"Words From Pipe & Under Hat" Update

Waiting on a few beta-reads before making it available on Amazon, might do it on B&N if it takes...

Cross fingers for me...

"Words From the Pipe and Under the Hat" Lineup...

Here's what will be in the poetry collection.
"Cooking Soup Amid the Haystacks" ©2010 Dyfedd Rex, first appeared on blog November, 2010
"Can I be Your Martyr?" ©2010 Dyfedd Rex first appeared on blog September, 2010
"Footsteps I Leave in the Sands of Life" ©2011 Dyfedd Rex first appeared on blog April, 2011
"Breaking Mom's 'Rule One'" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog
"Indelicate Deliveries" ©2009 Dyfedd Rex, first appeared on blog October 2010.
"Deer-boy on Bicycle" ©2011 Dyfedd Rex, first appeared on blog November 2011
"The Call" ©2014 Dyfedd Rex
"Boat Rocking in Political Nor'Easter" ©2010, revised 2012 for elections.
"Oldest Rock Song" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex
"Sower of the Souls" ©2010 Dyfedd Rex
"Juggling Zen" ©2010 Dyfedd Rex
"Flirting with the Devil" ©2010 Dyfedd Rex
"Trees Like Violins Under the Wicked Wand of Wind" ©2010 Dyfedd Rex,
"Soft Calligraphies" ©2010 Dyfedd Rex
"Black Crow Landing as Death Dies" ©2010, first appeared in online group, then blog later.
"Flotsam Family" ©2011 Dyfedd Rex
"Mustard Where?" ©2011 Dyfedd Rex
"Writing on Spring's Patio" ©2011 Dyfedd Rex, appeared on blog April 2011
"Frozen Spring" ©2011 Dyfedd Rex
"Lover's Breath" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex
"The Shaggy Dog Fears the Shears" ©2010 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog September 2010
"Hours of the Night" ©2010, rewrite ©2012 Dyfedd Rex
"Plans" ©2010 Dyfedd Rex
"Doors and New Years" ©2010 Dyfedd Rex
"This is My Load" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex
"Load Wears One Down" ©2013 Dyfedd Rex
"Ghosts Make Me Tip My Hat" ©2011 Dyfedd Rex, first appeared on my blog in October, 2011, published by "Salt Lake Street News" March, 2013 under my real name of David Neely.
"Dance of Inversion's Airs ©2011 Dyfedd Rex
"The Hand You Cannot See" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex
"Fate or Free Will" ©2011 Dyfedd Rex
"Ghosts of the Bar at Trolley Square" ©2011 Dyfedd Rex
"Veils of the Sleeping City" ©2011 Dyfedd Rex
"Demon That Eats Electronic Job Applications" ©2010 Dyfedd Rex, appeared on blog March 2011
"Better Days Will Come" ©2011 Dyfedd Rex
"Walk to the Wilderness for Work" ©2014 Dyfedd Rex, Original to this work.
"Walk Away" ©2010 Dyfedd Rex
"Walks Around the Block, Never Comes Home" ©2010 Dyfedd Rex
"God is a Moderate Independent" ©2014 Dyfedd Rex, Original to this work.
"Part of the Herd" ©2013 Dyfedd Rex, appeared on blog April, 2013
"The Bench of Pondering" ©unknown, Original to this work.
"Stones Born of Blood and Fire" ©unknown, Original to this work.
"Attack of the Allergies" © unknown, Original to this work.
"Climbing for Sunset Shots" ©unknown, Original to this work.
"Many Paths" ©2011 Dyfedd Rex,
"Smoking Lizard is Driving" ©2014 Dyfedd Rex, Original to this work, but bits from idea poem shared on now defunct MySpace Literature Forums in September, 2010.
"Missing Memory Moments" ©2014 Dyfedd Rex, Original to this work.
"Trails on the Hills" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog December, 2012
"Who Knows You?" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog October, 2012
"3 AM Shoppers" ©2013 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog January, 2013
"What's the Old Phrase?" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex,
"Steps with Wit and Wisdom" ©2011 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog December 2011
"Dance to Avoid Allergens" ©Dyfedd Rex
"Labyrinth of Street Dangers" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog June 2012.
"Litany of Wearing Out" ©2011, Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog October, 2012.
"Kite Flyer's Lament" ©2013 Dyfedd Rex,
"You Stand Alone" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex, from earlier version on blog ©2011 (August, 2011).
"Sunning in the Plaza of Winter" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex, appeared on blog January, 2012.
"Final Sunset" ©2013 Dyfedd Rex,
"Homeless Survivor of the Apocalypse" ©2014 Dyfedd Rex, Original to this work.
"Tastes of the Seasons" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex
"Riders of the Warmth" ©2013 Dyfedd Rex
"Floating Charcoal" ©2011 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog December 2011.
"Snowy Holidays and Walks" ©2014 Dyfedd Rex, Original to this work.
"The Crowded Patio" ©2014 Dyfedd Rex, has appeared in many incarnations on my blog and the defunct Lit forums over at MySpace, and a few other places as I worked it out.
"Lesson of the Mental Patio" ©2014 Dyfedd Rex, Original to this work.
"Party on the Mental Patio" ©2014 Dyfedd Rex, Original to this work.
"My Briers as Sanity's Anchor" ©2013 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog September, 2013.
"Trouble Makers on the Porch" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog December, 2012.
"Games of Cat and Mouse" ©2013 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog January, 2013.
"Pigeons' Beggar King" ©2011 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog November, 2011.
"Bully Birds of the Porch" ©2011 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog April, 2012.
"Twisted Offering" ©2011 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog November, 2011.
"Days of Penance for Venial Sins" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog March, 2012.
"My Battered Signature Items" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog December, 2012
"Looking Like a Race" ©2013 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog August, 2013.
"My Hat is Retired" ©2013 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog, December, 2013.
"Wandering on Sunday Morns" ©2013 Dyfedd Rex,
"Twisting Perceptions with Vapors" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog December, 2012.
"Guitar of Spiritual Tension" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog November, 2012.
"And the Greater Silence of Now" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex
"Sky Lights up Over the Bridge" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog with photos I took that inspired it,  October, 2012.
"Aromatic Sorcerous Enchantments" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog December, 2012.
"Outside the Norm" ©2013 Dyfedd Rex,
"Slips of Tongues" ©2014 Dyfedd Rex, Original to this work.
"Table of Morning Laughter" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog May, 2012.
"Of Vineweed, God, Satan, and Murphy" ©2013 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog
"Return the Greeting" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog December, 2012.
"Coffees Lost and Gained" ©2013 Dyfedd Rex
"Nerd Floor" ©2013 Dyfedd Rex
"Talkers' Society at the Fountain" ©2013 Dyfedd Rex,
"Our Girl in the Tree" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex, A[ppeared on blog August, 2012.
"When She Comes Back" ©2013 Dyfedd Rex, Original to this work. (I think, checked the blog, can't find it? Might be wrong)
"There is so Much More to Discover" ©2010 Dyfedd Rex, appeared first on the now defunct Literature Forums on MySpace.
"I Showed Her the Fire, Before She Jumped In" ©2011 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog March, 2011.
"Lauren's Hand" ©2011 Dyfedd Rex, written for a friend as a thank you for sharing glimpses of her works in progress.
"Canyon Winds Blow Me Around" ©2011 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog December, 2011.
"The Gurus of the Goslings" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on the blog May, 2012.
"Thoughts of Tilted Gravestones" ©2011 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on the blog November, 2011.
"Walk Bold In A Humble Life" ©2010 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on the blog October, 2010.
"You Gave Them Keys" ©2012 Dyfedd Rex, Appeared on blog November 2012, Appeared in Salt Lake Street News February, 2013 under my real name of David Neely.
"The Last Effort" ©2014 Dyfedd Rex, Original to this work.

