Category: Jake and the Dynamo

Rock on with ‘Dead to Rites’

I am working on Dead to Rites, the second volume of Jake and the Dynamo, which is much longer than I’d expected it to be, but I have finally reached the rock concert, a scene I’ve been looking forward to for a long time.

Amidst the roars of the crowd, the keyboardist started in, and the other instruments soon followed. After several opening licks, Vanessa, with a voice rough and raw and passionate, started singing.

The crowd jumped and shouted and waved. Jake couldn’t make out most of the words, but when Vanessa reached the refrain, she roared out:

“Beaten, battered, bruised, and torn, and stabbed with a million knives! But we’re still alive!”

All around the stadium, people, Dana included, pumped their fists in the air and shouted, “We’re still alive! We’re still alive! We’re still alive!”

“Let me hear you, Urbanopolis!” Vanessa called. “We’ve had a hard couple of weeks, haven’t we? But they can’t keep us down! All the forces of evil in the whole darn universe can’t keep us down! Shout it loud! Shout it proud! Shout it so the Moon Princess can hear you! Let her know that her children are still alive!”

“We’re still alive!” the crowd cried. “We’re still alive!”

The lead guitarist stopped playing and tossed his guitar into the air. With a high leap, Vanessa caught it, landed back on the stage, and moved into a squealing guitar solo. “Keep it going!” she shouted.

“We’re still alive!” the audience chanted. “We’re still alive!”

In spite of himself, Jake swayed back and forth to the deafening, punishing music. Dana had her feet on the lowest rung of the railing and was leaning precariously over the side, pumping a fist and banging her head. Her wild, unkempt red hair flew about her face like raging flames. Overhead, the moon shone brightly, and a few stars twinkled.

Then Jake understood. Slowly, he raised a fist. The humans had been through some tough battles in the last few days, and it was true that everything in the cosmos and beyond was out to kill them—but they kept going. They suffered, and they bled, but they always gave better than they got: Innumerable alien races had set upon the Earth to wipe the humans out, but most of those races were now dead, and humanity lived on. They survived. And tonight, in the music of Metal Huntress Vanessa Van Halensing, humanity was letting it be known: They were cutting loose with a rebel yell and lifting a middle finger to the universe.

“We’re still alive!” Jake shouted. “We’re still alive!”

Writing Day for ‘Dead to Rites’

Today is a writing day for Dead to Rites. I am still making my way through ViVid Strike!, which I want to wrap up before I review anything else, simply because I’m afraid it will disappear from Amazon Prime. I’m not done with it yet (I have too much else to do), but I will say in advance that I so far think it is the most entertaining series in the Lyrical Nanoha franchise, even though it is also easily the shallowest and stupidest. Unfortunately, I am easily entertained by scenes of young girls beating the everloving snot out of each other, and that’s pretty much the show’s entire premise.

The rough draft of Dead to Rites, second volume of Jake and the Dynamo, is just about done. Tonight, I am working on the grand climax. There’s probably one to two chapters after that, and then it’s on to the editing and rewriting phase.

‘Jake and the Dynamo’ Now on Sale!

Get yours while supplies last.

Are you interested in a combination of uproarious humor and fast, bloody action featuring a bewildered teenage boy and a whole truckload of goofball girls? If you are, now’s the time to get you some, because the eBook version of Jake and the Dynamo: The Wattage of Justice is now on sale at Amazon for 99 cents.

Get it here.

The Children of the Night, What Sweet Nougat They Make

I am currently working on the sequence in the second volume of Jake and the Dynamo in which Jake assists Magical Girl Nunchuk Nun in a battle against vampire pastry chefs in the catacombs under the reconstructed Basilica of St. Peter’s in Rome-in-Exile.

I’m not sure it’s coming out the way I want, but I think this is pretty funny:

Pushing off from the armrest, Jake regained his feet and found himself facing a black-robed figure with a bone-white face. This gaunt creature’s head was a pale dome, entirely without hair, but marked on the left side, just above the ear, by a peculiar, puss-filled boil that somehow put Jake in mind of a half-formed eye. The creature’s unusually long and knobby ears ended in flaccid points. Although the rest of his skin was pale like that of a corpse, his lips were a bright red—not quite like lipstick, but more like cold sores that had spread to entirely encompass his mouth.

With a snake-like hiss, the vampire stretched out one thin, bony hand. His long fingers, tipped with yellowing, claw-like nails, grasped a huge cupcake topped with a high, swirling mound of almond-colored frosting.

He glided toward Jake almost as if he had wheels on his feet, and his pustule-like lips slid back, revealing a set of countless crooked, needle-like fangs. Although most of the windows were dark, a single panel—an image of the Christ raising two fingers in solemn blessing—glowed with a funereal blue-white light, the color of the waning moon. That light cast a sepulchral pallor over the vampire’s corpse-like face and made his wet teeth glisten.

“Our mont-blancs are on special this week,” the vampire whispered coldly. “They’re half off. Get them while supplies last.”

A sweet hint of chestnut met Jake’s nose.

His throat was dry, but he swallowed painfully. “I’m … I’m allergic to nuts, actually,” he rasped.

The vampire hissed again, and then suddenly lunged.

