Still Alive + The Current Launch + ...Halloween 2011...? + ZU Awards

If you read my previous post, you'll notice that it begins with an astonished question, "Did I manage to go a whole month without posting here?". Now look at the date on that post. It's March 10, 2011. Now look at the date on this post. Yeah. So not only did I manage to go another month without posting here, but this time, I managed to go three times that without doing so! Impressive?

Basically, I've been busy. My school is a college preparatory school, and they give us boatloads of work. While I'm fine with all of the regular homework, I have particular trouble with working on long-term assignments; my brain shuts down easily due to anxiety. Well, in the past few weeks, my school, which got out the first week of June, gave me about five long-term assignments at once. Imagine how that worked out for me. Long story short, I had no time to work on my fictional writing and had to dedicate a few weeks of my life to sleeping, eating, going to school, and working on...non-fictional writing (plus breathing). Let me officially mention that while writing fiction is one of the things I love most in this world, writing non-fiction (essays, etc.) is quite possibly my least favorite thing in all of existence. Yeah! No joke! (I know some college or something is probably going to find this blog at some point and read that statement. Well, my fine friends at the college or something, I'm not going to lie about that fact. I have to force myself to write essays and things. And it sometimes drives me a bit crazy. Literally. But they all get done in the end. And I'm a bit paranoid for writing this, especially considering that I won't even begin looking at colleges for another few months.)

Anyway, in writing news, the first two chapters (time flies...?) of my previously-mentioned project, The Current, are now online. The first one can be found at both of the novel's official web locations, Figment and the Zelda Universe Forums, while the second chapter, at the time of this posting, can only be found at the ZU Forums. And yes, the novel has been listed on the Master List since I first published the first chapter. You can expect the third chapter to be up by this Friday or so.

While I was not originally planning on it being part-comedy, that is what The Current is turning out to be. However, it will likely become less humorous (not necessarily darker, except for later on) as it goes on. It also  features more swears than I have ever featured in a single project! And more references to drinking! And the first-ever references to drugs (well, tobacco)! This is my most mature science fiction project to date, and possibly tied with The Midnight Sequence ("Twelve Chimes"/"The First Hour") for being my most mature overall project to date. If you are easily offended by that kind of stuff, this is one project you might want to stay away from. Sorry!

I thought I would inform you of my next planned short story because you are here, and this is my writing blog. And that means you must at least be interested in m writing. How do I know that? Because you continued reading, that's why! See how clever I am?

My next planned short story--and I say "next planned" because I may be entering a Zelda Universe Writing Contest in the next couple months--is my annual Halloween story. Yes, I've decided that I will be writing an annual Halloween story. This next one is based on a dream I had a couple months ago. It's not horror exactly, but it's heavily based on suspense, and then it becomes...chilling, especially at the end when it all comes together. I know you were expecting more information, but that's all I'm willing to give away at this early stage in the story's life. However, I will give away one last thing: the story's title. It will be called "The Shadow Loop." Ponder on that. If you're really bored, you can place your predictions in the comments. Or email me. Or something. Right. Anyway...

Finally, I wanted to point out that the Summer 2011 ZU Awards are currently going on at the Zelda Universe Forums. Currently, they are in the nomination stage, which will be ending this Monday. Which is strange, considering the fact that the nominations began last Wednesday or so. Usually, they last at least a week. Huh. Anyway, unfortunately, I have not yet been nominated for anything, most importantly, the Best Writer award, but there's still time. And I hadn't posted anything in three months before last night anyway, so maybe now that people have something by me to look at that's on the first page of the Writing forum, I'll get a bit more noticed. Aren't I clever? Okay, that didn't really make any sense.

Well, that's about it for now. I'll be posting here more often now that I have the time. My next post should be within a week or two, regarding the next chapter of The Current and/or the ZU Awards. Okay! Farewell for now! Happy reading! (Chapter two of The Current should be available on Figment within the next 24 hours, by the way.)