Progress report: "Words from the Pipe and Under the Hat"

Well,
I have three to five poems left to scavenge from the past, rework, or craft from scratch for this collection, before I enter the twenty-third circle of Hell (Dante trimmed it down, to keep it believable) of formatting this to the proper look for ebook. Then the 37th circle of formatting to ebook file formats begins.
Sticking "Breaking Mom's 'Rule One'" and "The Crowded Patio" helped the thing, a lot.

Luckily, I tend to reside in the low 500's of the circles already, so this won't be too bad.
(having said that, Cousin Murphy the Lawyer is about to visit, I fear).

Silence - an update

If this place gets a bit quiet, relax, I'm just working on a longer piece to try to shop later this year. A story, novella to novel length, called for now "Crossing of the Shadow". This thing is part of the Billenius cycle of stories, set before he lost his eyes, so it is giving me a chance at looking into that character's past and tinkering a bit, given I know where he is headed for at this point in his life.
Dealing with his earliest visions, trying to keep from tipping my hand too much, but this is when his aura sight and precog abilities really nearly ruined his life, and I'm tempted to make this the root for his arrogance that will lead him to walk "The Paths of Damnation" some time soon for me.

So, don't worry if I seem to stop posting, it just means the creative juices are flowing a different direction from poems and Urban Fantasy tales for  awhile is all.

