I was always slightly aware of this but, the impact of it really came down last night.

I can’t really even call this steampunk anymore.

Wikipedia has a broader definition of steampunk that could allow me to steal away with applying to term to this project

Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction and speculative fiction, that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes fictional works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era Britain—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, often featuring futuristic technology as the people of this historical period would have envisioned it to look like, i.e. based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, art, etc. This technology may include fictional machines like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer, but occurring at an earlier date.

Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of “the path not taken” for such technology as dirigibles, analog computers, or digital mechanical computers (such as Charles Babbage’s Analytical engine).

But the general population seems to accept that steampunk always includes the following aspects: a neo-Victorian style wardrobe, steam/clockwork gadgets/devices, use of brass and hardwoods.

I….don’t have any of those aspects. Ok, well not yet. There is soon to be some use of clockwork, but it will likely be very misplaced given the advancement of the rest of the technology that appears. I’ve also replaced the use of brass with steel. There will be some hardwood, but there will be a shit ton of leather. There also isn’t anything remotely Victorian. It’s allll western, baby.

So…I’m wondering. Can I really call this steampunk? Should I apply the term loosely? Am I looking too much into this?

Should I just stop typing this blog entry and get back to writing the script before my boss wants to me actually do something?

WHO KNOWS! I sure as hell don’t.

…

I was laying in bed this morning/afternoon (yes, I’m a bum) trying to visualize the first panel if page 23 for chapter 5 (super stoked that I’m that I’m almost done with it; chapter 6 is gonna be fuuun stuff). Naturally it led me to thinking about where it’s going from there. And snapshots of all the torment that Ethan and Glenn are soon to endure, plus all the torment that Ethan has already experienced, swarmed across my mind’s eye. I actually cried. Like, with tears and snot and everything (by the way, crying in the heat, not good business).

I just really hope that people that read the story can develop even a fragment of that kind of bond with the characters. Here’s hoping that I’m a good enough writer to brutalize all of your emotions with these characters. Because the emotional and physical agony that some of them go through is a huge part of the story.

I don’t think I’ve gone into major detail with anyone yet about why I’m writing In the Dark of Daylight. So let’s discuss this for a minute.

I grew up an Army brat. My mom has been in the military since she was 17. It’s what she’s wanted to do since she was 7-years-old; she did AFJROTC in high school and enlisted into the Army right after. By the time I was born, she had been out of active duty and in and out of the Reserves already, but it was still in her. She enlisted into the National Guard when I was in…about 4th or 5th grade. That’s where you do the one weekend a month and 2 weeks out of the year, plus any deployments.

So starting at the age of about 11, I was attending her drill weekends on a regular basis. That’s one weekend a month, almost every month from the age of 11 until I was 20. I didn’t get the experience that some military kids get, with living on the base and all of that, but it was still very…I want to say enlightening.

My mom’s unit (at the time, A Co. 240th Signal Battalion; as of September 1 they will be C Co. 40th ID STB; don’t worry if you didn’t catch all that, I’m really just ranting here) pretty much adopted me as their niece/sister/daughter/granddaughter/etc. I got to see a lot of their day-to-day activity, listen to typical military-man conversations (not all of which were always entirely appropriate).

That alone gave me a foggy window into what these people go through. The physical injuries, the emotional trauma, being mistreated by the higher-ups that are supposed to be taking care of them, all of it.

Living with my mom throughout her military career gave me the closest thing to a first hand experience that I’ll ever get. I didn’t just get to hear the stories, I saw how these things affected her up close. I experienced how that caused her to treat and interact with the people around her.

It’s hard. It’s painful. And it’s not exaggerated. Sexual harassment happens on a regular basis. People with injuries are treated like old horses; they’re cast our and sneered upon by the people who are supposed to be by their side supporting them.

That’s why I’m writing this. Most people don’t like to watch the documentaries or interviews or news specials on things like this. Maybe a neat little comic book/graphic novel/whatever with cliches and sarcasm and humor (misplaced or otherwise) with fictional monsters to represent the real life conflicts will allow some of us to really see and accept what our soldiers endure.

Or maybe I’m blowing smoke up my own ass in thinking that something so small, simple, and amateur could take on such a task.

Time will tell, kids. Time will certainly tell.

I also managed to come up with a title for chapter 4. And so, here is the new title list, in correct reading order:

Prologue: Splitting Seams
Innocence for Hire: Open to Corruption
Three to Get Ready
In My Youth
Soul Salvation
Down for the Count

After that is chapter 5, which I’m currently writing and have yet to title.

Here’s hoping for some speedy progress.

I started on this particular project in summer 2008. Originally it was going to be a sci-fi novel with interdimensional travel and what not. Once I moved on and decided to write it as a graphic novel, a lot of ideas got tossed out. I’d go into specifics, but I’m not a fan of spoilers. Heh.

Anyway, lately I’ve been realizing that I actually need those ideas. In fact, several seem to be crucial to the development of the story.

