Coming Soon

I was quite busy the past seven months or so.  Now I should be able to make a return.  I have some plans I'd like to make public about the direction of this blog, mostly to coax myself into actually making them happen.

May 15th was my 3rd blogiversary.  I know that my 3rd year of blogging was a lot less productive than my first two, but I plan to make the 4th at least better than the 3rd.

I graduated from high school on May 29th.  My first day at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown will be August 31st.  I will be studying creative writing.

The first thing I need to do is get a fresh background on the blog.  My cousin edited a photo he had taken to my specifications so that I could use it here.  He took the background photo currently displayed and I'm pretty sure at least one of the ones immediately before the current one.  This time around I'm going to write a story or vignette in support and celebration of the photo.  That should be the next post I do, up within the next few days.

As I mentioned before, I would like to continue to post some stories in the Drake Lunar Base setting.  There is a lot more for me to explore and learn from the exercise.  If anyone wants to have their name and/or nationality used, feel free to tell me in the comments section.

I'd really like to start getting back to writing story reviews, especially short fiction reviews.  I think I'll do some more movie reviews as well.

I'm not sure if writing posts will return with any sort of frequency.  I doubt that I'll never post another, but I don't know that they're really good enough to warrant the hour of writing time, energy, and concentration.  We shall see.

There is a great possibility of new features on the blog as well, including the return of an occasional flash fic vlog.

For anyone actually reading this, hello!  I'm sorry for my absence.  Welcome back to the ravenous maw!  Watch out for that massive saliva droplet above you!

A to Z Withdrawal

I'm sorry to say that due to time restraints from my high school musical, I have decided that it is in my best interest to withdraw from the A to Z Challenge for this year.  After April is done I may very well continue with posts similar to those I may have posted had I had the time and energy to do so during the Challenge month.  I will do my best to still leave some comments on other blogs when I have a free moment.  Sorry and thanks.

F is for Frieda

April 4, 2053

Frieda slept through much of the alien landing.  She would've slept through all of it had it not been for the turncoat.

Barbara was like a sister to her.  She was a budding botanist whereas Barbara was a veteran astronaut on her third mission, but they had a lot alike.  They were both heavy sleepers.  The biggest difference there was that Frieda woke up that day and Barbara never did.  Frieda slept through Barbara's throat being cut.  Only God could have awoken her before her own was slit.

E is for Ephraim

(Note: It's best that you at least glance at my A to Z Plan before reading unless you want to go into this story completely cold.)

June 24, 2096

            Ephraim was young and, frankly, stupid.  He almost got thirty-six people killed.  Or was it thirty-seven?  It was fifty years ago, and yet it feels like something he should remember.

            He was late leaving his room that day.  When he opened the door, the Base’s chief biologist—Lira or Leona or Lisa, maybe—was leading one of the aliens down the hall.  Ephraim didn’t understand.  He threw the biologist into his room and drew a utility knife.  Likely, the blade couldn’t have even pierced the alien’s hide, but Ephraim was young and stupid.

            “Is this a sign of aggression?” the alien asked gravelly.

            Ephraim muttered something about protecting his comrades or some such other thing that sounded a lot more gallant in his head than it did at the end of his tongue.

            The alien pushed the knife down with one wing.  Huffing air from his long, strange mouth in a defective copy of laughter, he slithered on past.

            Ephraim went back to bed, not at all suspecting that the alien he had let pass would very nearly kill everyone he had come to love.  There was a pistol at his belt.  He should have used it.  But how could he have known?  He was young and, in hindsight, he was stupid.

D is for Drake Lunar Base

(Note: If you want to understand what's going on here, I recommend you at least glance over my A to Z Plan for this iteration of the Challenge.)

            The Drake Lunar Base was completed on November 9, 2044 in the Lacus Gaudii area of the Moon.  The project was financed by NASA in association with several other space programs across Earth.  Twenty men and sixteen women landed at the Base on April 15, 2045.  They came from the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Australia, Russia, and the Central American Confederation.

            The Base was one hundred meters long, ten meters wide, and three meters tall.  It contained twenty-seven rooms including two men’s restrooms, two women’s restrooms, a planetary science room, a life sciences laboratory, an auxiliary occupational room, a kitchen, a game room, and eighteen bedrooms.

            There was artificial gravity set to 0.97g and idealized artificial atmosphere within the Base.

            The only entryway/exit to/from the Base was a single airlock.