Oops.

Well, I finished (and posted) the last chapters of Darth Sentinel almost a month ago. I have been making minor edits to my offline copy, in hopes of posting it to www.fanfiction.net later on.

I have also been working some on the sequel, tentatively known as Darth Sentinel Two, for lack of a better name. On Darth Sentinel One, I posted chapter 1 after having already written 10 chapters. Am not sure if I'm going to be patient enough to do that this time, and I suspect I'll be wanting to post chapter 1 after I'm only done with chapter 3!

My friend, Kenya, seems to be able to write her stories effectively that way... so what the heck. I may write myself into a corner that way...

My husband knows a couple of writers. With his help, I talked to both of them, getting all the writing information I could get. All the how-to web pages, books to read, etc. And from their recommendation, I am now attending a writers group every Saturday morning, and I intend to take a class this Fall at Adult Ed.

Today, Saturday, was the 2nd time I've attended the writers group. I was supposed to read Chapter One of Darth Sentinel (with recent edits) to them, but I chickened out. :P

Then someone read something that made my little love story between Mr. Tall, Dark and Asthmatic and my heroine seem not quite so strange. I then let the instructor know that I thought I'd be able to read my story out loud, if I was the last to read. I don't think that he heard me correctly, because I was never given the chance to read before the end of class, and he then let me know he expected me to read next class session!

Oops. I guess I should speak louder! :)

So I spent the entire rest of the session waiting for my chance, and having big, reptilian butterflies bouncing around my stomach the entire time! Now I realize I'm so jonesing to read that I think I'll be able to do it next weekend!

The chapters and/or short stories the others read were all very interesting. We have quite the diverse group. I'd like to tell you what they are writing, but am not sure that that's like telling about new patent ideas someone is working on, prior to the patent being approved! I.E., I don't really want to mess with anyone's story ideas and their chances of publishing them by my letting their secret plot be known.

Let's just say that it's very interesting. :)

In the meanwhile, maybe I should create the Darth Sentinel Two blog... I want to eventually use fanfiction.net for these stories, but... I already have warm fuzzies with blogger. ;)

My Star Wars obsession

So, I'm up to 25 chapters posted on Darth Sentinel, my Star Wars fanfic.

I'm not sure where all this is coming from, or where it's going!

Matter of fact, as of my last post earlier today, I'm stumped! I do believe I've written myself into a corner. :)

But I've sort of been going with it, letting the story tell itself. And I trust that the characters will tell me where it needs to go.

I've joked with Kenya Starflight that I'm channeling the Sith Lord Darth Sentinel. She's writing this, not me.

On a side note, it's made me appreciate the problems Lucas had to deal with. I know there are multiple plot holes all over the place in the 6 Star Wars movies + 6 Star Wars books that were based upon the scripts. I don't know yet if the Clone Wars cartoons makes things any worse! [I have the Clone Wars DVD's, but have yet to watch them.]

But I also know, or am betting anyway, that Lucas did his best to stomp out all the plot holes he was aware of.

I find myself having to skim back several chapters to remind myself what I had posted, and ensure that what I was about to post wasn't going to contradict anything! You'd think I'd remember what I posted, but each chapter goes through several passes before I am sure I've got it right.

I would like to thank several people for the inspiration to write Darth Sentinel.

First and foremost, my thanks go to the following people:

Kenya Starflight is incredibly prolific! I got hooked on her blog, which tells her tale of life with a live-in Sith Lord Darth Vader. She has made me chuckle, and she has brought tears to my eyes. She has me hooked on her writing. I am slowly devouring all of her works, which are spread around a bit, most of them being on www.fanfiction.net at HERE. I expect to see her publishing awesome works of fiction in the near future.

Cheeseburger Brown. Reading his fanfic, "The Darth Side", and his original blog/novel, "Simon of Space", were pivotal moments in my online life. It started me reading Star Wars fanfics, in general. Before, I wouldn't have thought that anyone who wasn't employed by Lucas could really bring extra life into my favorite Dark Lord. If you haven't caught either of Cheeseburger's works, read them. NOW. He also has other works he's done, and I suspect great things are in store for him in his future.

Then there is PCBabySunribbon, who also has a live-in Darth Vader. Her view of the Dark Lord is also very amusing and touching. She is also a prolific writer, and a big Dr. Who fan.

If you haven't figured it out, there are multiple Star Wars universes floating around, and I can't say I'm not guilty of creating my own. This means multiple Vader's. Be afraid. :) You don't know the power of the Dark Side.

