NEW ADDRESS. (1 DAY LEFT.)

Status: Still packing and moving things. Nearly complete.

Watching: News.

Listening to: Taped music.

Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 716.

TOPIC: NEW ADDRESS.

After today, I won't be here accessing the net or writing.

I can't say when I'll return.

But feel free to write me or my wife! :0)


New address:

Schuyler and April Thorpe

PO Box 1634
Everett, WA 98206

Sky

ZOMBIE NATION MEETS TWILIGHT. (4 DAYS LEFT.)

Status: Still packing and moving things. Nearly complete.

Watching: News.

Listening to: "Dead Silicon"-by PTI; "Brave New World"-by Covenant

Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 716.

TOPIC: FORKS ARTICLE ON 'TWILIGHT'

Just so everyone knows--the use of the town of Forks, Washington for the Twilight-series, has nothing to do with the setting for Zombie Nation: Outbreak Zero.

It's just a coincidence that I happen to use the setting for the initial choice place for the book. When I started the book last year, I just wanted something different for a book. And so I looked to my own state for inspiration--since I am a resident of Washington.

I thought Forks would suffice and have Emily commute back and forth to her defense arts classes in Port Angeles.

But by the looks of things...Port Angeles will most likely be where all the action will be taking place--before and after the virus sweeps the world and turns most everyone into flesh-eating zombies of otherworldly origins. :0)

Emily Rose Jordan won't be returning to Forks until many years after the world calms down to some degree. (But it won't mean she's out of the woods just yet.)

Anyways...

Here's the article

***

Visitors flock to timber town for Twilight's magic

FORKS, Wash. - Pounding rain and heavy mist are constant in this timber town where logging's decline left a graveyard of rusting timber mills and unemployment. Businesses shut down. Parts of the local high school were condemned. Families started to drift away.

Until an unlikely cast of vampires breathed new life into the town.

"I fell in love with it," says 18-year-old Samantha Cogar, who dragged her grandparents on a 2,500 mile roadtrip to Forks from Louisville, Ky., earlier this summer. "I can't wait to go back."

Cogar is one of thousands of visitors who have flocked to Forks in response to "Twilight," the hottest series to hit shelves since "Harry Potter." Set in Forks, on the gritty edge of the Olympic Mountain Range, the books have captured the hearts of readers around the world.

In a town framed by towering Douglas fir, hemlock and spruce and the occasional western red cedar, where rough, blue collar edges are tangible, the unexpected attention seems to be a second chance for the economy. Inspired by a world of make-believe, "Twilight" fans are bringing the town back to life.

Four years ago, Author Stephenie Meyer introduced the world to Bella Swan, a 17-year-old who moves to Forks and is torn between the love of classmate Edward Cullen and best friend Jacob Black. But before long, she realizes something isn't right: Edward is a vampire and Jacob, a werewolf.

Readers were hooked, and three more "Twilight" books followed. "Breaking Dawn," the fourth and final book of her "Twilight" series, came out in July and has remained at the top of best seller lists ever since. Teens throughout the country celebrated the release of the book by dressing up as characters from the series for midnight parties at bookstores — much the way "Harry Potter" books are launched.

As the pages kept coming, the series' cultlike following increased. Before long, fans started showing up in Forks, looking to see if magic would spark when imagination collided with reality. What they found was a two-stoplight town where more than a foot of rain falls each month. A place where success is measured in sweat and four-wheel drive.

But Forks was quick to embrace the frenzied fans.

Forks' "Twilight"-inspired turn has been nothing short of magical, Marcia Bingham, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, says.

"We've probably had more than 100 people a day," says Bingham, who has eagerly watched as van after van of giddy readers — mostly female — pull up in front of the town's visitors center.

For many fans, the line where reality ends and imagination begins is starting to blur, says Michael Gurling, who caught inspiration from the tourism boom and started his own Twilight Tours.

After enlisting a few locals, he asked for help in picking out houses that could serve as stand-ins for the book's famous Forks' stops: Bella and Edward's houses, a field where vampires play baseball. Other locations, such as the police station, where Bella's father works, and the hospital, where Edward's father is a doctor, play their own parts. They chipped in, providing cruisers near which fans may take pictures and reserving a spot for "Dr. Cullen" in the parking lot.

"The most popular spot is probably the beach, in LaPush, where Bella finds out the truth about Edward," says Gurling.

On a recent Friday, Gurling's van headed out of the visitor's center parking lot — packed, as it is most every weekend, with teenage girls. Outside the stand-in for Edward's house, a sign on the door says "Cullens" are volunteering a blood drive.

"It's not quite how I thought it would be," says Yena Hu, a University of Washington sophomore who made the four-hour trek from Seattle to visit. "They're always talking about all the windows — and in the book, the house is on the water."

But it's surprising how much Meyer did get right, considering she'd never been to Forks when she wrote the first book. A quick Internet search revealed Forks was one of the rainiest places in the world, and from her home in Arizona, the stay-at-home mom began rewriting history.

While locals are accepting of their newfound fame, they're all too aware of the mania that is continuing to grow.

Almost everyone has a "Twilight" story: the teen who dropped his library card, only to discover Twilighters had found it and kept it; the cheerleader who has out-of-town mothers stop her on the street offering cash for her uniform; the Quileute native, who heads to LaPush to chop wood and sees giddy teenagers snatching up driftwood as souvenirs.

Jessica Hartman, an 18-year-old who works at the town's pharmacy says "Twilight" has more than doubled profits for the corner store.

Flipping through a guest book for Twilighters, the recent Forks High School grad smiles as she touches signatures from around the globe — Europe, Asia, South America. They're all here, recorded in the tattered pages that spell out the town's fame.

Spurred by the boost in tourism and influx of money, are businesses eagerly trying to cash in on the craze.

Wander down the town's main drag and you'll see "We Love Edward and Bella" signs in store windows and a Forks' Speedway sign welcoming "Vampires and Racers."