Perhaps you don’t share my opinion or my enthusiasm at present; I just find it amazing that the things I write, no matter how many changes they take or how drastic those changes are, always end up generally how I start them.

Here’s hoping that’s a good thing.

The downside? It’s a bit depressing to log in and find that there are no comments whatsoever.

I’m not really sure which is worse. A shit ton of SPAM…or no comments at all.

Sad face.

I’ve several ideas bounce around to do a second one in the world I’ve destroyed gets recreated, yadda, yadda, yadda. Then, naturally, the thought occurred to me that it might be overdoing it.

Then, of course, I started second guessing all of plans and my writing ability altogether and, well, that just led to me being face down in a pool of self loathing.

So I’m not saying it’s going to happen (I’ve still got at least 2 or 3 chapters to write for this first bit) and I’m not saying it’ll never happen.

I’m just thinking about it and thought I’d share the idea.

-Christina

Anyway, the other setback is me not having constant use of the computer and internet anymore. I won’t go into details about the situation because it’s not really appropriate and all that stuff. Personal, y’know? At any rate, updates here have clearly become far in between. I don’t have a nice enough phone to get access to the website that way, but fortunately I’ve got good friends (not all of them in low places though) that allow me to borrow their laptops here and there.

Now as for the mention of time…I’ve had a lot of it to be working on chapter 5. Unfortunately I’ve had the most obnoxious brain cramp over the past month or so…again. So I’m only 16 pages in on chapter 5 and my brain is on the verge of imploding from me working to figure out where to go next.

I’ve got some decent ideas laid out though and I’m going to start scratching out some test portions for the panels I’ve got in mind. Hopefully it’ll start coming together. Especially considering, lately, I could realize use a distraction from my day-to-day thoughts. Yeesh.

Mad World – Gary Jules
Killer Queen – Queen
Anna Molly – Incubus
Hide and Seek – Imogen Heap
Elysium – Composed by Lisa Gerrard & Klaus Badelt (Gladiator Soundtrack)
Gravity – John Mayer
Savior – Rise Against
Viva La Vida – Coldplay
Human – The Killers
Broken – Lindsey Haun
Carry On Wayward Son – Kansas
My Hero – Foo Fighters
The Killer in Me – Smashing Pumpkins

It’s short track list, I know. I’m working on adding more. Until then, shuffle is my friend.

Maybe I’ll figure out a way to add a music player to the site or something. That’d be cool, right?

Christina

http://celtx.com/download.html — This is the program I mentioned before. I use it to type of all of my scripts. It automatically formats the script, it stores characters, time stamps my saves, and has a “sketch” feature that lets me work out panel arrangements if I’m having trouble with sequencing, pacing, or anything else.

http://www.limewire.com/download/?404 — I’m a wierdo so I have specific songs that relate to certain characters, themes, scenes, whatever. I use limewire to download all of my music because I’m broke.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ — Itunes is my primary music player. It makes creating playlists easy and has the Genius feature that shows me similar music in my library.

http://www.dafont.com/ — One of two sites that I use to browse and download fonts to consider using when I get to the lettering stage.

http://blambot.com/fonts.shtml — The other font site that I use; it’s specifically for comics.

http://images.darkhorse.com/darkhorse08/company/submissions/DHScriptFormatGuides.pdf — This is where I got started with figuring out how to do the script format for comics.

http://www.bigredhair.com/work/comics.html — A fantastic site I stumbled upon that gave me a lot of great information to help me along in the early stages of writing comics.

http://www.jinxworld.com/scripts.html — The article that helped me get past the hangup of perfect format and carbon copying the formats presented to me. Also the website for one of my favorite writers.

http://www.whiterose.org/dr.elmo/cwrite/writing2.html — This is where I found the lettering key that I became very fond of and am currently using.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/ — Where I go to stay updating on all the interesting happenings of the comic world.

http://www.longbeachcomiccon.com/ — The website for my nearest comiccon. Long Beach Convention Center is a 30 minute or so walk if I cruise…which I always do when I’m on foot. Hoping to attend this year…might cosplay…might go the professional route. Haven’t decided yet.

http://www.deviantart.com/ — This is where I first started networking. I still use it here and there but, I admit, I’m not as active as I used to be.

http://www.writing.com/?i=1 — A great site I was introduced to by a friend. It’s great for getting good, solid, useable feedback on your writing.

And that, kids, pretty much covers it. Hopefully some of you find this useful. If not…at least I killed some time, fought some writer’s block, and made a handy list of daily places to visit for myself.

Christina

For some reason, it’s taken me about a month or so to catch on to the fact that a lot of the comments on here were either a mistake or good old fashioned SPAM.

People were saying things like “this is information I can really use”…when I didn’t give any information about anything of real relevance.

…Anyway, I deleted about 16 comments from the site.

From now on, I’ll be a bit more careful…and I’ll stop approving things just for the sake of having comments on the posts.

Let’s see how many people are actually visiting the site out of interest…or stumble upon the site and stay out of interest.

Christina