AN EMPTY PLACE, Chapter Eight - "The Thunder With Limbs"

Hello all you patient people who are still reading this book! Hope you merry'd. I'm going to try to get all these posted before the baby comes, so expect the last four chapters in the next few weeks.

AN EMPTY PLACE, Chapter Seven - "Chamber Music"

I thought I had already posted this but I guess not. 

AN EMPTY PLACE, Chapter Six - "Cutting Off The Fat"

Halfway. A necessary surgery. The mountain cold shadow. Memory/no mind. 

This is the part where the band gets together.

first imprint

the first of many song lyrics.

Herd In the Year

Can't believe it's been so long since I've posted a list of the books I have done and am going to do and all the things I'll wish I'd made when the record ends.

Below is a complex:

AN EMPTY PLACE, Chapter Five - "The Lid of Madness"

Been a bit hasn't it? I'm out of training at work, so that's good news. I'd been kind of dreading putting this chapter up because - although I really like it and it works almost as a short story - formatting it for the blog is going to be a challenge. So if anything looks screwy, I'm working on it.

In another bit of news, the illustrator guy is going to school again so I don't expect to see those for some time.

Here we get into the bowels of the books world, and we begin to pull back the enchanted, blood soaked curtain. 

Enjoy!

AN EMPTY PLACE, Chapter Four - "The Long Dark Road Inside"

The next chapter is here, ending the first act. Illustrator man is a little behind but I'll let you know when they're added.

I think this is where is starts to come together, where the world becomes clear and the threats take a clarifying shape.

AN EMPTY PLACE, Chapter Three - "Alchemy and Alarms"

The third chapter of An Empty Place.

AN EMPTY PLACE, Chapter Two - "Evocation of the Protector"

Chapter 2. I'll update this with wicked and wily illustration in short order. This one needed a little more editing to make it serviceable to mine eye.

I want to thank you for the kind words and anxious demand that I did not expect! Please let me know how you feel about this as it goes or at the end or whatever. LOVE YOU ALL!

Come Back

Had some nightmares last night. Nothing like finding a reason in terror to look forward to the day-job.

AN EMPTY PLACE - Table of Contents

AN EMPTY PLACE

a novel by Charles Ll. Hoehnen

1. Night Life

2. Evocation of the Protector

3. Alchemy and Alarms

4. The Long Dark Road Inside

5. The Lid of Madness

6. Cutting Off the Fat

7. Chamber Music

8. The Thunder With Limbs

9. Circle of Will

10. Evil Germs of Matter

11. Return to Rock

12. Home

AN EMPTY PLACE, Chapter One - "Night Life"

Presenting to you my first full length novel, a dystopian psycho-fantasy titled An Empty Place. Because why not? I started writing this book almost five years ago, July 15th 2008. 

It's about a man chased by demons who has to rediscover his forgotten power, and with the help of the two very different women he meets on the way, save the world. 

spawn

It's been too long again. It's like everything is slipping away. I have to become this new person and I'm not sure I was much more than a skin coated shell of the old one.

Good luck, future me.

hanging on

There's a lot of things I'm supposed to do/have done this week that are writing related, even apart from actually writing Thunderbird, which has been slower going than anything ever written by me in history. Type out the ceremony for the wedding I officiated. Miss band practice yesterday. Fire missive to Russia about how, hey Fuck You Russia! Promised analysis of  volume one of Uncanny X-Force. Write a blog post since its been fore-ever.

Well, that's one down.

I've finished only the first chapter and half the second chapter of Tbird in the month and a half since I've started writing it. That is not a good pace, but I think I've created some head-space for it in recent days and can start to crank up. So goals are good. 500 words a day starting today. "Back to the old time is money pitch.

Not back on it. Still on it."

I'll skip the Russia missive that should help.

Impulses

Hello life and work update.

I started my next novel back on the 24th. It's been achingly slow going. I now know the struggle of having an actually challenging job that takes a lot of brain and leaves little for me at the end of the day. Maybe when I quit drinking I can funnel that dead time into . . . something else.

Partisan practiced last night again. Erin hates it when she's alone on a Friday. I don't like capitalizing days of the week, they don't feel important enough, when you look at the rest of those nouns.

Joans is the name of the short story collection I've been working on for the last year or so. It's almost done as far as the actual pieces, I just have two more to finish: "Joan_" which is a flash prayer, and "Cruel Myth" which I was in the middle of when I decided it was time to start Thunderbird. Here's the proposed toc which I'm sure my more avid followers :tch: will find familiarity within.

JOANS

short stories by Charlie Ll. Hoehnen

The Dragon

Gates

the storm

Distance, or The Deer in Darkness

Glaciers

News From The Compartment

people eat off of you

The Arm of Heaven

The Organist

Maneuvers

Machines

The Cold Slope Incident

Cruel Myth

joan_

"Gates"

Below the break is a short story I wrote that I'm pretty proud of. It's exactly the kind of thing I want to express. French cinema connoisseurs  may recognize certain plot elements vaguely distorted from A Man Escaped. But it's kind of the opposite of that.