Restaurants have started offering Twilight-themed options: Subway's "Twilight Special" which oozes marinara and the ever popular Bella Burger at local hangout Sully's Drive-in, which comes with special sauce and pineapple.

Stacks of Twilight T-shirts sit behind almost every counter in town.

At Sully's, 32-year-old Eleanor Currit waves a pair of plastic vampire teeth in the air — a standard side for any customer who orders the Bella burger.

"When I go back to my book club, I'm definitely going to have bragging rights," she says. "The women in my group are honestly crazy about these books."

Currit, a stay-at-home-mom with a master's degree in English, says being in Forks is like opening a page of the book and jumping in.

"This town just has a pretty primal way about it," she said. "It's really a mysterious beauty."

While the fourth and final "Twilight" book was released earlier this summer, Gurling, a former National Park Guide, says he thinks the release of the "Twilight" movie, set for early November, will only generate more attention for Forks.

And while some long for quieter days, others say "Twilight" might have been what this town needed.

"It seems like we're Twilighting all the time," says Charlene Cross, the town's florist. "But at the end of the day, it makes you feel like we're part of something bigger — and I think that makes it worth it."

Sky

2014 RELEASE DATE? (7 DAYS LEFT.)

Status: PACKING AND MOVING STUFF INTO OUR NEW 10X10.

Watching: News.

Listening to: "Caanan"--by Mindless Faith; "Sons of Plunder"; "Land of Confusion"--by Disturbed

Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 716.

TOPIC: TANKING DOLLAR AFFECTS OVERSEAS EXCHANGE RATES.

Thanks in part to the foreclosure crisis, the credit crunch, and now the government's insistence that American taxpayers shell out an additional $700B to bail out Wall Street and the failing financial system--the dollar is dropping worse than a teenage girl's skirt at the local prom.

That is having an aggravating affect on overseas exchange rates and it's been making it a challenge for me to pay my editor the money required for The Starchild.

By my estimates, I'm either at the halfway point or I'm nearly done--I've left the final amount up to Linda Culshaw as a courtesy.

We never haggled over what was agreed upon. But this book project of mine is the most important thing to me since Leonardo da Vinci invented the flying machine.

A lot of people don't understand why I would pay an editor to edit this gi-normous novel of mine--because the current thinking says: "Money should flow towards you--not away."

Unfortunately, not many writers these days understand the gravity of their current situation; especially when it involves the traditional book publishing industry.

Last year alone, the industry put out almost 412,000 titles--up nearly 30% from 2006 by my calculations--and that number alone is a cause for worry for first-time authors looking to break into the publishing industry.

With 5 million authors who are serious writers--that gives each first-time author a 12.13% chance to get snagged by a mainstream publisher on the first try.

Or a 1.93 million to 1 shot.

Not very good odds, are they?

No. Not when you have 4,000 publishers in North America alone dealing with over 1.5 billion e-mailed and mailed submissions on a yearly basis alone.

This is what you have to go against as the first-time author. But everyone says that you cannot pay an editor to do the work for you. You have to have a professional mainstream editor do it.

'Lends credibility'--or so I am told.

'Increases my chances of being picked up by one of the big gun publishers'--I keep hearing.

Right.

You just keep telling yourself that.

See, most writers whom dream big dreams end up getting burned in the end by something we call REALITY.

Believe me...I was one of them.

But then I realized that my chances of getting published were planted somewhere next to the temperature of absolute zero (-412F) and as some people know..?

I embarked on my own journey towards getting published.

And have had many setbacks as a result.

Even being homeless, I intend on picking up an auxiliary battery generator this coming month and I'll be using it to power my computer for 2 or 3 hours--so I can finish my books.

However, the continued drop in the dollar has put another possible obstacle on my way to getting the book published.

I kept saying it'll be another 4 years before I can get the book done.

Unfortunately, it may be until either 2013 or 2014 before I can finally bring The Starchild to full circle.

This is affecting me after all--you know. And I suspect that Linda may want me to pay just a little more to make up the difference in the rate exchange. Me paying her $50 a month here doesn't translate automatically to $50 in Aussie currency when she gets it.

I know the amount won't be a whole lot. $100 more tops--if I'm short $3-$5 each transaction.

But--as I may remind everyone reading this--I'm investing money in what I believe will be a modest breadwinner for myself and my wife of 7 years.

Like I've told everyone I know: "I'm not just doing this for myself anymore. I'm also doing this for the woman I love."

So I'm making sure that I have the best product out there and the best book written to my given ability.

Not the mainstream's.

Sky

NOT MUCH TIME LEFT...(10 DAYS LEFT)

Status: PACKING, PACKING, AND PLAYING PAX IMPERIA WHILE I DO IT.

I did get in some writing on The Vampiress Hunter though. 18 new pages of titilating stuff for future readers to pore over.

Watching: Nothing. TV's screwing up again--so it's going to be D-U-M-P-E-D.

Listening to: Lots and lots of taped music while we pack.

Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 716.

TOPIC: CHAOS REIGNS

I can't stay on for very long these days. Even after we had lost the internet for a few days this past week, I spent some needed time writing.

Just to *write*.

I just don't know when I will get back to it.

Presently, I spent yesterday helping my wife pack her stuff up and mine. We got most everything broken down and boxed. But we only have ten days left before we have to leave here.

It'll take us five to get everything ready. Three to move things into a new storage unit--if my aunt comes through for us. I just found out that my grandmother--on my father's side--passed away this past January.

I only met her once--when she and my aunt came up to give me my father's things--pictures, photos, his service records from his tours in Vietnam so many years ago. (He died in 2004 of throat cancer.)

But my aunt won't say how my grandmother died. She said it was quick and sudden--that's all she knows.

I worked a little bit more on The Vampiress Hunter.

Added a few new chapters.

But on the 25th, I'm going to be posting one last entry here. It's going to be for my new mailing addy.

Anyone is welcome to snail-mail me. Just to drop me a note, say hi, or whatever. I'm way past the stress threshhold nowadays.

