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Apex Of August

So, we’re supposed to hit triple digits this week. Hopefully, the AC will stay on because, 🤡 Homey don’t play dat! 🤡

⚜️ Candles 🕯️ for 🕯️ Allan 🎖️

Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men. ~Joseph Conrad

Allan earned his Eagle rank in Boy Scouts a while back but we still hadn’t had a chance to schedule a Court of Honor for him because of conflicting schedules and social distancing.

Now that we’ve settled on a date and locale, Kelly was trying to find some battery operated candles to use in an outdoor ceremony.

All night she was researching and on a veritable quest for the absolutely per-fect candles. She found them and says, “What do you think of these?”

I’m like, “Whatevz”.

“Oh, you’re just a man.” she says.

Well, yeah. That’s why I leave that kind of stuff to her. I have my own obsessions that she doesn’t get.

That’s the great thing about finding your best friend in life. 🧩⚭🧩 We’re not supposed to be the same. We’re supposed to fill the gaps that are missing in each other.

Most times, we remember that. Sometimes, we just think the other one is weird.

🎼 Office 🏢 Jazz 🎵

Office JAZZ – Relaxing JAZZ Music For Work, Concentration and Focus

I’ve had such a problem concentrating lately. Hopefully, the doctor will have something useful to say about that today.

From what I’ve read, diabetes can hasten the onset of dementia.

Fortunately, I’ve been demented for years so most people can’t tell the difference.

The lack of concentration and the continual loss of energy is offputting, though. I’ve got rather a lot of work to catch up on and my inability to claw my way to the surface is getting rather annoying.

I have to remember to put on some music to work by. I find that having music on gives my scattered focus something to obsess over while the tiny part of my mind that can actually stick to a task and complete it burns through the workload.

Unfortunately, being scattered leads me to forget to put the music on and… squirrel!!!

🧍🧍🧍 They’re Characters 🧍🧍🧍 Not Paper Dolls 🧍🧍🧍

We boil at different degrees. ~Clint Eastwood

The reason I picked five viewpoint characters for The Sentinels – New Blood is that I wanted to view the whole matter of living in a world where superheroes exist from a variety of perspectives.

It’s easy to write a story where everybody just accepts the superheroes at face value. I’d like to be a bit more nuanced than that.

As I’ve said before, one of the things that sticks out in my mind is the scene from The Fantastic Four where Ben throws the lady’s station wagon at Dr. Doom. If you’ve ever noticed, in superhero media they mostly keep to themselves.

Primarily, this is because they have secret identities to maintain but even the public heroes like the Fantastic Four and The Avengers generally keep their own company.

The Sentinels are fairly similar at the outset of the series. Tim has his immediate family and his business colleagues. Matt has Lucky and Phillipe. Meirhe has her friends Ange and Ric, but she hasn’t seen either of them in years because she felt that her membership in the group was akin to house arrest. Tanda has her best friend, Marti.

They’re a fairly tight group even though half of Empire City feels like they know them personally due to years of public relations appearances. They still do the school assemblies, ComicCons and other promotional gigs to stay on society’s good side.

For Tanda Cohen, the prospect of being in The Sentinels is the culmination of a lifelong ambition. Ever since she saw them in 2nd grade, she wanted to be a professional superhero but never believed she’d measure up.

For Dave Wisler, the problem with being a superhero’s kid is wearing on him dreadfully. He has a lot of unresolved, untreated trauma and it expresses itself in hostility toward his dad.

For Meirhe Kryzthnyz, being in The Sentinels has been like a jail sentence for her. She’s repressed, depressed and surly. She puts on a good show for the public appearances but she spends most of her life moping in her room like a prisoner.

For Claudia Barlucci, The Sentinels are fancy celebrities to ooh and aah over. Like Tanda, she read all of Ange’s “The Angel and the Elf” manga. She’s a dedicated fangirl who spends every free moment obsessing over the city’s resident superhero team.

For David Harz, he has little to no awareness of The Sentinels. He knows they exist but pays them no mind until he gets drafted into the family business. As he plans the destruction of The Conclave, he’ll bait The Sentinels into doing some of the work for him.

I have a fairly decent handle on each of these characters but fortunately, there are YouTubers like Abbie Emmons who provide excellent advice on how to hone your writing skills. Here’s her playlist on creating characters:

Creating Characters – Abbie Emmons