Or, at least I hope. There is one poem working its way out of the slime I think with, which may drop down from the murky skies before the New Year. Just remember, though, "May" is nearly as big a word as "If", when it comes to deadlines and me.

NaNoWriMo update... not good so far

So... three allergy attacks and a rough weekend with the computer acting up has me behind the 8 ball, running about 14K behind due to this... I need to find some way to focus through the "insane itch" that accompanies the hives....

But, the story has progressed well inside my head, so gonna see if the fingers can play a good game of catch-up.

Today's little project - thoughts on NaNoWriMo projects

With #NaNoWriMo approaching, I began to panic, before realizing I have two ideas that could work.

So, today I am trying to envision, at least in my head, if not on paper, what a #steampunk Alternate Reality Salt Lake City would look like, especially how things in that earlier (2011 NaNoWriMo project would look if allowed to age forward. 

Things like the Confederated Republics of America, yeah, the Union won, but by a negotiated surrender after the Sioux, Apache, Comanche, Cheyenne and other tribes joined the boys in blue for a march to St. Augustine, not Savannah. More of a charge, all cavalry, from the area of DC south rapidly, ending at some place in South Carolina, where the CSA surrendered, but was allowed more autonomy on issues other than slavery, women's suffrage, and some other ideas still playing with.
This created a series of Nations or Republics, Including the Republics of California, Texas, The Nation, Lakota, Cheyenne, etc. and some weird ones. Think if the Mormons had seceded as well, forming Deseret as that Theocratic Democracy they'd envisioned, but rejoined to survive a hostile encirclement. 

Looking at what the land evolved to lead to how do you get around in a world of much higher solar activity? Obviously, metals become very dangerous to use, in conflict with the original story, but I can fix that try to make it fit better, and mass transit makes more sense, over having huge areas in downtown set aside as liveries and corrals for horses. 

So, what techs did evolve, which ones evolved differently, and what other changes do I want to make to the world setting before moving onward. 

Today, that is my focus. Taking all I have learnt, bending it at key points, and then seeing what might have come about. 

Like, say, compressed air driven trolley cars, instead of electrics? 

Well, it happened. I opened my e-mail today, and found an acceptance letter for a short story I wrote this year.

Does this change my situation any? Not yet, sure improves my attitude and outlook a bit, though.

So, here is a tip of the hat to the folks who accepted it, will post full details once they are finalized and have the outlet you can get the anthology "Weapon of Mass Demoralization Test" appears in from!

Now, excuse me while I do my Snoopy at supper time impersonation. Then it's back to the grind to see if I can write my way out of being homeless, instead of waiting for someone to hire me.

Characters Lie to You. - Writing Advice

One thing I am finding out really well is that when writing stories, your characters will lie to you, the writer. As much as, or even more than, a politician lies to folks on the campaign trail. The more developed the character is in my head, the better the lies are, thus sometimes those sneak past me onto the page, causing "Continuity" issues.

Case in point. There is a story (novella, actually) almost finished whose MC in other stories lies about that situation a lot, I am finding. Or he told me a tall tale in this work. Either way, it's back to the notes and drafts to fix things, which leaves me wanting to strangle folks who live in my head. I should be used to this by now. After all, Billenius is notorious for trying to put a better spin on things when I tell his tales, and only gives me the Truth after having his pastry supply threatened.

So, one bit of advice I can offer to other writers is this: Hook the buggers up to a lie detector or subcontract Tomas de Torquemada to verify what your characters tell you about their adventures first time around. Saves time and ink, as well as being "green" where paper usage is involved.

What I'm working on presently... sort of. an Update, if you will.

Well, I am still working over chapter 12 of Billenius, doing the first drafts of "Crossing of the Shadow"
 and "Winds of the Flame Queen"  have a steampunk idea that is fitfully taking shape in notes and snippets, dealing with three separate tales from Troy Tanner of CRAPP, rethinking the ebook of poetry idea as I cannot resist sharing ones I should have held back for it, and considering a complete reboot of "Blade of the Eagle Clan" just to fix the issues that bug me the most.

For those not familiar with CRAPP, that is the Cleanup, Remediation And Paranormal Protection office from the EPA. The folks there tend to do the dirty work left after the zombies and vampires are dead, the werewolves tossed into the pound or other such events. I might share a toss off tale soon, unless one gets snatched when I toss them out later this summer to see if I can get some cash from one. Right  now the three tales working are "What I Lost Last Week (Three Partners)", "Case of the Obese, Food-Poisoned Vampire", and editing "The Great SoCal Vampire Dust-bowl Cleanup". I am thinking over his origin tale called, tentatively, "Wading into the CRAPP".

