Done. Did It.

Hi there!

Just a note by way of explanation...

I am going to be putting some stories and things on tumblr. I had originally started out using blogger, but decided to use tumblr also now for reasons too tedious to elaborate at the moment. When I have short stories to put online, there will be short stories to be found; however, most of the time when I plan to write a short story, it turns into a novel... when I plan a novel, it turns into a trilogy... when I plan a trilogy, it becomes a series... and series have a habit of turning into extended universes on me with alarming predictability.

The story I am mostly working on currently is The Crossing, and it takes place in one of the lives of my fantasy world Bennuma, beginning with a group of refugees in a part of the world without magic, in one of the earlier-ish ages of that life of the world, though not of the earliest ages. Eh, that would make more sense if you saw a chronology of the history of the world, ha. (as for that, my little blog on Legends of Bennuma is for historical notes, background, short stories, fables, tales, etc. regarding the world of Bennuma, written from the point of view of someone from that world)

The Crossing is a story that I decided to post online as I write it, and aside from having made some relatively minor edits recently to what had previously been on blogger (and has been updated there) is basically intended to be shared as what I consider to be a first draft...ish. It is one of my stories that originally was going to be a short story, but turned into a more complicated plot than the simple tale I planned at first, because it just grew that way. Although I have done a lot of work so far on the outline for the whole story, the actual writing out of it is pretty much still in the first chapter. I think it might turn out to be as long as a full novel or perhaps a multi-part thing... not sure yet.

I write slow, unfortunately, and cannot always post as much as entire chapters at a time; more like... scenes, or bits and pieces. Updates to be added roughly when I can; ideally I would like to do so once a week but it is difficult for many reasons. The first several bits I will likely post closer together until I get the blog caught up to how much has been posted to blogger previously. I am going to maintain the same length of posts as had been posted before instead of combining them, so any potential readers can get used to the idea of how long of sections of story bits may be normal, rather than anticipating that updates would be as long as all of what has been written so far together. Same also for the Legends of Bennuma.

Also, eventually, when I work on other stories/books, each novel-length (or longer) will likely have its own blog, and any short stories that are NOT from the world of Bennuma, I’ll put in another blog (ie, not with the shorts in the Legends of Bennuma) ...whether fantasy or sci-fi or whatever.

I think that’s all from me for now by way of introduction, so I say again, hello!

P.S. ~the “D.L.” in “D.L. Lane” may be optionally pronounced as “del”

A Random Joke

Why did the chicken cross the road?

The see if the egg had gotten there first.

WIP novel progress

(see @bennuma-crossing for most recent and all previous sections of the story, skip pinned intro post if desired)

Starting chapter 3 of my WIP-titled story "The Crossing" ...about a camp of people who fled a bronze-age equivalent war zone in a magic-deprived portion of a fantasy world, who come across a traveler from a different (magic-rich) part of the world, who shows up and helps the people from the camp when they need it most, only asking to travel with them in return.

Who is this stranger, where did she come from, and what is her real objective? How will they find a new home where they can live in peace and safety, and what part will be played by the (arguably) most broken man in the camp?

(note: though originally intended to be an adventure story, future chapters may contain a love story, but rest assured I will be keeping it SFW)

also, if anyone happens to prefer blogspot format for reading long posts, you can find the same story on my blog here:

BTW

...I have noticed the results of the poll I did before, asking about what Legends-of-Bennuma -related things people might like to see... I have put it next on my list for the Legends ( @legends-of-bennuma ), to write a bit (more?) about the geography of the world. Also, when I locate where I may have hidden my digital copies of Bennuma art somewhere down in my backup files, I will share some... and when I get more art, which I will eventually.

In the meantime, if anyone is interested, there's a short... episode(?) of my (original) fairy tales blog @onceuponasoup featuring further adventures of Duck.

Will do more writing when I can focus on it, have been having an extended difficult time with it, but absolutely not giving up.

My emotional support animals are plush.

Drawing a fluffy kitten with an allergy to rodents... it was fun looking at pics and vids of tons of sneezing kittens to try to figure out how to draw the face, haha. Hoping it looks OK, but since I inked the lines already I guess I won't be changing them again unless I edit later digitally. (Sketched with a mechanical pencil then inked with a Pitt artist pen, XS) I kinda goofed the little rodent front paw, should've sketched it out more carefully before inking lines. Maybe I'll be editing that later on... probably...

Huzzah!

So, btw... I have another blog for writing stuffs, it's fairy tale soup for when I can't focus on my more serious writing and play with short stories old-school styles.

Duck.

"Never shall I Ever be a Soup!"

Illustration for the opening story @onceuponasoup

Digital painting using GIMP :)

art

note:

art for my blogs is credit to Ada St. of @creatures-by-ada-street ...which was for a time called Ada St. WIPs because of being mainly a blog of in-progress art?

Anyway, all drawings, photographs, and logo designs I am currently using on my blogs are by Ada St.

best cupcake ever

Squishies!

Read the Fine Print (if you can)

An obscure artist of some sort gains sudden attention and fame from creating a series of new art pieces entirely different from before, with each piece including cryptic markings or symbols of a sort that nobody can decipher and the artist mysteriously declines to comment on.

An old school friend of the artist visits, and the artist tells this friend something that no one else has been told: the artist does not know what the symbols are, because all of the new art pieces were made while under the influence of something the artist says is "like absinthe, but not" ...and the artist afterwards can never remember anything that happened for the entire night after drinking it.

The artist agrees to let the old friend stay over and do an experiment, wherein the idea is that the friend would keep out of the way until the artist got to the point of putting the cryptic symbols on a new art piece, and then come out and ask the artist what they mean. They are hoping that the artist will be able to give an answer at that time, and then the next day, the friend can tell back to the artist what the answer was.

So they go to a very strange shop in a remote area and buy a bottle of the drink that has no name and where the shopkeeper always acts like it's the first time the artist has been there, in spite of being a very regular customer by now. That night, the friend sits someplace hidden but with a view of the entire room, and prepares to watch and wait while the artist plans to drink the drink and spend the night making art...

...and is surprised to find that when the artist takes the first drink, it's actually a potion that summons someone or something, that plans to possess the artist. However, becoming aware that there's someone else hiding in a corner of the room, things take a different turn.

(post a reply if you have any fun ideas about what might happen... or if you play with making a short story of this, please do make a mention of it so I can read it)