Posted By orchard on May 7, 2009

I am currently writing three major stories (or that’s how I think of it–whether or not they go anywhere, are any good, or even get finished remains to be seen), one of which is a steampunk setting.  It is the story which derives its main ideas from a joke that some friends and I came up with–the Time Machine of Guam (hence the name of this site).

The basis for the story is that at some point an empire is founded and called the Empire of Guam.  The founding of this empire is done using the Time Machine, and the results are that most everyone ends up living in massive clock-work cities where the houses and shops are built on the gears and cogs of the clock-works, the people use the chains and pulleys that connect the cogs as transport, and all this is powered by massive steam-driven technology.  Of course WHY this clock-work assembly exists or what purpose it serves is something that will be revealed in the story itself.

The protagonists in the story are setting out to find out more about the Empire in which they live, and how it came about.  One is a private detective and the other is his client, a worker in a grease factory (these grease factories produce the lubricants necessary to keep a massive multi-ton cog & gear system moving) both of whom have discovered that what they think they know isn’t really all that accurate.  Which isn’t surprising considering that there is a time machine involved.  It was originally meant to be a short story, but I find that I simply cannot write the story that needs to be told in a short space.

Which is, of course, my major obstacle in finishing a draft–I keep realizing that there are details that must be added and idea and subplots that MUST be addressed in order for the story that is there to be properly told.  All this would be fine if I were a published author who had the leisure of doing nothing else but write.  As things stand, I actually have to work for a living…

Here’s to finishing the story!

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Posted By orchard on May 7, 2009

It’s all about distractions.  It’s the same reason I have an enormously difficult time finishing anything other than a 3000-word story.  I can plan enormously large and beautifully complex stories (or I like to think I can), but the true test is in finishing them.  Which I apparently am incapable of doing apparently.

To date I have at LEAST 4 unfinished manuscripts with a word count well over 10k words.  One is about 25k words, and another is in the 20-25k range.  And they are all nowhere close to being finished.  I have ideas at bare plot sketches for another 3 or 4  stories.

The problem?  First off, time management.  I have a LOT of other things that I enjoy doing or need to do, and those inevitably end up taking priority for various reasons.  Family, work, & finishing my dissertation all take priority.  Then, because I’m rather stressed after all that I find the need to relax looming a bit larger than I’d like.  So I end up playing video games a lot more than I should.  Which leads me to be curious about the internal workings of the game, and then I start playing around with the editor, and that then becomes a very fascinating toy (and oddly relaxing, even though it can be very mentally challenging).  I’ve done this with various games (warcraft 3 is my current poison, but I’ve also played with Diablo II, which doesn’t even have an official editor!) and I always end up learning enough to make me feel that I’ve mastered something new, but I never really push the limits of it because I don’t want to put too much time into it.

So writing becomes a hobby that I love dearly, but I simply never make as much time for as I would like.  This, of course, means that I don’t blog well.  Even when I have wordpress to do the work for me.

This website sums it up for me quite well:  http//:you.are.a.disorganized.freak.andyousuck.com

Made by my good friend Big-O, it’s a pretty neat little site. Maybe I’ll figure out a way to organize myself eventually, but for now…I languish in the pits of chaos, a freak twisted and spit out by the churning of societal insanity.   But enough self-loathing and despair.  I’m actually going to post this and another thought as well…

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Tags: andyousuck.com, disorganization, poor blogging, writing

Posted By orchard on February 26, 2009

I wrote this short story in the summer of 1999 while working in Utah for my uncle drilling granite. I was far from any close friends, and I had a fair bit of spare time on my hands when I wasn’t working 10 to 12 hour shifts. At that time I wrote this and a number of other stories in a journal that I sent to my then future wife (I was pretty certain about our future even though I hadn’t yet proposed.)It’s a quick story about deception and how an immortal creature might go about convincing the world that they are no longer around. Please, enjoy a bit of Treachery.

“I’m not boasting!” The familiar denial flows with ease from Jara’s lips. It came with readiness, and he had the good sense to look embarrassed this time. Perhaps he was finally realizing how ridiculous his claims were.
He had only been in Aerth town for two days, but already his outrageous stories—and denial of fabrication—had earned him the reputation of a braggart and liar of the highest order. True enough he had some gold, and spent as if his supply were infinite, but his claim of crossing the Northern Mountains and bested a dragon were just too much. In living memory no one had ever crossed the mountains and only a few had tried. (more…)

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Posted By orchard on February 26, 2009

While this story is much shorter than some of my other stories, I do like it. It illustrates a number of things, but mostly that sometimes we make decisions without even considering that we don’t have all the relevant information, let alone what that information is. Of course, when you are just trying to get by, sometimes it is difficult to see past that. Then again, I can’t put too much description of the story here, or this will be longer than the actual story. Don’t blink, or you’ll miss the irony. Also, yes I am aware that this may or may not be an actual demonstration of irony as the reader understands it. Oh well.  This story was originally written in summer of 1999.

For the planet Balochian there is only one word: cold. Not just the weather, but everything there is frigid, especially the people. Don’t expect any help from them! How do I know this? I am stuck here, and I have been here for a very long time, centuries it feels like. The eternal ice has infected the people, the government, and everything. Nothing here cares about anything. How do you explain that you want to leave to officials that don’t care? How do you bribe an officer whose only concern is the system? (more…)

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Posted By orchard on February 26, 2009

This story was written about the same time as Treachery (summer 1999) and is one of my favorites from that time period. It speaks to me about the power of a single individual to change another individual’s life. I think we run into people like that a lot in our own lives without really knowing it. Oh, and as a note, the name Eia probably needs a bit of explanation in order for English speakers to pronounce properly, even though it is dead simple. You see, I spent about 18 months in Portugal, and the name is built using Portuguese pronunciation rules. Thus, the ‘ei’ is pronounced as a long a, as in hay or way, while the the last letter is simply tacked on the end as a short ‘a’ like the a in about. Ei-a. Emphasis on the first syllable. It means, roughly, behold. I leave it to native speakers to work out details such as voice other grammatical nitpicks. It is a word seen rarely outside scriptural Portuguese writing. I think it beautiful. Oh, and by the way, I hope you enjoy the story.  Comment are open.

Once, in the distant eastern lands, a very noble thing happened, and this story will try to tell the wonder. Yet no one knows exactly what happened, or what caused it. Rumors ran rampant for years after, but the truth of what changed in a bitter young man may never be known. So, while there are many versions of what happened, this is the tale I like the best. Nobody told me this version, but many have heard it from my lips and they will hear it again before all is done. (more…)

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Posted By orchard on February 26, 2009

It has been some time in the making, but I have finally come up with a modified wordpress theme that I am quite happy with.  I’m not sure how happy I’ll stay with every element, but overall this is one that I like.  The Time Machine of Guam, however, now lives in WordPress.  A few credits are due:

My buddy Big-O for all his help.

Obviously the original theme designers (link at bottom of page), and credit to these guys for some of the images I’ve taken, played with and made my own.  Every image they provided I modified in some way using inkscape, which is a invaluable tool for the gear-loving steam enthusiast.  I’m not a graphic artist, but I am capable of taking an image and manipulating it to my advantage.

So with all that said, the Time Machine of Guam lives.

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Posted By orchard on April 8, 2008

Work in progress.  And it is going well.

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