his heart that was only filled by helping people. A doctor, apart from being the family occupation for the last three generations, seemed a good fit for Elijah.

The expectations for Elijah to ‘succeed in life’ had been tremendous. As the son of a doctor and a teacher he had been through his fair share of life-lesson lectures, speeches about the importance of education and the expectation to ‘make something of himself’. This kind of strict, controlled upbringing had worked out okay for Elijah, despite not being given much of a say in his own life.

School came easy to him, right from the beginning. It was obvious that he was far more intelligent – in terms of mathematics, grammar and ‘book-skills’ – than his peers, but he was never arrogant or too keen. Elijah enjoyed achieving high scores under the radar so that he was never alienated from his friends.

In fact, his social life had always treated him well. He was every parent-of-teenagers’ dream child, because he was always hanging around ‘a good group of kids’. He found his first girlfriend in high school, but even that didn’t distract him from graduating at the top of his class – just as his parents had wanted.

With scholarships to spend, Elijah wasted no time heading off to university, eager to pursue his life-long dream of becoming a doctor. Before his acceptance into Medical School, Elijah was already achieving grades much higher than any class average, landing him a spot on the esteemed ‘Dean’s List’.

Love found Elijah again in university, but it still failed to distract him from his studies, nor dethrone him of his reign as one of the top students. And, when Elijah was twenty-two years old, all of his hard work had finally paid off. His acceptance letter to the College of Medicine had come during summer holidays, just a few short months after he had applied. His parents were beaming with pride when they read the letter and, bragging to all of their friends, they assured everyone that they knew that this was the happiest day of their perfect son’s life.

Elijah should have been closer than ever to his dreams of donning that white coat, looking after the sick and serving the helpless. However, something along the way had gone wrong.

Today, on the cusp of twenty-five, Elijah works at a bar in Skegness, some fifty miles from his hometown. It has been months since he had informed his parents of his decision to ‘take a year off’ because he had needed to ‘figure some stuff out’. Outside observers might say that his parents took this news – their worst nightmare come true – harder than was necessary, and that they overreacted when they should have supported their child. But, to Elijah himself, it was much more than just an ‘overreaction’.

Mr. and Mrs. King treated Elijah’s decision like a betrayal to their family, insinuating that he had no respect at all for hard-working, successful individuals such as they were. The rift that had formed in just a few short days between Elijah and his parents seemed irreparable. Even his girlfriend, a year shy of graduating from Law School, had evidently sided with his parents, and four years of their relationship was cast away.

The damage had been done, and Elijah had decided his year off of school would need to be a year away from his parents as well. They helped him pack his things, closing him off from his childhood home as he drove away in his little car – the only thing his lifetime of savings had rewarded him.

With his newfound freedom, Elijah responded to a job ad as a bartender for a locally owned bar in Skegness. The training he needed was paid for by the bar owner and he had started working part time. He was quickly shifted to a full time position, after the owner had become impressed with his impeccable work ethic and his willingness to put his job first. That, and he didn’t text on the job.

While the pay was decent enough, it was disheartening to never have anything left over to add to his empty savings account and Elijah always found himself saying: “If I only got paid a little bit more…”

That all changed when he met Jack.

Jack hadn’t lasted long as an employee of the bar, mostly because he ran his mouth a little too much and too freely about his personal life, which – to most – was less than desirable. While he was never much help to Elijah, or any of the other staff, in his short time at work, he did flock to Elijah as if he was a long time friend in need.

“I know a guy. It’s easy, safe and puts a couple extra pounds in your pocket. You could practically do it while you’re working if you’re careful enough…”

The temptation for money won out against his better judgement, and Elijah contacted Jack’s friend. One thing led to another, as they so often say, and it wasn’t long before Elijah found himself buying marijuana by the figurative truckload and selling it to a slowly growing network of consumers, at a premium of course. It took a while before he started making enough money – and acquiring enough customers – to get excited about, but the cash did come quicker than his doubts had allowed him to think.

Of course this hadn’t made him rich but it had provided a safety net as his savings account was now on the receiving end of a steady stream of deposits. He did enjoy a few extra perks as well, so he couldn’t complain. And while he remained a seller and not a user, he didn’t feel like he was missing out.