I just want to get the fuck out of here as fast as possible. We're both strained and exhausted from having to deal with an uncaring management and a complete tool to boot.

I just want out so we can start over again. It may be several years before we can do anything with our housing situation. Things up here aren't good at all.

I have my inlaws stressed out, my mother wants me to still sell everything I've owned and collected these past 34 years and move back to Vermont.

She won't even say why.

All she keeps giving me is the run around--but I don't need (or want) to be pawned off yet again and be dumped in an unhappy living situation because my family finally got what they wanted.

I'm not doing it!!!

I'm an adult now...I can't make my own fucking decisions!

On another front, April may finally be pregnant. I know I've had false alarms in the past, but this seems different somehow.

It'll be just really bad timing if it is. Good news for us--as we've been trying for 7 years--but the fact that we will be homeless in less than 2 weeks time...?

Isn't going to help matters much.

I'm still in appeals with Social Insecurity. They claimed that I am now cured because of my past job history and the fact that I can write a book.

I am sooo seriously considering suing these assholes for just being stupid...

But now I have to find a way to save up the $1000-$2000 needed for pro-bono work. Because--as I keep finding out--no one will take the case unless it's a money-related money matter or a backpay issue.

Hopefully, in 5 months time, I'll have the money saved up and a lawyer to represent me on my disability problems--not because I can do this and that.

Having Factor Five Leiden has complicated things a great deal more than I thought.

Sky

WRITING QUOTES (20 DAYS LEFT)

Status: Working on the storage unit angle--still hashing out a plan on how to fit everything in.

Haven't wrote anything on my books. Maybe some writing this coming Wednesday...?

Watching: Nothing.

Listening to: Lots and lots of taped music.

Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 555.

TOPIC: QUOTES FOR THE MUSE

Thought some people might like these quotes I found on the internet.

These are for the writer. Not for normal simpletons whom can't wile themselves around a stanza, a haiku, or a verse of prose. :0P

***

An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate. ~ François-René de Chateaubriand

The writer is a spiritual anarchist, as in the depth of his soul every man is. He is discontented with everything and everybody. The writer is everybody's best friend and only true enemy — the good and great enemy. He neither walks with the multitude nor cheers with them. The writer who is a writer is a rebel who never stops. ~ William Saroyan

A writer — and, I believe, generally all persons — must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art. ~ Jorge Luis Borges

Everything of value about me is in my books. Whatever extra there is in me at any given moment isn't fully formed. I am hardly aware of it; it awaits the next book. It will — with luck — come to me during the actual writing, and it will take me by surprise. That element of surprise is what I look for when I am writing. ~ V.S. Naipaul

Try to put well in practice what you already know; and in so doing, you will in good time, discover the hidden things which you now inquire about. Practice what you know, and it will help to make clear what now you do not know. ~ Rembrandt

Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect. ~ Robert A. Heinlein

As far as service goes, it can take the form of a million things. To do service, you don't have to be a doctor working in the slums for free, or become a social worker. Your position in life and what you do doesn't matter as much as how you do what you do. ~ Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Take a commonplace, clean it and polish it, light it so that it produces the same effect of youth and freshness and originality and spontaneity as it did originally, and you have done a poet’s job. The rest is literature. ~ Jean Cocteau

Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness without dreaming of it. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assault of thoughts on the unthinking. ~ John Maynard Keynes

History does not always repeat itself. Sometimes it just yells, "Can't you remember anything I told you?" and lets fly with a club. ~ John W. Campbell

By striving to do the impossible, man has always achieved what is possible. ~ Mikhail Bakunin

In my books I have lifted bits from various religions in trying to come to a better understanding; I've made use of religious themes and symbols. Now, as the world becomes more pagan, one has to lead people in the same direction in a different way... ~ Patrick White

Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with. ~ Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Like the wind crying endlessly through the universe, Time carries away the names and the deeds of conquerors and commoners alike. And all that we are, all that remains, is in the memories of those who cared we came this way for a brief moment. ~ Harlan Ellison

Every failure is a step to success. Every detection of what is false directs us towards what is true: every trial exhausts some tempting form of error. ~ William Whewell

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

To save the world requires faith and courage: faith in reason, and courage to proclaim what reason shows to be true. ~ Bertrand Russell

I never lose an opportunity of urging a practical beginning, however small, for it is wonderful how often in such matters the mustard-seed germinates and roots itself. ~ Florence Nightingale

Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars — mere globs of gas atoms. Nothing is "mere". I too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination — stuck on this carousel my little eye can catch one-million-year-old light. A vast pattern — of which I am a part... What is the pattern or the meaning or the why? It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little more about it. ~ Richard Feynman

The pen is mightier than the sword if the sword is very short, and the pen is very sharp. ~ Terry Pratchett

The poem... is a little myth of man's capacity of making life meaningful. And in the end, the poem is not a thing we see — it is, rather, a light by which we may see — and what we see is life. ~ Robert Penn Warren

The true secret in being a hero lies in knowing the order of things. ... Things must happen when it is time for them to happen. Quests may not simply be abandoned; prophecies may not be left to rot like unpicked fruit; unicorns may go unrescued for a very long time, but not forever. The happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story. ~ Peter S. Beagle in The Last Unicorn

I am not a novelist, really not even a writer; I am a storyteller. One of my friends said about me that I think all sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story or tell a story about them, and perhaps this is not entirely untrue. To me, the explanation of life seems to be its melody, its pattern. And I feel in life such an infinite, truly inconceivable fantasy. ~ Karen Blixen

Experience is never limited, and it is never complete; it is an immense sensibility, a kind of huge spider-web of the finest silken threads suspended in the chamber of consciousness, and catching every air-borne particle in its tissue. It is the very atmosphere of the mind; and when the mind is imaginative — much more when it happens to be that of a man of genius — it takes to itself the faintest hints of life, it converts the very pulses of the air into revelations. ~ Henry James

When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free. ~ Charles Evans Hughes

I have never looked for dream in reality or reality in dream. I have allowed my imagination free play, and I have not been led astray by it. ~ Gustave Moreau