I am also seriously looking at another rewrite of a tale for a character called Neville Carteblanche, a sci-fi setting detective in an era when detectives, even law enforcement ones, are rare or missing.

Last, I am getting the urge to dust off a character called Jonathan Pershing Rackham for a tour of the star systems we live near, or as he sees them at least, while scavenging and pirating around in space.

While over the horizon looms a hellish project, a rewrite and edit of something called "Chain of Sorrows" about a contemporary and friend of Billenius.

Yeah, too many projects, not enough coffee or brain power to do it all, and limited resources interfering with it all. But I keep trying. Hell, you don't know you bit off too much until you choke after chomping down.

For those wondering.... a note

Yes, I am alive, but am currently assembling a collection of poems to try selling as an e-book. Might be a week or so before you see any new material here... but feel free to browse deep into my past postings, there are a few gems there that have not garnered much attention.

Story alert.... Stay Tuned here the next week or so

If you liked what came about from the visit of Mr. Troy Tanner from the EPA's CRAPP division, keep an eye here for his holiday season misadventure... it involves pixies, elves, sylphs, reindeer and (shudder) loads of paperwork.

And yes, I really should do some to the NaNoWriMo, but that tale just has no traction, until I work out more details.

So, check in, and watch for Troy's little tale, coming soon. May not get here until the 2nd week in Dismember, depending upon my time and the ability to edit without getting caught using Toxic Word Dumping...

Projects Update.

My life and projects are colliding, in weird ways. Everytime I get a head of steam worked up on a project, work falls into my lap. When the work ends, the boiler in my brain needs to be refired to get that steam back to power levels sufficient to carry on. But such is Life.

This is just an update today. No poems...yet.

I am currently dealing with 3 projects: two related, one unrelated. First is the Steampunk novel I did for NaNoWriMo last fall/winter. Its in 2nd draft/info-verify stage. Second is an Urban Fantasy short story that is in 5th draft, waiting for feedback from some folks reading it. Last is another urban fantasy short/novella (won't know how long until I get it flowing out, but aiming for short) with the same characters that cropped out of the first somehow.

So, yes, I am writing, just not what shows here. Then again... maybe I can. There is a short I did a while back where this character and some of his bits came from. I can share either the original I did for a forum writing challenge somewhere. Or I can rework it for what the character evolved into. Perhaps both?

We'll see. But that may create a 4th project. But I like being busy over being bored.

Radio and the Traveler - A poem still in progress

Stations fade and pulse back in
snaps and crackles of static flaring
in tune to the storms ahead
or one behind as I travel
Perhaps not even sharing my hemisphere
Walkovers and crosstalk, echoes and squeals
as the radio waves skip across sky
giving frustration and humor to listeners.

As one drives, you learn quick
about the tricks those signals play
which areas block their dancing motions
where the convergence of skips occur
And that no matter what's tried
You will miss out some bits
as the Mistress of Electromagnetism's Realms
denies you hearing the next pitch.

Memories of bygone days rise up
as you listen to a ballgame
of your ancestors having no television
or Internet, only the party-line phone
so to learn of the world
gathered around the radio each night
for music, news or even ballgames
having to imagine each by description.

Travelers in the age of automobiles
learned more intimately radio's strange limits
as you would find cars stopped
along a road where signal faded
to catch that last pitch or song
before moving on into the silence
between the coverage areas in daylight
or seeking Night's sweet skip zones.

And when roaming far enough North
You see the curtains and streamers
that bounce around the sky's vault
like colors bleeding from dyed fabric
into the deep black of night
the echoes of Sunlight's fatal flows
giving rise to interference in air
that marks our orb as livable.

With many changes in tech
few now know the old tricks
as radio's abandoned the gain knobs
for digital smoothing and signal enhancement
and yet still fail in receiving
Constant signal in vast empty lands
Where coyotes' serenade still rule nights
and Travelers pray aloud and fervently...

.."PLEASE repeat that final score!"

Sorry for the long delay in posts of late folks, will be getting back to the posting of the stories soon!
Billenius is still being worked on. Yes, the Blade of the Eagle Clansman will be resumed posting soon, it is written, I just cannot find time to edit with the job search going and other things... and we have two new sets of adventures coming your way here soon perhaps... SciFi fans, brace for Neville Carteblanche, a detective in a future that is really insane, on a tough planet with extremely nasty politics, not to mention gravity. And I have deigned to take a full look into the depths of the tales of fantasy I have written, and touch upon a few of the characters who had back stories hinted at. Expect excerpts from "Crossing of Shadows",  as well as some bits and cuts from "Paths of Damnation" soon!