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Weekend Chillin’
The low 80s persist and I’m enjoying the reprieve from the typical depths of summer. I’ve got a lot to do this weekend and I’m glad I don’t have to do it drowning in perspiration.
Weekending
My most recent interview went well. We’ll see what comes of it.
My chest has mostly recovered from my recent project work. I got some more screws to secure the porch step. The others stripped pretty badly and I had to manually unscrew them with a pair of plyers. Damn, that was painful! I got a longer drill bit to extend the pilot hole for the screws. Hopefully, the new ones will go in without stripping the head before it’s halfway down. ☹️
I’m almost done with my Christmas monthlies for 2020 and I’m itching to move on to this year’s Holiday Season Serial Romance. I just have to finish October’s article and schedule it before I can move on to the story.
Sneak Preview
Since the weather has been so splendid. I thought I’d treat myself to a sneak preview of my favorite season. The seasonable weather we’ve been seeing thanks to Hurricane Isaias has put me in mind of the loveliness of Autumn.
Autumn River Sounds – Relaxing Nature Video – Sleep/ Relax/ Study – 9 Hours – HD 1080p
A friend of mine on Facebook posted something that said that 🍎 apple 🍏 was the true 🥧 taste of Autumn 🥧 rather than 🎃 pumpkin 🎃.
👿 Blasphemy! 👿
As the self-appointed Grand Poobah of the Cult of the Pumpkin Spice , I had to protest strenuously. That being said, I do enjoy the appley goodness of Autumn as well. Apple cider, baked apples, apple pie, spiced apple rings; it’s all wonderful.
The Pumpkin Spice must flow…☕
As much as I’m tolerating the current weather, nearly to the point of almost enjoying it, I 🤎💛🧡 LOVE AUTUMN 🧡💛🤎!
You won’t find me in yoga pants (thank your lucky ✨ stars for that), but I’m totally about the Pumpkin Spice Life . I look forward to Pumpkin Spice season almost as fervently as I look forward to Christmastime! Fortunately, I’m not the only one. Before long, there will be Pumpkin Spice everything in all the stores and fast food outlets.
Only 44 more days til Autumn…
Midnight, Time For A Homicide
We shall see that at which dogs howl in the dark, and that at which cats prick up their ears after midnight. ~H. P. Lovecraft
Okay, Rob, you’ve been so happy and chillaxed up until now. What’s this about?
I’ve been hanging back to work on the plot and structure of the Sentinels series of novels. The big bads of the series are the Chaosians. I hadn’t envisioned them as being quite as mind-rippingly terrifying as any of Lovecraft’s eldritch horrors, but I suppose they actually are.
The succession of escalating horrors that the Sentinels will have to combat can’t help but change them. At the beginning of the series, they have been helping the ECPD to combat gang-related crime. That, in itself, is a horror that we’re all only too familiar with. Foxfire is a typical Silver Age or Bronze Age type of superhero. He and his friend, Lucky Deagle, started the Sentinels to be kind of like the Super Friends. They wanted to help the police fight crime, but they also wanted to be a positive influence on society while they did it.
It can never be that simple. As Nietzsche noted, “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.“. While the Sentinels built a huge fan base and did their best to contribute to the public good, they were still drawn into a number of gang wars and witnessed some of the horrors of humanity’s worst impulses. They’re trying hard to rise above it, but it can’t help but wear on their minds and souls.
The title of this section is actually a quote from Ice-T’s song Midnight. The lifestyle he describes in the song is chilling. He and his friends are hanging out at a minimarket making a lot of noise to draw attention to themselves. Problem is, they’re in the “wrong neighborhood”. Since they’re wearing red, the blue gang comes to run them off. Young kids with no apparent sense of value for human life (other than their own) shooting the crap out of each other. How charming.
So, gangs are something of a horror in themselves. The people behind the activities of some of these gangs are the next step into the darkness. The Conclave doesn’t specifically “run” the gangs, but they do pull a lot of strings and provide a lot of incentive for some of their worst misdeeds.
The public face of the Conclave is that of old money philanthropists, but these people are bad news. Some of them have been around since the founding of Empire City due to the rituals they perform monthly. The Chaosians have been providing these people a type of immortality for centuries. The cost to the Conclave is not readily apparent. The cost/benefit ratio seems to be in the Conclave’s favor.
It’s never that simple. The Chaosians are up to something.
The Sentinels don’t know any of this yet. They’re still just dealing with the gangsters. That’s more than enough problem for anybody, but ultimately you just have to follow the money. Once you follow the money, you wind up finding the motives. Once you find the motive, things really get ugly…
I’m planning to take the Sentinels through a series of arcs based on the Ages of Comics. The Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze Age and the Modern Age will represent the progress and growth of the Sentinels as an organization. That’s the basic plot structure. The details will unfold in the novels.
I hope you’re looking forward to them.
That’s me for the weekend. I hope you’re enjoying yours.