My writing process often involves listening to a single song over and over again. For most of the first volume, it was “You’re Mine” by Disturbed. For the vampire scenes in the second volume, I’m mostly listening to this:

‘Jake and the Dynamo’ TVTropes Page Updated

Whoever is managing the page for Jake and the Dynamo on TVTropes has recently added updates. The cover art for the published version is now posted, and the description has been updated to describe its publication history.

The writer states, “Originally released episodically as a web serial novel, it was eventually published in e-book form.” (It’s also available as a paperback, but hey.)

I see also that the list of tropes has been updated. For example, the villain Chai Square, the tea-drinking statistical troll, is listed as a Pungeon Master, because of his habit of making statistical jokes. (Magical Girl Sword Seamstress could fit this trope also for her sewing puns.)

Funny story about Chai Square: I came up with that character while I was writing up a report on an archaeological project and was doing some of the statistical analysis. I have a bad habit of mispronouncing chi square, which is how I came up with Chai Square’s name. The whole thing evolved from there.

As an added note, I’m pleased to see that, according to TVTropes, the novel qualifies for the trope of “Mood Whiplash,” even if it does not rise to the level of “Cerebus Rollercoaster.” As I’ve explained before, that’s pretty much my storytelling philosophy.

‘Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites’ Progress Update

I just made progress on Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites!

The story now stands at 100,142 words, which puts it 142 words over my last projection for the draft, and it’s still not finished. Heck, it’s still Tuesday, by which I mean it’s still Tuesday in the story. I kind of wanted this novel to end on Friday like the last one did, but I’m not sure if I can pull it off. Week 2 might end up getting stretched across two novels.

I am, however, finally at the scene where I get to introduce Nunchuk Nun.

Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites
Phase:Writing
Due:5 years ago
99.6%

‘Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites’ Progress Update

I just made progress on Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites! So far I’m 97% complete on the Writing phase. 16 Days remain until the deadline.

There are some matters about which I’d like to post, but I’ve been working on my book instead, which is not exactly time wasted.  I realized that I needed to go back and insert a new chapter into an earlier part in the novel, and I was having some trouble crafting it, but I figured out what was wrong with it, so tonight I’ve completed the draft of that particular section. Still needs a couple of corny jokes thrown in, though.

Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites
Phase:Writing
Due:5 years ago
96.7%

The Emperor on Deep POV

I stumbled upon an interesting blog post at The Emperor’s Notepad. There, his imperial majesty addresses the subject of “deep point of view,” a technique of narration that is currently in vogue. His post is entitled, “Deep POV Is Shallow,” and I recommend perusing it.

I can’t recall if I’d heard the particular term before, but I recognize the technique: it means writing in third person, but sticking with a particular character’s point of view and remaining in that single point of view throughout a scene, with no “head-hopping.”

His majesty explains that he believes the technique is over-used because an omniscient third-person narrator can be more useful in many cases for setting scenes with less dreary dialogue and fewer awkward tags. He makes his case well.

As long as we’re coining phrases, I’m going to say that my own preferred technique when writing in third-person is “descending POV.” Readers familiar with my work may notice that I usually begin by setting a scene, and then move in to focus on an individual who becomes the consistent POV character for that particular scene.

But I’m not strict about it. Sometimes I cheat, of course: Jake and the Dynamo opens with an omniscient narrator and then descends into the POV of the Dark Queen for the first scene. In the second scene, it remains in omniscient POV throughout, but sneaks into Grease Pencil Marionette’s head near the end. Most of the rest of the book is from Jake’s POV, with occasional diversions to the Dark Queen, Chirops, and Marionette. A few characters are not allowed, for arbitrary reasons known to the author, to be POV characters at all, ever. Among them is Pretty Dynamo.

My preferred method is analogous to a film setting up with a location shot. The inability to do this is his imperial majesty’s primary complaint about so-called deep POV. So as an answer to both him and the writers he criticizes, I will claim it is actually possible to have one’s cake and eat it too on this matter. Although an admittedly new author, I have never yet received a complaint about the way I start with an omniscient narrator and then focus in, though I did just once receive a compliment for it.

‘Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites’ Progress Update

I just made progress on Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites! So far I’m 92% complete on the Writing phase. 21 Days remain until the deadline.

I’ve upped the projected word count from 90,000 to 100,000, though realistically I expect it to overrun that. I’m currently inserting a chapter into an earlier part of the book, a chapter I just realized needs to go there. Once I’m done with that, I’m on to writing the the scene with the fight against vampires in the torch-lit catacombs.

Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites
Phase:Writing
Due:5 years ago
92%

The Most Important Election of Our Lifetimes™

There is no more important choice a man faces in his life than the his choice of waifu.

Before time runs out, I ask you to join me in contemplating—within the context of Jake and the Dynamo—who is best girl.

This is extremely important.

Will you choose the brassy and cocky Pretty Dynamo? The arrogant but highly skilled Sword Seamstress? Or perhaps the delinquent Sukeban Tsubasa, bad girl of magical girls? … Or maybe you go for the tortured artist type, specifically a tortured robot artist, Grease Pencil Marionette?

Remember: your future, and all our futures, rests on your decision.

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