I always work on the theory that the audience will believe you best if you believe yourself. ~ Charlton Heston

Imagination is the queen of truth, and possibility is one of the regions of truth. She is positively akin to infinity. ~ Charles Baudelaire

If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run — and often in the short one — the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

All human beings are also dream beings. Dreaming ties all mankind together. ~ Jack Kerouac

If you're a singer you lose your voice. A baseball player loses his arm. A writer gets more knowledge, and if he's good, the older he gets, the better he writes. ~ Mickey Spillane

You imagine that what you can't understand is either spiritual or does not exist. The conclusion is quite wrong; rather there are obviously a million things in the universe that we would need a million quite different organs to understand ... someone blind from birth cannot imagine the beauty of a landscape, the colors of a painting or the shadings of an iris. He will imagine them as something palpable, edible, audible or olfactory. Likewise, if I were to explain to you what I perceive by the senses you do not have, you would interpret it as something that could be heard, seen, touched, smelled or tasted; but it is not like that. ~ Cyrano de Bergerac

Technology adds nothing to art. Two thousand years ago, I could tell you a story, and at any point during the story I could stop, and ask, Now do you want the hero to be kidnapped, or not? But that would, of course, have ruined the story. Part of the experience of being entertained is sitting back and plugging into someone else's vision. ~ Penn Jillette

Philosophy is based on speculation, on logic, on thought, on the synthesis of what we know and on the analysis of what we do not know. Philosophy must include within its confines the whole content of science, religion and art. ~ P. D. Ouspensky

Try to remember this: what you project
Is what you will perceive; what you perceive
With any passion, be it love or terror,
May take on whims and powers of its own.
~ Richard Wilbur ~

A man is not idle, because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labour and there is an invisible labour. ~ Victor Hugo in Les Misérables

Mistakes are part of the game. It's how well you recover from them, that's the mark of a great player. ~ Alice Cooper

Almost all our misfortunes in life come from the wrong notions we have about the things that happen to us. To know men thoroughly, to judge events sanely, is, therefore, a great step towards happiness. ~ Stendhal

The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed. ~ Charles de Montesquieu

I don't want to express alienation. It isn't what I feel. I'm interested in various kinds of passionate engagement. All my work says be serious, be passionate, wake up. ~ Susan Sontag

At no time are we ever in such complete possession of a journey, down to its last nook and cranny, as when we are busy with preparations for it. After that, there remains only the journey itself, which is nothing but the process through which we lose our ownership of it. ~ Yukio Mishima

The explorers of the past were great men and we should honour them. But let us not forget that their spirit lives on. It is still not hard to find a man who will adventure for the sake of a dream or one who will search, for the pleasure of searching, not for what he may find. ~ Sir Edmund Hillary

I believe that the Universe is one being, all its parts are different expressions of the same energy, and they are all in communication with each other, therefore parts of one organic whole. This whole is in all its parts so beautiful, and is felt by me to be so intensely in earnest, that I am compelled to love it and to think of it as divine. ~ Robinson Jeffers

If you cannot make knowledge your servant, make it your friend. ~ Baltasar Gracián

What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote, and brings to birth in us also the creative impulse. ~ E. M. Forster

Sky

THE SIDE EFFECT OF BEING 'TOO POPULAR'...

Status: Getting the storage unit and should start moving stuff over the next few days up until the first part of next week. (In theory.)

Wrote a little bit more on The Vampiress Hunter, but I plan on shifting to a little bit on The Price of Freedom and Stories of the Dead Earth.

Watching: Nothing.

Listening to: Nothing.

Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 555.

TOPIC: NOTE TO THE AUTHOR: STOP WHINING AND KEEP GOING!

Boo-hoo and wah-wah...

So you couldn't trust your most closed friends, could you, Stephanie?

This is what happens when you become too popular: People will take advantage of you and your celebrity status and start demanding a 'piece of the action'.

But protesting is really fucking retarded. All it does is make you look stupid and piss your fan base even more.

And while I've never read your books, don't intend to now or in the near future, it's time to act like a grown up and move on!

You're not doing yourself or your publisher any favors by being stuck on stupid!

***

CANBERRA (Reuters Life!) - Author Stephenie Meyer, writer of the best-selling young adult "Twilight" books, has put the fifth and final installment in the series on hold in protest after a partial draft was posted on the Internet.

Meyer, the U.S. author of "Twilight" and its sequels "New Moon," "Eclipse" and "Breaking Dawn," said she had a good idea of how the leak of "Midnight Sun" had happened as so few copies had left her hands and each was unique.

The novel tells the love story of a human teenager named Bella and her vampire lover, Edward.

"The manuscript that was illegally distributed on the Internet was given to trusted individuals for a good purpose. I have no comment beyond that, as I believe that there was no malicious intent with the initial distribution," she wrote in a posting on her website.

But Meyer, 34, said this was a huge violation of her rights of an author as well as her rights as a human being as she owned the copyright and had the say when the book should be made public.

She said musicians and filmmakers also had the same rights and it was dishonest of anyone to download material off the Internet and to reproduce and distribute it.

"This has been a very upsetting experience for me, but I hope it will at least leave my fans with a better understanding of copyright and the importance of artistic control," wrote Meyer.

"I feel too sad about what has happened to continue working on "Midnight Sun," and so it is on hold indefinitely."

Meyer said the draft that was released on the Internet was incomplete with messy and flawed writing but she was making this draft available to everyone to be a fair and because it added a new dimension to the "Twilight" story.

Sky

'Potter' publisher looks to promote next big thing

Status: Getting the storage unit and should start moving stuff over the next few days up until the first part of next week. (In theory.)

Wrote a little bit more on The Vampiress Hunter, but I plan on shifting to a little bit on The Price of Freedom and Stories of the Dead Earth.

Watching: Nothing.

Listening to: Nothing.

Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 555.

TOPIC: SOMETHING TO IRRITATE ME WITH EVEN MORE!!!!