Other inspirations are shown to the right in my Darth Vader Related Links section.

Special mention goes to Anne Arkham, whose
interview with Darth Vader (Cheeseburger Brown's version of the Dark Lord) left me rolling on the floor, holding on to my stomach. :)

Thank you all for rekindling my obsession with Mr. Tall, Dark and Asthmatic. ;)

I hope to finish Darth Sentinel... maybe in another 5 chapters! The darned thing has definitely taken on a life of it's own.

There may or may not be a sequel. I have a story in mind. Will keep you all posted.

But first I need to get them out of the pickle they are currently in. :P

OCD moments

Was feeling a little less than sharp today. I needed brain food, badly. So I opened a can of tuna fish. It's not on my diet, but what the heck... it's a healthy thing to eat.

Ate some tuna fish. Found some white, unidentifiable substance in the can with the fish. Figured it was fish fat or something.

Then the OCD started churning.

Churn.
Churn.
Churn.

And I became convinced that, since it was white, it was something else! Something that was most certainly NOT supposed to be in my can of tuna fish!

I probably never should have watched Fight Club. Uhm, no, nevermind... I would have thought of this w/o having had watched Fight Club.

They say it's your birthday...

Darth Snoopy, the WWI Flying Ace is hung over right now. :P Too many root bears.

The Dark Side of the Force is not helping me stop the throbbing pain. But it was worth it. ;)

Today was my 38th birthday.

I had to take my car down to the Saturn dealership, 40 minutes away. It's way out of warranty, but the local Chevrolet dealership didn't have the necessary software to diagnose the error my car was reporting. [The only symptom was one of those lovely "service engine" lights.]

Saturday the 10th was the earliest I could get my car in to the dealership. So, I decided I was spending my birthday in the town 40 minutes away.

Spent the day with friends at a PeeWee Golf place. We played 18 holes. Did the bumper cars, bumper boats, little race carts (with huge bumpers, but signs advising you to avoid crashing into the wall or other carts!), and lazer tag. Oh, and goofed off in a large arcade there. I felt like I was reliving being 14. :) (Only this time it was a good thing.) One of my friends brought her 9 year old daughter... it enhanced the experience, getting to see all our silly activities through their eyes. :)

Then we all went to Olive Garden, and after I verified that my car was still in the shop, and stuck there until sometime Monday, my husband and our friends proceeded to get my non-driving butt seriously drunk. ;)

We got home at nearly 6pm. I took a shower and crawled into bed. I didn't get up for 2 hours.

I'm sunburnt and hung over. And my head is throbbing... uh, was throbbing, I think the Advil finally hit it's target. ;)

But boy, that was fun. ;)

Writing Bug

I'm having WAY too much fun doing the Star Wars fanfic. :)

The characters are very real to me. Well, Vader was unnaturally very real to me ever since I was 8 years old. :) But the character I created, Darth Sentinel, is becoming a person to me. I actually care what happens to her. I want her to be happy.

*Happy Sigh*. This whole writing thing is rather addictive. :)

Oh, Chapter 3 is up on Darth Sentinel

[I'm in the middle of writing chapter 16 or 17, but delayed posting material. I wanted to have this mostly written before I started releasing it for public reading.]

I managed to find Blogger's policy on content. I think I'm going to have to tone down a few scenes. At first this bothered me, but I realize I'm not writing this to titillate, I'm writing this to entertain. And I think I'd like to not weird out my audience by anything too explicit. :P

As to future stories, I've already got a couple of story ideas for after this story is done. I don't want to spoil things by describing them, and they may drastically change in my head as my subconscious ruminates over them while I finish up Darth Sentinel. But I find myself excited by these new ideas, as well as excited by recent ideas for where the Darth Sentinel story is going to go...

In my real life, things are pretty much status quo. The dogs are doing well, but they keep getting into our newly planted vegetable planters. They were really good until plants started to break the surface of the dirt, and then it seemed to be all about knocking the things over! Or digging in them!

I think our dogs have gone over to the Dark Side. :P Sigh. I trained them too well.

Other stuff is normal. Work is work, for both me and my husband.

We both badly need a vacation! I could kill for 82 degree water, good visibility down to 100 feet, a clean beach, cool ocean life, and lots of margaritas for when my husband and I are done with scuba diving for the day. :)

Sigh. Soon. Somehow.

In the meantime, I get to keep writing. :)