Influences on My Stories

I made my own story-world. I do not take from any real life or fictional source. I have a way to do this, I made a completely different culture.

What things are like here are not like there. In how people relate to each other, in how the government works, the very problems or threats they face are nothing like what happens in other stories.

The biggest influence on my stories is the Culture books of Iain M Banks. His ideas of AI match mine. I have always 'humanized' AI. I like writing about AI's. It is a contentious issue in the Commonwealth whether if the AI could be considered a person. The law, after much arguing and research, says they are if they are over a certain rating. Most androids are over this standard where house computers are not, with a few exceptions.

The Qesak Orbital in my stories was inspired by orbitals in Banks' novels. It is actually smaller than those and is not as varied.

History influences my stories, especially World War 2.

The actual US Navy inspired the military of the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth was inspired by early American colonies.

I gather ideas from life and from what I see on CNN.

This idea net, as it is, always is open. I can generate new ideas if left to ruminate on them for a while. I did this when I was at work. I will do this when I return to work.

I will use Ischia as an example. In studying Ancient Egypt, a very big fascination and interest of mine, I got the idea of making a character like one they would have made. She will be like Ketheri in some ways, very much not like her in others.

One day, I will write my opus. It may not be like any story I have ever written. Depends on what happens between now and then.

How I Started Writing

A long time ago, like in 1985, in 5th Grade, we had an assignment to build a story about a planet and civilization. I made one called Scorptrolio. I never established that people were native to it. It was settled by colonists. Colonists from an empire at that time I had not created.

As I got older, I learned more about how things are, and developed new stories based on this. Mind that Scorptrolio has not been featured in a story in over 12 years.

The empire I developed is backstory. It is the foundation upon which the Commonwealth was built. When I write about the empire days, it is usually about a princess because I like writing about princesses.

I focused on one character in the beginning, born just four centuries after the Commonwealth was founded. I wrote a lot of stories about that character. Established a whole mythology.

But in looking back, I have developed the main people of my stories away from what that character had been.

Ketheri came along late in that character's life.

Most stories since Y2K have featured Ketheri. And now her time is almost over. How much can happen to one person in one life?

I used to write in 3-subject notebooks. When I got a computer, I received WordPerfect 9, and ever since, I have uses WP to write. I use WP X5 now, the fourth version of it I have had. I won't get another since X5 is compatible with Windows 7 as well.

I write when it's quiet, when I have no interrputions. You can see in some stories when I lost my focus. I try not to let that happen.

I do not write when I have emotional pain or if I am real sleepy.

It really does not matter to me if my stories are published or not. I write because it helps me by focusing on things that take my mind off my real pain.

I have learned a lot about style and grammar over the years. I am good at this. I always was.

I will always have a story to tell.

When Ketheri is gone, off to a fab future where she is Reina, the Supreme Commander of the Kita Army, an army of billions, she will leave a void. I may create a new era.

I have created the interesting character named Eschia (Eal Seket). She has to be fit into the story world, which means more stories to write.

Always are.

Homosexuality in My Stories

Most of my stories are an episodic serial Space Opera. As far as plot structure goes, it is akin to how a soap opera plot develops. Ketheri is the protagonist of this serial.

However, I will talk about how things are in an equal-matriarchal culture like the one the Commonwealth has.

Homosexuality is not a sin in this culture. It is accepted as normal love. Individual people may not like it but that is how things normally are.

The most common homosexual couple would be between two females. Male couples are rare largely because of how they are raised. That is not to say a female is raised to be like that. Love is encouraged.

Lin is an example of a homosexual who gender changed, which is relatively easy to do with the technology they have. Many who do this assume the role of whatever they changed into. Some are confused. I will make a character like this later after 'Rain' is done.

Personally, homosexuality bothers me on an evolutionary level. I am not like that and do not understand the appeal. I was told today that one of my female cousins is lesby. I have not seen her in a long time so I cannot remember that much about her. Even if she is, it doesn't make her less than a person.

Maybe in a more tolerant society, it would not bother us so much.

Many of my female characters love both genders. Male characters are rare anyway because of how things developed in the setting. I tend to feminize male characters because I don't like other males. There are exceptions, Dr. Akrem and Adm. Rian are two major male characters. I have established them to be quite heterosexual. It is not something I ever mention in a story. I know my characters over the course of the stories, you would only know them if you actually read existing stories.

I will make Rain freely love, her only desire is to contribute to the Great Circle of Life. Can't do that if she and her mother are the only survivors of the destruction of their village. They will get a new village.

It is not a conscious decision based on how characters develop. For example, I never established Ketheri as lesby but her first and most intense love was a girl named Carine. Ketheri had nine kids over life, can't do that if she was not attracted to males. She has been in more male-female scenes than not.

Why should sex matter anyway? Because they are people like us. Not cardboard characters.