Since Harry Potter has passed on, Scholastic has decided to try for something else with all the glitz, glitter, and endless migraines for people like myself whom are sick to death over the hype of Harry Potter, Twilight, and now this "39 Clues" saga.

Is it me or does this remind you of the days when reality shows started to be up and coming and then suddenly...everyone wanted to do it???

Because of Harry Potter, publishers have been milking this grandiose idea that people will be turned on by the thought of extravagant series that will wow the mass and woo the readers--and I'm just like: "Please...if there is a god out there...? Have him/her/it--shoot me!!!"

Put me out of my fucking misery...that's all I ask.

Getting traditionally published just isn't the same anymore. It really isn't.

It's now become a place where you have to come up with these asinine sagas that will grip the publisher, enthrall the target audience and bore normal people like me...? TO FUCKING DEATH WITH ALL THE OVERBLOWN HYPE!!!

(And here I thought Twilight was bad enough? SM's rabid fan base is getting their heart's desire by having Twilight out on the big screen this December 12th. But I don't expect it too all that well. The fall line up for this year's closing movie saga is piss poor and wanting. There's just nothing there to watch!)

So glad that I don't have to deal with the mainstream anymore. I'll be even more glad when the day comes when we don't have to become traditionally published just be called an "author".

But that's me. I still have a lot of writing to do--but not this month. It could be early next year when I start up again for real. (If things don't work out as well as I had hoped. We still haven't found a place yet. Housing's taking its sweet-assed time--despite our many unreturned phone calls--and the choices to pick is relatively slim to none. We may still end up having to get rid of all our animals. (Simply because--looking around--there is less space to camp out and nowhere to go. Everything's too overdeveloped.)

Anyway...here's the article.

***

NEW YORK - On Sept. 9, the U.S. publisher of "Harry Potter" will premiere a highly ambitious series with a mystery ending for readers and a couple of puzzlers for the industry: How big is the market for a multimedia story — and can a phenomenon be conceived by a publisher rather than created by the public?

"The 39 Clues" is a planned 10-volume set about young Amy and Dan Cahill and their worldwide search for the secret to their family's power. The first book, "The Maze of Bones," is written by Rick Riordan of "The Lightning Thief" fame and has an announced first printing of 500,000. Steven Spielberg has already acquired film rights to the series.

Designed for boys and girls ages 8 to 12, each book will have a different writer, including such best-sellers as Gordon Korman and Jude Watson. Backed by a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign, "The 39 Clues" also features game cards, a contest with a $10,000 first prize and a sophisticated Web site that includes games, blogs, videos and thousands of pages of background.

"The word we always used was 'groundbreaking,'" says Scholastic executive editorial director David Levithan. "We wanted to be the first out there to introduce this kind of multidimensional thing."

A Scholastic team, led by Levithan and including about a dozen editors, thought of the series about three years ago, working from the idea of a treasure hunt. The essential outline, including the ending, was set by the publisher. Authors were asked to fill in the details, taking a thread, as Levithan describes it, and turning it into a blanket.

"It's a different kind of challenge," Levithan says. "To use a movie analogy, each director of the 'Harry Potter' films brings their own voice and their own vision to what J.K. Rowling has done. You still feel there's a consistency there, and part of the fun is seeing what they add to it."

Scholastic quickly decided that "The 39 Clues," its title an homage to Alfred Hitchcock's "The 39 Steps," would make an ideal multiplatform event. Readers might check out the Web site, just as kids who love online games might then turn to the books. A recent study by the American Library Association revealed that many librarians already use games to attract young people and, ideally, get them interested in books.

"I love the gaming aspect of 'The 39 Clues,'" says Jenny Levine, a digital specialist for the library association. "I could also see a lot of libraries forming '39 Clues' clubs the way they've had Pokemon clubs."

Books for all ages often originate with publishers, and countless best-sellers are made through marketing. But a blockbuster, whether "Harry Potter" or Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" novels, virtually always happens spontaneously.

"Harry Potter" was born in the brain of Rowling and immortalized by millions worldwide. The staff at Scholastic, and the British publisher, Bloomsbury, were sure they had a hit, even a classic, but not a record breaker. Other children's franchises, including "Clifford" and "Junie B. Jones," began simply as books and expanded only in response to public demand.

"I remember when 'The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' first came out; nobody knew it was going to be so big. That's how it works. You need the kids to grab onto a book and tell each other about it," says Beth Puffer, manager of the Bank Street Bookstore, based in New York.

"I can't think of a phenomenon that was presented that way from the start. This is a very unique situation."

Puffer and other booksellers are enthusiastic about "39 Clues," although unsure whether it will be a sensation. Kimberly Diehm, co-owner of the Neverending Story Children's Bookshoppe in Las Vegas, calls the first volume "a perfect tale" by Riordan, but says she has noticed little discussion about it among her fellow retailers.

Becky Anderson, co-owner of the Anderson Bookstores in suburban Chicago, says she is a little wary of the project's ambitions: "It was presented to us as the thing that's going to replace 'Harry Potter.'" But she was "blown away" by "The 39 Clues."

"We're investing big in this," she says. "I think we see it as a way to get some of those nonreaders into reading."

Other multimedia projects are being developed. HarperCollins is working with former Scholastic executive Lisa Holton on an eight-book series for girls. Dutton, a division of Penguin Group (USA), recently acquired a mystery trilogy by "C.S.I." creator Anthony Zuiker that will be complemented by an interactive Web site. Simon & Schuster will release "Spaceheadz," Internet sites and a series of chapter books co-authored by Jon Scieszka and Francesco Sedita.

"In the past we've made the mistake of demonizing other media, saying all TV is bad, all computers are bad, and all books are good," says Scieszka, appointed last year by the Library of Congress as the National Ambassador of Young People's Literature. "Kids know that it's not true; there is great television and there are great games. I just also want to make sure that we don't forget what's unique about a book, losing yourself in an extended narrative."