Despite a lack of communication with his parents, his lack of interest in returning to school anytime soon, a somewhat empty social life, a job that didn’t quite seem to reward his efforts and a slight dabbling in criminal activity, Elijah was living by his own rules, not his parents’. He was making decisions for himself, an almost alien experience to him. His responsibilities gave him a sense of liberty, and his freedom was inspiring.

For the first time in a very long time, he was finally happy to be Elijah King.

Thanks for reading!

What did you think?

Till Next,

-Will

Demonria – Chapter 17

Demonria

A  Novel By William Louison

Chapter 17

After the fight, Kharma painfully walked back down the short, stone hallway under the seats of the Arena. She had to lean into the wooden door at the end of the hall to open it, and nearly collapsed when she stepped through. As Kharma entered the room, she was met with cheers and claps from other combatants.

Kharma managed to make it to a stone bench, but once she sat down she wasn’t sure if she would be able to get back up. Two attendants pushed their way through the crowd. One was carrying a bucket of water and the other had several towels. Even as the attendants were working on removing her armour, wiping off the blood and cleaning her wounds, many combatants came up to personally congratulate her, as well as comment on how good she had fought.

It only took the attendants a few minutes to clean Kharma off. When they were done, they helped her walk through a few hallways to a room Kharma had never been to. In the center was a fairly large sized stone bath tub. There was already water in the tub. A bar of soap, a towel and a fresh change of clothes sat on a table beside the tub.

The attendants waited patiently outside while she bathed. It took about an hour before Kharma walked out the door, wearing a very fine and expensive looking skirt that was the colour of a deep blue ocean. The skirt came all the way down to her feet, which had on a beautiful pair of black shoes that shimmered in the light. The blouse she had on was a combination of several shades of blue, with gold trim and white lace. It was a long sleeved blouse that frilled out at the wrists, while the high collar covered half of her neck.

Kharma was quite a sight to see. She had all these fancy clothes, dressed like royalty, yet they seemed uncomfortable to her. She felt as if she was too fancy and wished she had been given something a little more plain. Her skin was now clean, so the wounds she had suffered stood out greatly. Kharma’s neck was bruised in several spots all around. She had a nasty gash on the left side of her face, and a few smaller ones on the right.

“Pierce would like to see you now,” one of the attendants told her. “Will you need any assistance?”

Kharma shook her head. “I don’t think so,” Kharma told him. The warm water had soothed her muscles. It was still painful to walk, but she managed it. Besides, Kharma wanted to do it by herself. She was not used to anybody helping her with anything.

It took Kharma considerably longer to reach the Arena Manager’s office, but she made it there nonetheless. She was glad, though, to sit down once again. At the moment, it was her back that was hurting more than anything.

“Look at you,” Pierce said from his desk when she walked in. “I knew there was a real woman hiding under all that strength and anger.”

“I’m glad you think so,” Kharma told him. She reached one of the luxurious looking couches and practically fell into its cushions.

Warren was standing beside Pierce, smiling. “So,” he said to Kharma, “how does it feel to be our new champion?”

Kharma let out a breathy laugh. “It hurts.”

“That was a good fight, though,” Pierce told her. “You should just be glad you can walk away from it.”

“I knew I’d win,” Kharma said arrogantly. “I’ll be healed and healthy in a few days.”

Pierce chuckled and folded his arms across his chest. “Will you then be ready to fight again?”

“My readiness to fight,” Kharma told him cleverly, “will depend on how much you’re offering.”

Pierce smiled as he rose from the chair. He walked out to stand in front of his desk and pulled out a leather purse. “Now there’s an attitude,” he said, opening the purse and reaching inside. “For this fight, you will earn the most that you ever have and ever will again. I can, however, for future fights insure at least twice of what your other fights were.”

Kharma’s face lit up. “A half crown each time?”

“At the smallest amount,” Pierce told her, his face also alive at the talk of money. “It could very well be a lot more, depending on how much money people bet and how many bets are placed.”

“And how much do I get for beating your champion?” she asked impatiently.

Pierce pulled his hand out of his purse, counted the coins in his hand and then reached in to grab another one. He tucked the purse back into his coat. Kharma saw the glitter of gold between his fingers but was not surprised. She expected no less.

“Because you fought so good,” Pierce was saying, walking towards Kharma, “and the entertainment was quite good.” He held out his hand and spilled the gold into Kharma’s cupped palms. “That’s ten gold crowns.”

