As I stated in “My Life as of August,” today is my first day without work. I have eight days to move to Windsor from where I am (it’s a twelve hour drive) and get settled in before University starts. Honestly, I’m a little frightened, but despite that I’ve already got some blog changes incoming to mirror my life changes.
Schedule Shift
Right now my schedule is as follows:
Saturday – Off Beat
Sunday – Hybrid
Weekdays – Stories
I’m now cutting Sunday and Wednesday from the schedule. That means that my new schedule will look like this
That is, no more Sunday or Wednesday releases. It seems that Tuesday is consistently my best performing day, and Saturday is a day for more unique posts. So, here’s the new schedule:
Saturday – Off Beat
Sunday – Usually nothing, unless I go on a spree or have an urgent update.
Monday – Serial or Short Story.
Tuesday – Hopefully a longer, or higher quality piece. Otherwise, expect a story as usual.
Wednesday – Usually nothing.
Thursday – (See Monday.)
Friday – (See Monday.)
The two extra days will be for editing scheduled posts, and for finishing my Current Project.
My Current Project
I desperately need to finish Alice and Finch. I did that thing where you set it aside for a few months to let it simmer. Supposedly this makes it fresh when you go to edit it, so that you catch more mitsakes=,
I sent it out to five beta readers, and NONE of them replied to me or gave feedback.
So, I’m going in blind. And that’s fine with me, I don’t need anyone’s help! (I just would really like it…)
So, full steam ahead for Alice and Finch! I want to publish and have it ready for readers in November. Get ready to buy it 😛
The Other Stuff
The next book on the writing list is Alexa Jutt. I want it out by December. I’m not waiting on betas this time, I’m going to edit when I feel I’m ready.
Absolute Magazine is no longer coming out in October, but instead whenever I get all the pages filled.
Tales of Symphonia is finally getting some more content. It will either be in podcast form or as a stream, maybe both!
My Harry Potter Overview will eventually come out, but low priority.
Next update will be around September 6th or 7th! Bye!
This has been a difficult year, possible the most difficult year of my life.
I Wanted to go back but Couldn’t
So September was a bit of a hell. See, I was supposed to be going back to University, but manic people don’t save money and so I literally could not go back even though I wanted to. Worse, as my summer job was ending my mom’s boyfriend threatened to kick me out of his house if I didn’t get a new job. I don’t stand for that kind of treatment, so I left anyway. Even though I was incredibly manic, I still stand behind leaving.
At the end of August, I appealed to a high school friend, Brad, in my hometown 4h north to help me out and give me a place. So, I went back to my hometown and lived there, no questions asked, and decent rent for a room. I stayed for about four months.
So, living on my own and a little surprised about the whole ordeal, September was my first month as a real adult. One year of post-secondary didn’t really do much for me maturity wise, and I think any parents can confirm that that’s the norm. Anyway, I applied to a few jobs, screwed around, played video games and watched Netflix. But I also started doing what I always do when I have a lot of free time.
Brad and his girlfriend had awesome cats.
I Started Projects
August had been a mess, off meds for a couple weeks, and in that time I managed to not go to school and to lose my place of living. I actually continued to not take my meds after moving too, because I am smart. /s Anyway, I started a YouTube channel and a blog. Both are dead, but the blog was important. It gave me experience that was very helpful when I started danieltriumph.com.
I also drew. A lot.
Chloe
The Rivals, aka Marcus and Company
Grimace Yaska
Fan art of Sivir
Yaska, Shriken
Jin again
Jin, tortured
Yaska dressed as Shyvana holding botrk
Logo work
Chloe dressed like Velvett from Berseria
Chloe and Yaska (dialogue is stupid)
Young Yaska
Jin
Chloe
October I got hired at a department store… like a small town version of Wal-Mart. November, I woke up one Saturday with crippling depression and an ear infection, and I just watched Luke Cage until Sunday. Needless to say, I went back on my meds and within four days I was back to that normal, semi-functional depression us bipolar kids are so used to. In time, I got at my job.