"I think it will be fascinating to find out if this is a trend that we'll be seeing a lot more of," says Dutton senior editor Ben Sevier, who added that he and other publishers would be watching how the public reacts to "The 39 Clues."

"It's hard to manufacture a phenomenon," he says of the series. "It's an enormous risk, and it signals an enormous enthusiasm."

Sky

NEW MARCHING ORDERS ARE FINALLY IN? (33 DAYS LEFT)

Status: Packing up still. We have about 92% of the heavy stuff boxed up.

I also wrote a few more pages on The Vampiress Hunter today. A little happier I can write, but it doesn't take the heavy apprehensiveness that I am feeling right now.

Watching: Nothing.

Listening to: Taped music. "Red Phoenix"--by Decoded Feedback

Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 555.

TOPIC: GODS...HOW I HATE THIS...

Can't say that I'm all overjoyed by the latest news we got from housing. (Three weeks after the fact.)

They didn't count the amount my mother-in-law gave my wife over the past year ($217) against me as "income"--but the new housing voucher numbers leaves me with a bit of a conundrum: Can we realistically stay here by moving into a one-bedroom?

Will housing allow us to?

But either way, we're screwed six ways till the start of the next century.

That's for sure.

I have to prepare for all types of contingencies. I can't just wait until housing gives us the all clear--which could take another week.

At least I know now that I have to get a storage unit. And the bigger...the better. (We have a lot more stuff than I thought.)

I wrote a little more on The Vampiress Hunter--giving Marlena a date for the night.

At least she's having better luck than her is creator at the moment. :9(

(It bites when your book characters have it better than you do.)

Sky

A WRITER'S GUIDE TO TORTURING YOUR OC'S

PRICE GOUGING OF THE WORST KIND

Status: Got a few rolls of packaging tape--from the $25 my inlaws gave my wife for her birthday.

It's good enough to get things going again--for just a little while.

But we have so much to do between now and the first of September. (Which is now 9 days away. Then it's 4 weeks to zero hour.)

I also wrote a few pages on The Vampiress Hunter. But don't expect me to applaud myself. I'm still not in full 'writing mode' yet.

There's still too much going on for me to remain completely focused on my book projects.

Watching: Oddly enough, the TV functions normally--after plugging it in for a test, Thursday. I think the convertor gave it a coronary and it "flipped out".

Five months off and it works now.

It's just too bad we may not be around much longer to enjoy it.

Listening to: Taped music. "A Daisy Chain For Satan."--By My Life With The Thrill Kill Cult.

Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 555.

TOPIC: HARD TIMES A'COMIN'.

My wife got $25 for her birthday today. And since we were (still are) in desperate need of some packaging tape and cat food, we decided to get both--since the cats were running low and we had zero tape.

When we shopped at Wal-Mart, we were...to put it bluntly stunned by what we saw.

One roll of packing tape--the clear stuff: $4.44 each.

2 rolls together? $4.44 each.

The 4-paks? $8.49.

One bag of catfood? Up a dollar from last month to $10.98.

It took us 20 minutes to decide what we needed. Forget me transplanting more from my garden this month with new potting soil to mix with the old--I made the ultimate sacrifice and spent what little money I had left on making sure we had enough packaging tape to last us for at last 5 more days--enough to pack more stuff into the boxes I got a few days ago.

So we got 2 rolls of the packaging tape for $4.44, the bag of catfood, and I went and got 2 smaller packing rolls for $4.26.

But I couldn't believe this! I could understand buying stuff in bulk or two-for-onsies and all that sorts of thing...but when they start charging the same price for a single as they do a double--that's where I start to look at myself, look at the world I live in and think: We are so fucked.

Pardon my language, but this kind of price-gouging just hurts people like myself.

I sat at the Subway express counter and thought to myself: "This has got to end. We're just getting priced out of everything--not just my comics, or my occasional book, or a candy bar--but everything."

Rent, utilities, public transportation, basic essentials...

I don't honestly know how much longer I'm going to be able to continue absorbing everything. I'm barely hanging on as it is.

And next year, they are forecasting food prices are going up another 5% to 6% in 2009.

How the hell am I supposed to keep up with kind of inflation? All it's doing is hurting me.

I try to do what I can to make every dollar I have count. But it doesn't seem to go as far as I would've liked. Have a little extra lying around. A tiny reserve cushion.

But it's not there.

All I can think of is how my mom did it with raising the three of us by herself so many years ago, and I just can't see how I can apply the same principle to a world that's 24 years out of place and 53 times more expensive; with so little money.

What do I do? What do I spend it on? What's more important?

Despite my best efforts, I'm rapidly losing this fight. I just don't know where to turn to next for help.

I...I just don't know anymore. The government just doesn't seem to give a shit about people in my situation...the middle-class is pretty much history--and everybody I know here in cyberspace and the real world is hurting.

My father-in-law lost his job yesterday and it's thrown my inlaws into a state of near-panic--since his income was paying most of the bills all these years--since I got married to April.

And now...even she's contemplating divorce because she doesn't want to live in a tent or out on the streets.

When I got home today, I put my foot down. I said: "We've been through a lot together these last 6.5 years and the last thing I need is you to tell me we should get divorced because we are in a serious fix right now. We aren't separating and that's that. We'll get through this somehow. We always do." I went into the bedroom and wanted to see if Jaws III recorded while we were gone. (A bad recording--but okay to watch.)

I'm just tired of that. Ever since I can remember, I've always been shut out of everything. The moment a crisis pops up with my family, my well-being and wefare is sacrificed automatically for their personal comfort.

I'm left flailing out of control.

My mother takes in my two brothers and I get left to fend for myself. This happened many times over the past 13 years--before they all left me for Vermont. But this kind of abuse scarred me deeply.

Sure, I was an adult back then, but I was not in a stable living situation either.

A few of my friends were sympathetic to my brothers' problems and causes; offering to help, but when it came to me?

"Tough luck. You can do without."

I told April when we were going to Wal-Mart today: "What did I do to deserve this kind of treatment? Did I piss off everyone the day I was born disabled and seen as a burden for the rest of this country in general? Why is that people have to treat me like this?"