Kharma knew that it was a large and very generous sum of money. However, she didn’t want to show that she was surprised or even thankful for the money. During her life in crime, she had learned that if she showed gratitude, her employers would think that she was happy with what they were giving her. If she appeared happy and content, they would never see a need to increase her pay. Kharma assumed that by seeming not happy with the money, her employers would become nervous that she might quit. Kharma had learned long ago that in order to survive she had to be able to manipulate, intimidate and take advantage of anybody, regardless of if they were paying her or not.

Kharma took the money, as if it was just an average, everyday occurrence for her to get such a grand sum. “Thank you for your time,” she said in plain voice. “And for the opportunity.”

Pierce was just a little disappointed. He had hoped to see just a little bit of emotion from Kharma, but he had learned quickly that in financial and monetary matters, a stone showed more emotion than she did. “The opportunity was mine,” he said meaningfully. “You have an arena full of fans now, which will keep coming back every time you fight. That’s more business for me.”

“I’m glad I could help then,” Kharma said with a light smile. An expression of pain distorted her face when she tried to rise from the couch.

Pierce’s hands were at her side in an instant. “Do you need a hand?” he asked.

Kharma shook her head and tried to smile. “My back was just cramping,” she lied, forcing herself to stand straight.

Pierce could see that she was in immense pain and wanted desperately to tell her that she should not walk for at least a day. He didn’t want to hurt Kharma’s pride, though, so he decided on something else to say. “All the facilities the Arena has to offer are yours now. Feel free to use any as you please. I hope to see you fight again soon.”

“I’m sure you do,” Kharma said with a suddenly exerted voice. Once she had sat down for a few minutes, her wounds and bruises felt even more painful. Her entire body felt sore, and it was all she could do to just walk out of the room.

Pierce watched her go, without anymore offerings of help. When the door closed behind her, Pierce turned to Warren. “Somehow, her victory feels a little hollow to me. I should be happy for her.”

“She got what she wanted,” Warren said with a shrug. “I guess that’s all that matters to her.”

Pierce was nodding in agreement. He walked back over to his desk and sat down, letting out a long sigh. “She’s a stubborn girl.” There was a hint of annoyance in his voice. “She could be so much greater if she didn’t have such attitude.”

“It’s the life she’s lived,” Warren suggested. “I think she’s had a hard life.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Pierce said, a little sharper than he intended. “She needs to clean her act up. One of these days, that attitude of hers is going to get her in a lot of trouble.”

Not The End

Thanks for reading!

Till Next,

-Will

Why I’ve Been So Busy Lately

“Why has Will been so busy lately?”

While this question has probably not crossed your mind, I’m going to answer it anyway. It’s actually quite a simple answer, too. For one, now that I’m done school I’ve been working EVERY day – around 60 hours a week, or more. I still enjoy a lot of free time, however, a lot of that free time during the last few weeks has been eaten up by a particular writing project that I am working on.

Have your ever heard of Ten To One?

I could explain it to you in my own words, saying that it is a collaborative writing project in which dozens (perhaps hundreds) of applicants gets whittled down to a final ten authors – all ten of which will work together to write a novel.

Just to clarify some things and expand on others, here is a much better definition of Ten To One that comes straight from the website, http://pigeonparkpress.blogspot.ca/p/ten-to-one-collaboratively-written.html :

“What is Ten To One?

Ten To One is a collaborative writing project. Ten writers will work together to produce a novel-length piece of fiction which will then be published by Pigeon Park Press. Each writer will handle one of ten central characters and write the chapters focussing on that character.
Where did this crazy idea come from?

I’m a big fan of collaborative writing. In 2012, Heide Goody and I published our first collaborative novel, Clovenhoof.  We put a lot of thought into the mechanisms by which two people could write one story in one voice. We were partly inspired by the novel, Draculas, a novel written by four collaborators (Blake Crouch, Joe Konrath, Jeff Strand and F Paul Wilson). Their collaborative method was quite different to ours and interesting in its own way. Go read it. It’s a seriously fun book.

A modest test-run for Ten To One called Full Fathom Five ran for ten weeks during autumn 2012 and the resulting short story will be published as an electronic chap-book in early 2013. The Facebook elements of that project can be seen here.
Why is it called Ten To One?

The unique feature of the Ten To One project is that after a round of chapters has been written (i.e. one chapter by each writer), one of the characters will be kicked out of the story. They might be killed, shipped off to Timbuktu or locked up in grandma’s cellar. Which character is written out after each round is decided by both a panel of judges and a public vote. In the end, there will be one character left out of the original ten. Ten to One.

