Inspiration from Octavia Butler

"Prodigy is, at its essence, adaptability and persistent, positive obsession. Without persistence, what remains is an enthusiasm of the moment. Without adaptability, what remains may be channeled into destructive fanatacism. Without positive obsession, there is nothing at all." 

- Lauren Oya Olamina in Earthseed: The Books of the Living (read as an epigraph to Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower)

Science Fiction Stories: The Observer (Part II)

Today I am sharing part two of The Observer, my serial science fiction story. Two weeks ago, I introduced Taligunge, the alien observer who comes to Earth, and in this second part, she continues on just that journey.


If you haven't read part one, I highly recommend you check it out right here. And, as always, feel free to let me know what suggestions you have for the next installment! Part two commences after the jump.

Science Fiction Stories: The Observer (Part I)

Drumroll, please! Today, I am introducing first installment of my serial science fiction project, The Observer. As a writer, I have gravitated mostly towards science fiction in the past, and wanted to re-visit my love for it through producing content regularly. So, this serial fiction is coming to you in parts, just like your favorite TV shows. Enjoy this first section, and let me know what you think of it (and science fiction as a whole) in the comments! Also, I am accepting suggestions to use for the upcoming parts of the story. Leave those in the comments as well!

Taligunge tapped the side of her head reflexively. She prepared herself to receive a transmission that would never come – one that would tell her she was in the right place. Slinking out from a side alley, she surveyed her destination from across the street.

CED Roundup: Bears, Knitting, and Growing Ideas

My Creative Every Day hopes this week were somewhat diminished as I found that I had a lot of ideas, but nowhere to go with them - thus, next week's goal will be implementing those ideas and seeing how it all turns out. The pictures this week reflect my new sweaterdress project at different stages of its completion, my urge to draw bears, and some design changes to The Cowation logo in order to fit with the Facebook parameters - speaking of which, you can now Like The Cowation on Facebook, as I have set up a new Page for it!

 Thurs: All the blog ideas I had when I was interlinking archived posts for days on The Cowation.

 Fri: This is the back piece of my sweaterdress at just an itty bitty rib area of 16 rows. Working my way on up to 19". 

 "There was little in this world that kept her attention so much as the strange boxes that projected to these humans images of themselves. They were square and often large, spreading from wall to wall in some of the rooms she had seen. They came with control boxes or with sensors that would accept data disks and present whole new worlds to their viewers... Without the boxes, the humans were alone and unconnected, unlike most other animals."

"She found it difficult to watch the autopsies in progress. After spending countless hours encoding their information into the system, holding conversations with them, feeling empathy for their successes and failures, to see an individual human lain out on a table made her shudder. She knew that her cover profession as an investigator made it necessary, but it was never her favorite part of it."

Sat: I worked a bit more on the serial fiction story; above are two more excerpts from the upcoming work.

 

Sun: This is the back piece of my sweaterdress at 11.5" - motoring on towards 19".

Mon: I did some re-designing for the Facebook Page of my button and splash.

Tues: I originally wanted to draw a person, but it evolved into this clown bear in a box. Also, the lens flare is starting to grate on me - I must do better with lighting.

Weds: This is the back piece of my sweaterdress at 16" - working my way to 19"!

Check out some more drawings of bears in my collaborative comic The Bearniverse.
Take a look at previous Creative Every Day posts.

Project x Project: NaNoWriMo 2010 & On Location: The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

For those of you who don't know, National Novel Writing Month occurs every year in November. It's a time when writers come out of their holes and join in an online race to the finish - 50,000 words written within the month. And I am doing it. Again.
I have "won" for the past two years (which means that I've written two novels) and participated for the past four. I feel like a seasoned veteran when I say that, but I also feel completely new every time I sit down to type out the requisite word count for each day, approximately 1667 words (if I have told you 2500, please forgive me!)
This year I will be busting through a long-held fear of mine: starting on my sci fi trilogy. I have always wanted to bridge the gap between literary fiction and sci fi, because in the Venn diagram of readers, there seems to be very little overlap in those who read each of those categories. A lofty goal? Perhaps. But that's what this month is all about - experimentation and improvement.
And this month I want to tack on another little experiment to this month: daily blogging. Maybe I'm going insane, but my mind is telling me that if I tack on just another hour spent writing (about something completely different, perhaps) in my blog will help me grow as a committed blogger. Which has been on my to-do list of things to become for much too long.
What will I write about? Perhaps a few sentences about how my novel is going. Perhaps about my daily outfits photo shoot (oh yeah, that's still going on). Or perhaps it will be about some amazing rally that I went to over the weekend...

And with that unsubtle segue, we come to how I am spending my fall break: in Washington DC as one of the 150,000 to 200,000 attendees of the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear!
My roommate graciously provided accommodations since her home is located in Alexandria, VA (very near to DC, for those not as knowledgeable about East Coast geography). We took a 6 hour bus ride (that should have been 4 hours) down here on Friday night, and then piled into the subway on Saturday morning for an exciting day of rally fever.
I must admit, the biggest rally I had been to before this one was the MLK Day rallies in Seattle. This rally outclassed them by about 149,000+ people. There was a fever in the air when we got on the subway. The entire Mall was filled up by the start of the rally, and we were fortunate enough to meet up with Mr. Stephen Bronskill and get tickets to go up front.
Here are the conclusions I've drawn from this rally:
1. Subways. New York subways are FAR superior to DC (and no, that's not me just being a snooty New Yorker - if your trains aren't large enough to fill the entire subway platform, you have a problem)
2. Signs. People are really creative when asked to make signs about anything. I was snapping photos of anything and everything I found interesting, and there was a lot!
3. Adam & Jamie As much as I love the Mythbusters, I really don't think they should perform live. Ever again.
4. Public Displays of Affection Perhaps my only complaint about the rally was a pair of teenagers making out in front of me the entire time... I think it was just inappropriate for that situation.
5. Stars The Roots? John Legend? Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens)? OZZIE?! My excitement mounted each time they brought out a guest - it was so fantastic!
6. Songs I am going to be singing Love Train and The Greatest, Strongest Country in the World forever now... please look up videos of the rally for the second one, it was a skit by Jon and Stephen that was really addictive.
7. Message. Aside from the hilarity, it was really comforting to know that so many people understand that the media is overblowing the issues and that we shouldn't treat each other poorly based on their opinions.

Overall, I was extremely happy to be able to attend this event and even more excited that Stephen could provide us with such a great position in the crowd. So much thanks to be given to that man!

P.S.
My pictures are available at Deviantart!

Follow me around the world with my other On Location posts!
Check out some more posts featuring my photography.