December is when I started paying off my debts. By February I had my credit card, back rent, and school balance paid in full. That’s about $1800 in two months on minimum wage. February was Kabaret; I do amateur acting with the community. I got to play a Viking, a Newfoundlander, and But, it was a bit of fun. Then I hovered until April when I got a better paying job.
April and May I failed to save. In fact, I am god-awful at saving, and so this month I only had half of what I needed to go back. Shame. But in April I bought and started www.danieltriumph.com, my blog. Since then I’ve posted a piece of fiction every single day. See, I’m an English / creative writing student. I should be writing, but to be honest this blog is the first time I’ve actually finished a piece.
April brought two big changes. I moved into my other friend’s grandparent’s spare room and dropped my rent by a lot. Then I also got a new job that paid 1.5 times what I was making at Giant Tiger.
My new job was very dusty. Classic labour job.
I learned very quickly that I was allowed to listen to music at my new job. That lead to a search for audiobooks. I think the first thing I listened to was The Lost World by Michael Crichton. Then, I figured since I had forty hours a week, I would listen to Harry Potter. I’ll keep it short about that. Harry Potter was a disappointment, stick with the movies. For more info, check out my reviews.
July is the beginning of hell.
My old car.
On the 26th my tires locked and I spun around 180 degrees, landing in the opposite ditch, facing the opposite direction. We’re still dealing with insurance bull. Since then I’ve been without a car, meaning I take a cab into the town to do my groceries. It’s $13 one way, ridiculous way to live. I took the day off of work and wallowed. Then at around two in the morning, I had a weird idea. I followed that idea until the end. Here’s what came of it.
Anyway, things kept getting worse. On the day of my birthday party, no one contacts me. I get worried. I decide to walk into town, it’s an hour walk. I get into town, have McDonalds, and start messaging people. Jeremy, a friend and ex-Giant Tiger coworker (I think he still works there), messages back. “Oh yeah, I’m still in. I had muted the conversation and forgotten about it lol.” Hey that’s cool.
Things beginning to look up, I head to the LCBO and get Screech (Newfoundland rum) and a six of Stella Artois. Then Nick messages me, “Hey I’ll take you to a restaurant, do you prefer whiskey or tequila?” “Whiskey.” We eat out. I have an appetizer and not much else, as my stomach is still filled with double big mac. We have a really good talk about religion. It turns out that Nick, and atheist, was inspired by my ordainment and also became a minister!
So a small group of us get together. Rum > whiskey. It’s a great night. We play boardgames, go out to the 24-hour convenience store and play Pokemon Go (I thought that app was dead to be honest, guess not), and then get back and watch Anna Karenina 2012. I completely spaced out for the last half hour, but let’s just say the 2012 adaptation isn’t done right.
Then we got home. I don’t know how, cab maybe?
But now it’s crunch time. My job is becoming the most boring, torturous thing I’ve ever done. I check on my university application. My application for second year English has been stalled, and so I call the school. Need more information about what I was doing during Sept 2015- April 2016… Umm, I was at that same university? They should know that, I was at their school? Well, I send the info. Automatic email reply. “On vacation for a week.”
…
So one week into August I call them. “Oh, yeah your file was in new student not returning student. Can’t do much though our system’s down.”
…
So one day later, “Yeah, you’re in good standing, just register your courses, apply for a loan if you need to.” I’m in! I apply for a government loan (they’re less dangerous) and it’s pending now.
Then literally yesterday an old college friend messages me on facebook. “I saw you might be coming back to Windsor. The place I got with Dmar has an open room, interested?”
Is God on my side?
I just finished paying the first and last month’s rent. Now I have like $100 in my account, but my next pay is very large due to over time. (I got it today, over $1000… Should be good.)