I went on saying, "Julie (a crazed friend of my wife's) wants you to live with her--but not in a tent--but sees no problem with me living out on the streets or by myself--with no one to be with."

I said: "I can't have that. Not when my health is going down hill mighty fast and I might up dead by accident or something equally worse. And how would you know what happened to me if you weren't there? That's why I don't like Julie. She's too obsessed, uncaring, and selfish. She wants what we have, or don't want--and would rather have you all to herself than have me around either her, you, or Joseph. (Her boyfriend.)"

I finished by saying: "We are soulmates. Husband and wife. Bound by a mutual contract that pretty much illustrates what we are going through now: 'For better or for worse'. There is no bailing out when the going gets tough. No chickening out when faced with a cold reality. We have to do this together. Not apart."

I'll be damned if I'm going to let this happen to me. We went through hell together before getting married--both of us nearly dead for real.

I'm not to let something as being homeless be a cause to separate the two of us by proxy--because she's scared and I'm having issues of my own. Y'know?

This is the way the world is: No one cares, no one gives a shit. It's everybody for themselves when it comes to crunch time.

But I've sacrificed way too much to simply lose out on what little I have to me and the woman that I loved and married.

I'm not going to accept that!

Sky

A $500 LESSON

Status: Packing, packing, and more packing.

Watching: The rain come down in buckets.

Listening to: "Nevermeant-Version 2"--By Razed in Black

Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 555.

TOPIC: CREDIT CHECK UPDATE

Some things should've been made more clearer to me when I first started out. But I guess when you live life as destitute as mine--some things tend to slip.

Our credit check came back rejected--as you all know--and yesterday, we got a letter explaining why. Some smaller outstanding collection debts is what dinged the two of us--not our student loan defaults.

Together, we owe about $500--which is preventing us from acquiring a new place to live. Of course, my understanding of things was: Bad credit affects your ability to purchase a home, buy a car, or a boat.

No one said anything about renting an apartment. It's odd is how in the past my brothers were still able to get into a place when they had bad credit--before they were married--but I strongly suspect that they didn't have tightening credit standards to deal with in the face of a shrinking market and continued fall out from the foreclosure market and credit crunch.

I believe that this is what contributed to our recent slew of rejections as well. But it's a little odd how we are getting dinged when the amount we owe is less than $1,000--and we have zero credit card debt. (The only one thing I am eternally grateful for with my limited income: Low income=zero credit cards.)

Like I said earlier, it most likely has to do with everyone tightening their credit standards--to also ensnare poor people like myself with bad credit; even though what I have isn't considered 'absolute critical' or 'high priority' requirements.

The ironic thing was, is that we were trying to get a place that accepts people with low income.

Never in a million years did I think I would get nailed on this front--seeing how we still have perfect rental history.

Just another lesson in life I'll have to take care of in the coming months--before next year's attempt is made once more. Hopefully then, things will have changed for the better. (And we're still hoping we can slide into a one-bedroom apartment. My FIL lost his job--which was paying the bills at my mother-in-law's place; and right now...? Neither my in-laws are very happy. My SIL is sleeping on their couch and my BIL has been living there for as long as I can recall--since getting married in 2002. So...the plan on staying with my inlaws for a few months after September is effectively scratched off.)

However, I was hoping that I wouldn't have to deal with this until after my first book was published. With the extra money, I was planning on wiping the slate clean.

The idea was this: I would stay where I was until 2012--by getting The Starchild published--build up my reserves of added income from my sales, pay off what little debt I have and our two student loans, and then move to Montana.

Least...that was the plan. (lol)

Of course, I wasn't expecting to move prematurely either. Or be forced to put off publishing the book until a latter date. (Which is still up in the air. However, I still want people to vote. This will give me an idea on how much people will be willing to pay for my novel--given how I'm not that greedy. But I figure...since I'm putting almost 20 years into this book, I'm entitled to a little leeway here. (I know, I know...I'm insane for taking this long with The Starchild. :0) ) )

Unfortunately, I couldn't do any of this with what I'm playing with now for income. Not when there is so much to do and so little time left to accomplish it in.

I had to pick my battles and fight what I could--and leave the rest to fate; while slowly building towards a better future for myself and my wife.

That's all I had left for me: My books. My happy little future for two people and a bunch of furry children.

Not much to ask for--is it?

Sky

(Final edit: 2:31 AM. August 21st, 2008.)

OF ALL THE STUPID THINGS TO FORGET!

Status: Screwed, blued, and tatooed.

Doing: Packing, packing, and...panicking. (Still. What would you expect when you have only six weeks left to get the schmuck out of Dodge?)

Watching: The sun set with temps in the low 80s. (We're in the middle of a mini-heatwave at the moment.)

Listening to: "She Sells Sanctuary"--by The Cult.

Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 555.

TOPIC: BRAIN-DEAD AS USUAL.

Three years or so ago, I started buying containers at Wal-Mart--after we started seeing the writing on the wall that we would either have to move or be homeless.

Never once did I think that we would also be using packing boxes as well! lol

I envisioned that we would get everything into plastic containers long before we had to do anything. I wanted to graduate from using boxes for the first time ever and wanted something that held up better than cardboard.

But over the last 3 years, I did what I could with the containers. True, I got most of everything in them, but we still had a lot left over.

Buying packing tape never entered my mind. Not the least bit.

So--in my haste--I checked to see what we had for stores. Only two rolls so far; which we are using sparingly until I get my check on the 3rd of next month; which happens to be my next vascular appointment.

The trouble was--this is a rescheduled one. I had forgotten what time my appointment was and showed up 1.5 hours late. (My excuse? Well, you're looking at it: All the packing has caused us both to become very frazzled here.)

On a side note, I'm going to be giving out my new mailing address--so that people can contact me.

One on myspace, one on this blog, and one on my Yahoo! 360 page and also on Quick Topic. (Where my daily diary is being kept.)

