Given that this story is called "The escapists, I'm guessing this isn't an evil twin/good twin type situation. Or is it? Hm.
People as ethical sponges: interesting! I decided long ago that I have no idea what to make of the whole nature vs. nuture debate, how much is you vs. your environment, but I do think everyone's got something real somewhere. Anyhow. I imagine where we'll really see it is when the action happens, Clarke is over the volcano, so to speak. Exciting!
This chapter on new jobs and high level changes to organizations is hitting differently today than if your publish day was Thursday. That's all we need to say here about THAT stuff. On strong antibiotics for a cluster of infections and the antibiotics have some gnarly side effects (I'm glad to be done with the course and look forward to my systems returning to normal over the next day or two), so a little mind wandery right now. Have random thoughts, sans paragraph breaks. Lola's "glorious" desk... I've recently read a cozy mystery series Laura shared where the author is seriously into architecture and room description. A page of prose describing a room then four lines describing five people. So, the single adjective made me giggle. Then the sandwich was a "disappointment," and I flash to Douglas Adams' "So Long and Thanks for all the Fish," which has a couple of pages on how the English can't make a sandwich. He's right. I've had some truly terrible sandwiches in the UK. This chapter does, of course, ultimately spell out very clearly why Clarke hasn't taken retirement. It's no accident he thought "John," not "Callahan." Callahan resonates pretty well for a character that was "fridged." One can buy hope that the memory of Callahan and Lola still being there - in spirit if not dimension - keeps Clarke from absorbing Hollandisms. Still, Clarke's Pavlovian reaction to message from Palanor didn't go unnoticed. Yay, Robin. Boo sudden adrenal rush with no outlet. Kinda throws off your whole day. Fortunately, "no harm, no foul." You've discussed the existence of the Substack Story Challenge but not gone into what it entails. I'll read the relevant link after I type this so as not to lose a comment-in-progress (again: an earlier iteration of this comment vanished when I paged back to the chapter to check something), but be prepared for a possible follow up question. Speaking of follow up, you can just delete that "Murder Daryla" story note from last week. Suspect shot: your drawing, stock image or AI? Normally you add an art credit. Almost missing your self-imposed deadline means you overlooked that this week. I'd guess AI because the pupils are actually horizontally elongated. I will be pedantic and say the art doesn't match the verbal description. That drawing doesn't have what I would classify as think, near-beard stubble, and I didn't notice a scar by the right eye... That's what I went back to check when I lost the prior comment.
Fair points about the sketch - I ran out of time to customise. Going to go back in and tweak over the weekend. I try not to use AI images as-is, but time was against me this time. Still, I was happy with the look generally - but it does need some alterations to fit the description.
Re: Substack Story Challenge - got it. Eventually you have to write yourself out of whatever corner the last person left you in, and try to screw over the next one, without looking like you're doing that, but just continuing a story. 😉 Should be fun.
I've done similar things a couple of times. Once was a Sci fi war story but we were drawing 1-2 page comic book spreads. Another was my Cutlass narratives when Natasha Troop started writing counter narratives. Eventually we had a couple of side plots going outside the campaign. Can be fun!
Given that this story is called "The escapists, I'm guessing this isn't an evil twin/good twin type situation. Or is it? Hm.
People as ethical sponges: interesting! I decided long ago that I have no idea what to make of the whole nature vs. nuture debate, how much is you vs. your environment, but I do think everyone's got something real somewhere. Anyhow. I imagine where we'll really see it is when the action happens, Clarke is over the volcano, so to speak. Exciting!
This chapter on new jobs and high level changes to organizations is hitting differently today than if your publish day was Thursday. That's all we need to say here about THAT stuff. On strong antibiotics for a cluster of infections and the antibiotics have some gnarly side effects (I'm glad to be done with the course and look forward to my systems returning to normal over the next day or two), so a little mind wandery right now. Have random thoughts, sans paragraph breaks. Lola's "glorious" desk... I've recently read a cozy mystery series Laura shared where the author is seriously into architecture and room description. A page of prose describing a room then four lines describing five people. So, the single adjective made me giggle. Then the sandwich was a "disappointment," and I flash to Douglas Adams' "So Long and Thanks for all the Fish," which has a couple of pages on how the English can't make a sandwich. He's right. I've had some truly terrible sandwiches in the UK. This chapter does, of course, ultimately spell out very clearly why Clarke hasn't taken retirement. It's no accident he thought "John," not "Callahan." Callahan resonates pretty well for a character that was "fridged." One can buy hope that the memory of Callahan and Lola still being there - in spirit if not dimension - keeps Clarke from absorbing Hollandisms. Still, Clarke's Pavlovian reaction to message from Palanor didn't go unnoticed. Yay, Robin. Boo sudden adrenal rush with no outlet. Kinda throws off your whole day. Fortunately, "no harm, no foul." You've discussed the existence of the Substack Story Challenge but not gone into what it entails. I'll read the relevant link after I type this so as not to lose a comment-in-progress (again: an earlier iteration of this comment vanished when I paged back to the chapter to check something), but be prepared for a possible follow up question. Speaking of follow up, you can just delete that "Murder Daryla" story note from last week. Suspect shot: your drawing, stock image or AI? Normally you add an art credit. Almost missing your self-imposed deadline means you overlooked that this week. I'd guess AI because the pupils are actually horizontally elongated. I will be pedantic and say the art doesn't match the verbal description. That drawing doesn't have what I would classify as think, near-beard stubble, and I didn't notice a scar by the right eye... That's what I went back to check when I lost the prior comment.
Fair points about the sketch - I ran out of time to customise. Going to go back in and tweak over the weekend. I try not to use AI images as-is, but time was against me this time. Still, I was happy with the look generally - but it does need some alterations to fit the description.
Well, there are plenty of stipple brushes in Affinity that'll do the stubble REAL fast. 👍
There we go - the police sketch has now been updated with some human artistry, and to better match the description. :)
Re: Substack Story Challenge - got it. Eventually you have to write yourself out of whatever corner the last person left you in, and try to screw over the next one, without looking like you're doing that, but just continuing a story. 😉 Should be fun.
That's the plan!
I've done similar things a couple of times. Once was a Sci fi war story but we were drawing 1-2 page comic book spreads. Another was my Cutlass narratives when Natasha Troop started writing counter narratives. Eventually we had a couple of side plots going outside the campaign. Can be fun!