I may make a character to supplant Ketheri, and release my star for her wonderful future. I have been trying to do that for a couple of years now. I will work on this some more.

If you have a question, let me know.

Rain

Late in 2010, I started a story called 'Rain'. This was begun in my troubled time after leaving wm, it took months to get over the stress and pain. In some ways, I have not to this day, nearly 2 years later. I was in wm 1073 today and fuck all, if I did not get a panic attack. How can I live this way? I write to take my mind off it.

'Rain' is about a Vehmba female named Rain. She is 18 years old, average sized, pretty for a Vehmba.

Infodump here: Vehmbas are little creatures, average 3.5 feet tall, who are anthro. They have excellent proportions, a long and flexible tail, and their 'hair' is actually a cooling structure. They look like dreadlocks but are not hair like we know it and are one big strand. It looks like hair. Feels warm and soft to the touch. Vehmba eyes are solid, no discernable iris or pupil. Some glow, some are dull colored. They can be yellow, green, or in rare cases, black. Vehmbas have bluish skin, powdery blue, with subtle linear striping, which is an individual trait used to identify each other. The stripes are pale, looking like airbrushing and usually give the Vehmba an exotic look. Some Vehmbas are darker blue, some are lighter. It is an environmental thing. Vehmbas have feet like a monkey's, opposable big toe. They are slightly bigger than a human foot would be at that body size.

There is little sexual dimorphism between male and female Vehmbas. It can be hard to tell them apart for one unfamiliar with them. They are a neoteny species.

Rain is a bit darker than average, her stripes are demure, reddish-yellow, hard to tell on her skin. Her eyes are greenish-yellow. She is the daughter of Me'ess Mela. A me'ess is a village chief, though more like a 'mother' of a tribe. Mela called her Rain because she had Rain outside in the rain, taking that as a sign of purity.

Rain is a hunter and forest scout. She carries a bow, poison arrows and a knife. Also, she has a modern comm device, and, after events in the story, an AI companion.

Rain's village was exterminated by a military action using nanotechnology as a weapon. The village was on a special world.

Rain has a strong belief in the Great Circle of Life. To her, all things are part of the circle and threats to it must be eliminated. She has no compunction against killing when it is in defense of the circle.

Rain is unusual among Vehmbas who have been in other stories. She is a native of a planetary forest. Most Vehmbas live in the mid-bay forest of giant spacecraft. The outside galaxy thinks they are little better than ignorant savages. It is a fallacy Vehmbas cultivate. They are highly technological. Rain is not from a village known for techy things.

Rain's story isn't over. I never finished it. Sometimes, when troubles overcome me, I have to suspend stories and usually can't find the flow to resume them. This story is different. It is actually a sequel to another story told from the military's point of view, called 'Undesirable Creatures'. That one was finished.

I will put Rain through some adventure and a costly encounter. Her story will be a legend among Vehmbas for generations.

I will post 'Rain' on my angelfire site when it is done.

I wrote a whole post yesterday and it was lost before I could post it. I will rewrite it because it might surprise you that I could write about such things.

About This Background

You may wonder about the stars and such that are the background of my blog. I made this image, it's called Constellation.

A year ago, I discovered Colour Lovers. I love making colors and pattern art. I may not be as remotely skilled as others but I like what I make. I made this pattern about a week ago.

I am Ar-Ghost there, perhaps you can see what else I have made. I go there sometimes and make more patterns and colors, but only when I am feeling creative. I haven't been lately.

You can find this at Colour Lovers

Beta Cygni

This is my first digital art image. It is on http://arthelius-ghost.deviantart.com/

I call it Beta Cygni, the large gas planet is Enako. The strange shapes in it are storms and instability in its gravitational field. It is about 6 AU from the ficional version of the real binary star Albiero.

Albiero is the 'head' of Cygnus, in larger commercial telescopes, it resolves into a beatiful blue and gold binary.

Fictional Enako and its earthlike moon are just one of four planets and 29 moons in the system, but I won't draw those, boring, lifeless environs.

Qeyia, her mate Qevan, both Aniq'et, are from that moon. I forget its name, I haven't been sleeping good recently.

Tell me if you like it. I am so bad at drawing. I used pattern fill, color blur, and the regular Paint in Windows to color the moon. I blur them in Corel Painter 12, which I only have a trial of. I do have GIMP-image, an alternative to photoshop. It costs nothing. I have Corel Paint Shop X3 which I edit pictures in all the time. It helps in resizing and clarifying the rough images since I am not that good at drawing with a mouse.

One of these days, I will get a tablet and draw that way. I have a million things to share from my stories and characters.

The biggest city on that moon is Arcology. It is also home to the odd looking Lipoan people.

If I can get help from real artists on DeviantArt, I will ask them to help me draw Qeyia. You would like how she looks.