This will be posted on or about the 5th of September. (If we can't secure something from housing first. The one-bedroom unit is looking less and less likely. But possibly, we could get into a renovated bottom-floor 2-bedroom unit. However, don't discount this being a lifesaver for the two of us. Housing still has to approve the rent amount. And if so, it could only buy us--at the most--another year here. After that, we won't be able to stay no matter what befalls us.)

After that, anyone is free to stay in touch with me and my wife.

Sky

GOING FROM REALLY BAD TO EXCESSIVELY WORSE

Status: Screwed, blued, and tatooed.

Doing: Packing, packing, and...panicking.

Watching: The sun set.

Listening to: Nothing at the moment.

Not unless you count more Razed in Black.

Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 512.

TOPIC: CRUSHED

We could've pulled $20s out of our ass--turned back the hands of time--invented a time-machine--and do all the sorts of things we are now simply kicking ourselves in the ass for...in the here and now.

But the truth is...we can't change our destinies or our fates. We have to make what is given to us the best we can do.

And right now? Things aren't looking up for us. We are simply being railroaded and shuttered out--and it looks like this will be the end of us for the time being.

Our credit check came back denied. There was simply nothing that we could further do.

Forget doing future credit checks. We just got kicked hard in the stomach yesterday--after getting the crushing news. This means that we don't have a home outside of the one we have now.

I personally think that the foreclosure mess and the credit crunch had even the rental industry spooked badly. Because now, they are being so anal retentive over everything.

And we are still trying to figure out what the hell could've caused the denial. Our rental history is still perfect, but I'll admit, my credit history isn't great. And it isn't because of the stupid credit cards.

Never had one.

The primary thing is a student loan that I can no longer pay back. With my income low as it is and the prospects of finding a job again so remote...? There's not much we can do about that.

But this effectively shuts us out of 90% of all the current rental properties here in the Puget Sound.

Because with this denial, we already know what will happen when the others would come in as--if we made that decision to go ahead and continue next month. (Which I had planned.)

So...

I was right after all--but I wish to God I wasn't. However, this was going to happen to us sooner or later.

We are literally hitting the upper limits of flexibility and maneuvering room here--in regards to renting and staying put.

The cold reality now is that we are going to be homeless by the end of September. And it is the worst time to become homeless for this part of the state.

Our current management knows that we are on the ropes and there isn't much we can do to salvage our current situation--or save face for that matter.

We got another batch of possible bad news today. Our primary housing coordinator--who's a real bitch--decided that (after 6 years), my wife's small cash allotments from her mother every few months or so--should be treated as INCOME and be counted against me and my current amount.

I was appalled!

Truly!

How can one treat $20 or $40 every few months or so as income?

One, the money never stays. It's usually being used for things like laundry money...??? (Does that ever ring a bell with anyone here?! Seriously! I can only do so much with my limited income--and I do try to keep our piles of clothes...cleaned!!!)

So both my wife and I welcome my mother's charity now and then--to help us out. And we have never looked a gift horse in the mouth. Especially with recent events surrounding my cat, Kivata Gigante.

(Odd how housing never went after me for the amount that a collective few donated to get us through the month of April.)

But how could this be considered income??? Don't you have to have a thing called a J-O-B to have sources of stable cash flows?!

Gods!

So this whole mess--this whole affair could very well kill our housing. Bury it off the needle--because housing would demand that we pay back the amount my mother loaned us for small, inconsequential things to get us by.

Knowing my MIL, she wouldn't consent to handing over her account information willingly. And that would condemn us to being homeless for certain.

Without housing, we're fucked beyond repair. There would be little point in trying to find a place to live--because I simply don't have the money to get one.

It would take me years to get a place.

And even if we did have jobs, we still would be facing the same problems in the here and now.

Nothing would change.

People speak about the homeless problems, the need for affordable housing, and etc, etc, etc...but like one writer in the Everett Herald said today: "...there are a lot of good people trying their best to help, but they have little authority and less money. Good intentions are universally derailed by a petrified, pass-the-buck, not-my-job bureaucracy.

I can just see the poor street person, a pocket full of change from collecting cans, standing at a pay phone dialing number after number and getting the same answer -- no one is available to take your call now, but if you leave a message ... Sure."

This is generally what we would get.

But this wouldn't cure me or my wife of our impending homelessness problem.

So we have 6.5 weeks to try and change our situation for the better.

But it's a big IF.

I'm sorry if I don't sound all that optimistic. But when faced with losing the only place you've called home for 11 years now--it gets harder to look that same optimist in the eye and share in his or her bubbly enthusiasm.

My wife just wants to put her head under water and drown herself and I would rather put myself under the wheels of a bus and have the guy run me over.

That's how we felt today after getting that message from our housing coordinator--on top of everything else. We're both angry, frustrated, scared, helpless, and just plain worn out. We just don't have the faith, energy, or strength to carry on in the face of this plight.

We've done everything we can--but it's just not enough. There simply isn't anything there to catch us if we fall.

To allow us to keep going for just a little bit longer.

We are really on our own here.

I haven't felt the need to write since this problem started with our voucher being denied. I've tried...but it just doesn't seem to have that sense of urgency attached to it.

So I've stopped trying and just let things go for the time being. It hurts. The sharp pain in my soul--just overwhelming at times--but what can I do in the mean time?

Writing for me was just an escape mechanism from the world I lived in. When I was homeless in the mid-90s, it was just something for me to do. To pass the time.

But this time...it's different. I look at my writing like it's my lifeboat. My reason to escape this hell hole that poverty and abject income has sunk me under.

But I also knew that it was going to take me some time. And all I needed was just enough to get the ball rolling and something stabilized in my corner of the universe.

I got things rolling, but nowhere near enough to consider me good to go.

I just don't think I'll be able to finish what I started. Because I'm not going to be on the 'net to promote and advertise myself or The Starchild.

And that's going to be my main regret right then and there. I won't be here to share in what I've gone and created.

Because of our homeless situation.

Sky