So, as of today I’m going back to university. Application got approved, government loans will probably cover not only the course but also housing and a bit of food. Just when I start looking for housing, an old college friend tells me he’s looking for another roommate. It’s like gears shifting into place.
I’ll tell you if things work out in a couple months.
When Janna finally woke up, she felt a numb pain in her forearm. She looked to her right and remembered what was going on. She was stuck to the tree, a branch jutting out from the space between the two bones in her arm. She was in a hole, a lush bright brown hole of dirt, moss, grass, and the tree. The tree who’s branch was intruding on her arm’s wellbeing.
She knew her sister was there with her, but everything was so blurry. She was in an uncanny and wavering world. Off in the distance, it seemed, a hazy figure moved with purpose. Then, it stopped all of a sudden.
It spoke with the voice of a feminine man, or perhaps a deep woman.
“Ah, the King is awake.”
The voice touched her ears, but seemed to skip all the formalities of her nerves and go straight to her mind. It was a warm feeling. This person, who was not at all her sister, was very easy to listen to.
“You have lost four ounces. You use ounces, correct? No? I apologize. You have lost two-hundredths of a stone. Oh, no stone either?” The person looked away, a glowing blur, “twelve percent of your blood is here, shared with me in the ground. I thank you, dear, I have taken what I require.”
It was definitely a woman, but her voice was deep, deeper even than Natasha’s, who spoke low due to the immense height of her trachea. Janna blinked and tried to focus, but nothing worked.
“You have fluid in your eyes, focusing will not help, dear. Look, I will show you.”
Then Janna felt a spined tongue lash out softly and clean her eyes. Yes, it was so large a tongue that it cleaned both eyes at once.
Janna blinked again, and focused, and this time it worked. Before her a lioness stood, grinning smugly as cats do.
“You will be fine,” the creature growled, licking Janna’s arm, “but this will forever be the weaker for it. In certain distant timelines you lose a lot more blood, so perhaps you might consider how close you are now to joining me and my company.”
The lioness looked to the sky as she said “company,” and then became a blur once more. Janna blinked, and between instances, the cat, Mother Nature, disappeared.
“She’s gone catatonic. Oh good, the bleeding has slowed. From being catatonic.”
It was the deep feminine voice of Natasha.
“But it still hasn’t stopped. And I didn’t find anything.”
There was a great sigh. She was blurred but Janna, who was entirely unable to move or act, could see what she was doing. She came into focus, but only slightly.
Janna watched her older sister as the young woman closed her eyes and, taking a bone razor from about her neck, cut neatly across her inner wrist. A small but deep vivisection. Natasha violently tore a tendon and then noticed Janna’s open eyes.
“This is all I could find. There are no vines around. Do not look at me so, this is the vestigial tendon, it does nothing.”
Even as Natasha said this she realized that she had pulled the wrong one and no longer had control of her pinky finger. She inhaled sharp regret, swore, and then continued regardless. She wasn’t going to go pulling out any more, but she still had what she needed.
Natasha tied the artery closed, then cut the dead tendon and wrapped it around the forearm near the elbow. Then she removed Janna from the tree and lifted her. Janna at this point was a lot smaller than her sister. She had yet to hit puberty, while her sister had just finished with it.
Natasha held Janna close, facing away, and then sat against the tree with Janna in her lap. They stared up out of the hole. Natasha embraced her little sister, and Janna, who had begun to shiver and turn blue, was grateful for the warmth.
Natasha held the wound tight. She had slowed the blood flow a lot, but it seemed not enough. An hour passed. The wound stopped bleeding. Natasha studied it and after another hour she removed the tendon that bound the artery. The now healed tube did not reopen after blood flow returned at full force.
“Oh, thank the spirits.”
Minutes passed, and Natasha removed the other tendon as well. She no longer had to apply pressure either.
She realized that Janna had been sleeping for a long time. Good. Natasha lay back and rested, but did not sleep. Her wound also healed, although she would not notice the regrown pinky tendon for some time.