 

But what kind of story will Ten To One be?

We don’t know. Not yet. No, that’s not because of sloppy planning but because we want the story to arise from the writing styles, tastes and ideas of the ten chosen writers. If we gather ten hard-boiled crime writers then we might write a novel about ten guys in a bungled bank robbery. If our ten are fantasists we might take a trip into the lands of Faerie. We might produce a Golden Age detective whodunit or a slasher horror story or a World War II action story. The one likelihood is that, if characters are to be booted out of the narrative, it’s definitely going to have some downbeat aspects and, in all probability, some deaths. But I’m making no hard and fast rules at all.
How quickly is this novel going to be written and when will it be finished?

Once we get properly underway, I am expecting roughly 1,000 words from each writer per month. For anyone with more than a semi-professional attitude to their writing craft this is not much of a demand. There will be ten rounds (i.e. ten months) of chapter writing so, if we are able to assemble a writing team by May 2013, then the whole piece should be finished by March 2014. The writer who has survived to the end will have written approximately 10,000 words of the finished novel. The first writer to be ejected will have written only 1,000 words and have finished contributing by summer 2013.

 

How will the judges panel and the public vote combine to decide who stays and who goes?

After the voting window is closed, I will count how many people have chosen to ‘join’ each chapter ‘event’. The most popular chapter will earn 10 points, the second most popular will earn 9 points, and so on.

At the same time, each judge will be asked to judge the chapters, awarding 10 to their favourite, 9 to their next favourite and so on. I will be discussing with the judges what kind of criteria they should be using. The judges will be voting on the writing not the character, offering their top marks to the writer who helps convey the story and develops all characters through skilful writing.

The marks of the judges will be added together and then converted into a single set of marks (10, 9, 8, etc). These marks and the marks from the voting public will be added together and it is from these that I will determine which writer has written their last chapter. In this way the judges and the public vote will hold equal weight.

In the event of a tie in which two or more writers have equally low marks, I will decide which character is to be written out. If I have to make this decision, it will be made on the grounds of which character is least essential in progressing the overall plot of the novel.

The voting system will be open, transparent and fair. The individual marks given by each judge will not be shared but the overall marks given by the judging panel will be shared.

 

What are the publishing plans?

Ten To One, or whatever title we choose to give the finished novel, will be published as a Kindle book on Amazon and a small print run of physical copies will be produced. These will be sold at literary events and in such shops as will be willing to stock them.

Hopefully, one of the strengths of this project is that all those people who followed the process on-line and voted on Facebook (I’m thinking hundreds of people but hoping thousands) will buy their own copy of the book.

We will promote the book heavily through the traditional electronic methods but also, because of the unique nature of the collaboration, will aim to do a lot of live events and media marketing. Wherever you are in the world, I hope to set up some interesting promotional events near you.”

Now, from my understanding there was quite a large number of applicants. Some 80 or so were under consideration, as ‘long-listed’ authors. Eventually that list got whittled down to 20, thanks to a piece of prose by each of the authors. Currently, I am one of those twenty ‘short-listed’ authors, eagerly awaiting the reveal of the final ten.

Before the ten are revealed, though, each of us twenty ‘short-listed’ authors have to do two things. First, I had to create a character and write a character sketch. That was completed last week. Now I have until Monday the 20th to write a character ‘meeting piece’ in which my character interacts with another author’s character. Basically, I’m to read all of the character sketches, choose a character that I think would provide a good interaction with my character and then write about it. Both the character sketch and the character ‘meeting piece’ will be taken into consideration when the editor chooses the final ten authors.

So, I’ve been quite busy over the last few weeks pounding out story ideas with these other writers from around the world, filling out surveys and questionnaires, voting on plot elements and setting, creating my character and now, working on a piece of prose to best showcase all of my talents. I would be extremely thrilled if I was allotted a spot as one of the final ten writers, but even the experience so far has been worth it. I hope that if my participation in Ten To One continues that I can have your support, and I will definitely keep you updated as to what is happening with the project.

It’s an exciting prospect even to think about, but now that I am SO close to being a part of the novel, I want it more than ever.

I hope all of this answers the question I posed at the very beginning of this post – the question that you weren’t asking and probably didn’t even care about!

Sorry to make this such a long post, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.

Thanks for reading!

Till Next,

-Will

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