I've finished serializing what I've written for Pirates of the Eastern Standard Tribe. I apologize for being "late" posting this week's finale, but to make up for it I've made my RSS feed a bit nicer to read in most readers... Anyway, I'd love feedback on Pirates if anyone has some. I think it turned out well enough. I'm worried that it ends a bit anti-climatically considering I used the "real" climax as the opening and the "twist" climax (which I don't think is much of a twist), and then butchered it down into a surprising two lines. On the other hand, I think I told the full story I set out to, which can sometimes be rare for me. It does have a clear beginning, middle and end; even if I'm not certain about the placement of the elements, and perhaps it needs a bit more in the way of "middle parts". But I am happy with it. It's been several years in the writing, and I'm glad to have finished it. Again, I'd love comments, criticism, questions, what have you...
Because I'm feeling rather magnanimous, here's a teaser of my most recently begun work (this is about half-way through the current sequence):
A simple movement of your sword brings it across his shins, involuntarily dropping him to his knees. He has enough time and movement to swing a gun out his working arm's pocket. He fires swiftly for a conventional. His bullets are nothing. It is just about effortless, that magnetic mantra, your will over the very substance of the bullets. The bullets ricochet uselessly into the ceiling. He needs to reload. His hand is trembling. You save him the trouble by removing his hand at the wrist. He wails, pathetically.
It's a very weird, experimental work I'm calling Emotion Resistor, at least for now. The style is meant to be something of a William Gibson presents Kill Bill: Cyberpunk Edition. I guess it's something like Aeon Flux, although I've still yet to watch it or it's movie. I'm trying for an almost entirely 2nd person narrative [1] and I realize that I've never written a ninja/samurai tale before. [2] It's giving it something of a much more intimate, "love letter" feel than just about anything I've ever written, and it's interesting to see that it's yielding these interesting short, sharp sentences then waffles briefly near the boundary of poetry and then jumps back into fast paced prose. I'm actually pretty excited with it, and have a small idea of where it is heading... No idea when I'll finish it and I'm absolutely not committing to a deadline of any sort, but I do think this may be a work that I can briefly excerpt from time to time when the mood strikes and not worry about spoiling plot elements.
| [1] | I've always been a fan of 2nd Person Narratives since learning in school that the 2nd person was rarely used in "serious" literature and taking that as a challenge. Then later I was introduced to the world of Interactive Fiction where there are so many wonderful, literary works, most written in 2nd person... |
| [2] | All the more appropriate to do it after recently posting a pirate tale, perhaps. |