Not a moment later, Chloe, the youngest of the family, jumped to the mouth of the fissure. She always ran with a sort of bound, prancing about with her tongue sticking out at the corner of her round face. Natasha looked up and saw her.
“I got mum! And also, Kain and dad and Zealott too!”
Alexandre Jutt was originally a minor character in Alice and Finch. She quickly became a favourite of mine, and I have a feeling it’s because she’s a more mild, contemplative, female version of myself. This is weird, as I don’t like basing characters off of real people, especially not myself. But this was all by accident, so what is to be done!
So who is Lex? Alexandre is a supporting character from Alice and Finch. She’s Finch’s older cousin, as their mothers are sisters. Even though both left when their children were young (one voluntary, the other due to various circumstances), Jutt and Finch maintained occasional contact. They never really grew apart though, and so until Alice and Chloe came around, Jutt was his only true friend.
Alexandre “Jutt” Dirge, or Lex, (or the name she hates, Alexa), is a young Riley-Solune. She has all the outward appearance of a Riley, but the height of a Solune. Her eyes are grey, but that isn’t natural, she stumbled across a Methos artifact that slightly modified her brain, and changed her eye colour.
Lex is the first character I’ve made that I’ve given a specific metal illness. Looking at other characters, Dezallldwinn is obviously insane. Joss has a sort of light-on-life, manic mind. Natasha has something like a chronic physical depression, I think. Gwenhime has control issues, as in, she hates it when anyone else controls any part of the world. Yes, Gwenhime wants to take over the world (but she’s getting over it). More on that later, this is about Jutt. Jut is manic-depressive, or bipolar.
Why? Well, I figured if she was a weird copy of myself, I might as well give her my illness too. I also figured that like me, her illness wouldn’t be a big part of her story. Let’s be real, how many narratives give the main character a mental illness and then use it as major plot point? Well, all that I know of. Not Alexandre. She’s been living with it for long enough that it’s just another one of those difficulties she deals with every day. Minor plot point.
I don’t know what to call her story yet, so for now it’s just going to be CN: Alexandre, Codename: Alexandre Dirge.
Alexandre is about Jutt’s capture after her disruption of a large gang system. As punishment, she is no longer allowed her freedom in the gangs, instead she’s become a slave. A rich music producer named Richard Lendeloczyk buys her for his Hannibal house, so that he has a mistress for when he has to stay in the Solune Kingdom. (His regular home is in the Djeb.)
Lex quickly learns that Richard has a temper and abuse issues, but that he’s also a lot weaker than she is. Rich is a businessperson, and Lex has been a gang leader for a few years. Needless to say, she, being physically stronger than him, is able to overpower him, skewing the power dynamic.
She also learns that he is married, and that the wife, Avvarice (who is just as awful as him) doesn’t know that he has a mistress in Hannibal. Of course, Avvarice eventually figures everything out and things get really messy, especially after Richard learns that Lex has fallen in love with one of the musicians under his label. THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, AM I RIGHT?
So, this story should read like a combination of the now cancelled and non-canon Broken Teeth, mixed with elements of Anna Karenina. (But without all the complexity and prose, because I am no master writer.) It will also probably be written and released in a seemingly random order. Not because I’m trying to be clever or artistic, but because I’ll probably have the urge to write some specific scene one day, and just do it. This happens to me a lot, and I’ve been meaning to try writing something out of order and then compiling it together at the end. Maybe this will be that piece.
October I got hired at a department store… like a small town version of Wal-Mart. November, I woke up one Saturday with crippling depression and an ear infection, and I just watched Luke Cage until Sunday. Needless to say, I went back on my meds and within four days I was back to that normal, semi-functional depression us bipolar kids are so used to. In time, I got at my job.
Then literally yesterday an old college friend messages me on facebook. “I saw you might be coming back to Windsor. The place I got with Dmar has an open room, interested?”
