Writer of stuff, author of stuff. Funny stuff? Crazy stuff! Oddtastic science fantasy adventure insanity.
Wandering Fortunes Chapter 24: I Love a Parade!
Wait. There’s a love plot?
If you want to see where this is going sooner than next month, you can take a look at my Patreon! Patrons can see chapters a month early, as well as extra regular updates. You can also give to my Ko-fi for an early chapter or a signed copy of a book!
Just as today begins a new year, so today brings a new world for our friends in Wandering Fortunes with Chapter 21: A Fresh Start. They’ve fled their old home planet of Zhop to escape the mafia-infested planet-wide military, and they’ve arrived at the planet Derantu. But before they enter their new home proper they have to pass through Salenth Kingdom customs, and it’ll be up to them to prevent Top from ruining everything.
Also, either today or tomorrow I plan to post a 2018 retrospective like I did a year ago for 2017. It’ll include a look back, how I’ve failed (and maybe even succeeded), and what I hope to do this year. Watch for that. (And of course, a new Odemon will go up today. If you didn’t notice I took last week off and did an Odemon year retrospective on Mastodon and Twitter.
Here we are, chapter 20 of Wandering Fortunes, the longest chapter in the novel so far and the end of part 1! Alden and his friends have to flee Zhop from the Zhopian Guard. They get what family they can and make a great escape–or at least an adequate escape–well, I certainly hope it’s adequate. With the way things look, they might need a leg up–but the Zhopian Guard might even shoot that leg off! The jerks. I don’t even know if they’ll make it…
Of course, you can find out more about what will happen sooner, you can give to my Patreon or make a one-time Ko-fi donation. You’ll get to read chapters early and pretty much find out more about what I’ll be posting for the next rest of the year.
Got a brand-new chapter up today, and it’s the beginning of the end for our protagonists. Can’t say heroes, what have they done that’s heroic, anyway? Alden has a job with fellow Zhopian Guard members to take out a group of conspirators, but it’s not what he expects at all…
This is basically the chapter I refer to as “the one where things start to go to hex”. “and it’s a bad hex”. “like, a hellish hex even”.
In terms of editing this book, last week I finished editing chapter 20 which ends the first act of the book (as you can see by the Table of Contents… well, I think you can figure it out.) I’m on my way with this thing! Maybe someday I’ll be so far ahead in editing that I won’t be always uploading chapters that already have stuff I need to edit because of things I’ve done later. But that’s the nature of the free in-progress serial story!
A brand-new short story has gone up for the holiday season! In chapter 7 of Wandering Fortunes, the religion of Archussip was mentioned and talked about. This is the holy text of that religion. It is a moral-addled story of why you should obey the invisible pony sky god, Gourd, and why They are so great and why science is so bad? And also, Hollywood?
I wouldn’t call it a mess, per se… I’d call it a religious text. Archussipism is a religion rivaling that of, say, Scientology, or Mormonism, or… Catholicism.
feel free to tell me what you think!!
Chapter 9: No Hobo features the first kind clerpson our friends encounter in New Zhopolis. At least, let’s hope he turns out to be friendly–it’s hard to trust anyone in a big city like this. At the bottom of the city, though, depressed and alone, it seems he may be their way to make it in the city. Or at least live in it. Also features the sudden appearance of another character, a strange-looking one whose appearance raises even more questions than Top’s look does. Well, those questions will keep coming next chapter, so whatever.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet, but I got some information from my editor and soon it will finally be time to charge full steam ahead on finishing Darmenzi! Yes, that’s still a thing that’s going to happen! Kind of crazy to think it’s been nine months since its last chapter was posted on here, but it’s been edited to be way better and I hope I can get this out before the year’s end! (If not, I may very well shoot for two years to the day after the second edition of Slubes released.) I’ve never been strong on the advertising front, but I hope to change that. oh no
And remember, I have a Patreon where you can read these new chapters half a month early. Chapter 10 will come in mid-September. Plus, you can get a free ebook copy of Darmenzi a month before the final release!
oh and you can make a word mandatory to appear on my website, more on that later
Chapter 4 of Wandering Fortunes is here, a little late. Now that Top lives with Alden and his family, it’s time for them to adjust. Or maybe not. Aside from more Top silliness we get to see the inside of Orville’s shack and get to know Alden’s family a bit more. Plus this features the first of a few scenes featuring a huge amount of food!
As always there is Patreon, funds from which would help me not kill myself trying to get everything done ASAP so I’ll complete everything before I have to go back to a dayjob I want to kill. Also I need to update that a bit, I wanted to make some changes. Thanks for reminding me, me. Let me add that to the to-do list. SPEAKING OF WHICH:
Whoa, wait, I started this two weeks ago? This last week kinda blew by. Yeesh. So today I have something a little different, because I realized if I just focus on those writing stories I’ll run out of entries before the month is over. That probably shouldn’t be the case since there’s so many people writing, but the crux is how many are writing good? Side crux, if I find it interesting. There’s also the factor of my wanting to focus on those who may not have a big following, which of course means it’s hard for me to find them.
Anyway! Let’s look at Lauren Parker. She’s a neat lady who writes and says things, but I’m focusing on the write because, ha ha listening to people? I first came across her on Medium, and she has some cool pieces on there! Her writing is pointed, funny when available, and sometimes even inspirational, though still with that zesty tinge of crazy that makes the internet amazing (no, not that kind of crazy, I mean the good crazy, you know, like high-density lipoprotein, aka good cholesterol).
A few examples from Medium: Events I Submit to be Considered for the Olympics, which is a rather quick read but long-lasting due to the images it conjures. It starts out strong and with a cereal I’ve never heard of so I had to look it up and now I have to assume that everything related to the cereal and its company went into the decision to name it mostly because the company is co-owned by the figgin Chinese government.
I think I got off-track.
Apparently there was some guy telling other guys to bother women wearing headphones a little while back, and Lauren wrote a companion piece related wherein she suggests you set yourself on fire. I mean, there’s other parts, including the important straightforward end paragraph, but fire. It works.
The last one I’ll post is longer and more inspirational/haggardational: An Open Letter to Myself. Actually, now that I think about it, this could totally be seen as a short story in second-person voice. It’s a little stream-of-consciousness, but I’d say it’s uplifting in a sideways sort of way. Not everyone can just stop and reflect a mirror at themself.
Okay! Join me tomorrow when it’ll suddenly be next week and I’ll realize that even expanding to “anyone who writes anything ever” I’ll run out of people in a month. I really shouldn’t. I probably won’t. But for some reason it sure feels like it.
Duth Olec's Cuckoo Cosmos 