Serial: "The Cold Slope Incident" - Final Part

The end. To be re-posted as a single piece after an extensive edit.

Serial: "The Cold Slope Incident" - Part 7

Part Seven Where It Hits 

"Climb"

Something I wrote ten or twelve years ago

Serial: "The Cold Slope Incident" - Part 6

Action! Intrigue! The invisible hound at your heels. The cold barrel against your neck!

Part 6 of "The Cold Slope Incident"!

New Folder

New things brewing in the brainscape. tumblr knows more.

You can also see my wife's photos and reposts from famous comics people and things my friends think are interesting there.

cute story

My browser thinks my blogger dashboard is in Malaysian.

I can read Korean and Arabic a little bit.

started a tumblr: oldforce.tumblr.com

Number of tabs open in this window: 10

Number of tabs open in my other window: 7

how long has it taken me to write this post? over three hours.

I read this . . ..

I read this . . . novel, called "Death Sentences", though it's original Japanese title is better translated as "Chasing the magic poems" or something. Regardless of what it's called, it was a great read. A science-fiction novel traipsing around as a pop thriller, a murder mystery where the killer and the victim is language(s). Kind of like those Ring movies but way better. My friends Katie and Frank got this for me for my birthday and it was an awesome present.

I also am reading several excellent comic books, such as Revival, which is about people who come back from the dead in Wausau, but they aren't zombies. Reminds me of Twin Peaks. I can also recommend New Avengers and Avengers by Jonathan Hickman, big superhero sf, about life and death and light and darkness, which are always solid topics.

You?

Serial: "The Cold Slope Incident" - Part 5

I didn't realize it had been this long since I posted a chapter. The noose tightens.

Serial: "The Cold Slope Incident" - Parts 3 & 4

The next two parts of "The Cold Slope Incident". Here are parts 1 and 2 in case you missed them . . .

Serial: "The Cold Slope Incident" Part 2

It's been a week. Here's part 2. I was on vacation for a few days and then I've been busy sleeping.

Serial: "The Cold Slope Incident" - Part 1

Here's something. I'll post a short story in serialized segments about once a week. Just a first draft with a quick edit to polish it up some. It'll be a detective story. Sort of.

Today/Tomorrow

I found this letter when I was browsing the internet today, from this:

Where We Live

This is a poem I wrote to recite at a wedding once:

for the love of pete

I'm a straight ally, please do not speak queer hate around me or I'll fucking violence you. 

It seems that some people do not know this? Know it.

the spar

Here's an interview with Al Sparhawk from my favorite band LOW at stereogum. They have a new record coming out next month. This part struck me as particularly true:

Snow Milwaukee Night Awesome No Search

This guy is offering me a fab Friday I can take or leave, I don't know it seems like a good deal but his face says maybe it's not such a good deal.

"Maneuvers"

Below the break is a flash piece of less than 100 words.

Spooling out my river

Brewer's Dictionary to Phrase and Fable is online, which is a good thing. Here's a link to the text file, which we all know are still my favorite things on the internet.

Here's the bit that will tell you what kind of stuff you'll find in said book:

Dyed in the wool. Cloth which is wool-dyed
(not piece-dyed) is true throughout and will
wash. Hence the phrase is used to describe
anything or person absolutely genuine.

 or

Tiu. Son of Woden (Scandinavian mythology),
and a younger brother of Thor. The wolf
Fenrir bit off his hand.

Also this is about as awesome as awesome things get:

http://e-merl.com/pocom.htm

No to

Phil Noto is great:

Phil Noto

I started writing "A Cold Slope Incident" today. Have you ever had an overwhelming sense that a past wrong, or some childish cruelty, you'd committed - that you might not even remember - is going to reveal itself to everyone some day and whatever you've built will be destroyed? And then when you're left standing in the wreckage, you find out how small you always were.

That's what this is about.

Notes on punishment

So after a very satisfying first novel draft, what does a tiny scrum like me do to unwind from the constant weave and buckle of making a super long story? Make much shorter stories.

"Machines"

Below the jump I've posted an early draft of a science fiction story called "Machines". It's in the same setting as the novel I just finished. The scope and locale is vastly different, giving us a snapshot of the men who keep the world clean after the end.

This is one of eleven (11) stories I plan to collect someday in my first short story collection. Enjoy, and if you want, let me know what you think!

Return to

Here's the plan. I'm going to share a story a week here in the dark-outlined-with-white-center abyss. In the interim I post links to interesting things and my friends stuff and muse randomly.

I read this editorial yesterday from a small publisher and I found myself smiling a lot and saying "Yes that's it":

Editorial: Yuugen Goes Without Saying, by Quentin S. Crisp

Makes me want to read the books this guy writes/publishes.

So I'm off to submit some weird fiction short stories. Be back later with one I didn't!