Couldn't Resist Doing This...

Belated American 900/Classic 600 Pics

Courtesy of Ed Demateo, a fellow traditional archer from Everglades Archers. He did a very good job of photographing parts of the event that I either didn't have my camera or was too busy doing my own thing. As usual, click on the title for the rest of the pictures.

(Anticipated) FAQs 1/n for Morgenstern

Q: So where does this take place?
A: In an alternate version of this world where the interface between this world and the Veil is very, very thin. Parts of it also take place in various parts of the Veil. It's got a pretty broad geographical scope.

Q: When will the other part(s) show up?
A: I have no clue. It's inversely proportional to the amount of time I spend stuck in situations where I can't sleep or do real work or otherwise do anything else useful.

Q: What inspired this one?
A: Far too many things. Qualifier exams, certain professors and colleagues I felt like poking fun at, music I've been listening to, fellow archers, the general feeling of incompleteness after Swan-Song. Plus there are still some episodes from old D&D games that need to be made fun of or written up.

Q: Do I need to have read the other stories before reading Morgenstern?
A: Probably a good idea. I tried to put a bit of the background in from the other stories but there's a lot of details and inside jokes only findable in past stories. The next revision might be robust enough to make this a stand-alone along with its sequels.

Q: Any tentative ideas about the sequels at this point?
A: Of course. Not saying too much about it now, mostly because I don't know what the ultimate fate of some of the characters will be and I think it's more fun to watch/read/hear the groans and "WTF?!" from people first. It's definitely going to be a multi-part story though. Otherwise the printout would look a lot like Tolstoy's War and Peace. Ok maybe I'm exaggerating but you get the picture.

Q: Any warnings prior to reading this story?
A: Besides length? Yes. This one has materials that is NOT suitable for the squeamish or the easily offended, even more so than Swan-Song. If this were a film, I'd say this would probably be well into the R rating. You have been warned.

Draft 1 of Morgenstern

If the title doesn't work, click here. This is an absolute first draft of who-knows-how-many. I have no clue how long it'll be before the next part will be posted, but thought I finally reached a good pausing point in the story. This is the first of two or three, with three being the more likely number.

Classic 600 Round

As usual, click on the title for the full suite of pictures. The classic 600 is a much more difficult round for two reasons: 92 cm target instead of a 122 cm and the shoot starts at 40 and ends at 60 yards. I finished the shoot with a 238/600 total (100 at 40, 81 at 50, 57 at 60) which was reasonably good given that I had a bit too much unsweet tea beforehand. By no means my most brilliant performance, but it was a pretty respectable one. Now I have a 735/1500 total to try and beat next time :)

Day 1 of FAA State Championships

I survived day 1 of the target shoot state championships, which was an American 900 round. It consists of 5 ends of 6 arrows at 60, 50, and 40 yards. Anyway, I went uncontested in my own division but had some really nice competition from friends new and old. I finished with a 497/900 (136 at 60, 170 at 50, and 191 at 40) -- which was a pretty decent score given humidity, wind, and rain. It certainly wasn't my highest ever 900 score -- scored a 526 at the Villages but most of my points were at 40 yards. My 50 and 60 yards were really, really good today. Apparently I was really keyed in at 50 yards after sacrificing the first round for re-calibration. My 40 wasn't as strong, but it was about what I was expecting for today. The score I had at 40 yards that one day in the Villages was insanely good for me and actually put my Bowtech Equalizer to shame so yeah, I wasn't expecting to recreate THAT score but I wouldn't complain if I did!

Character Design Inspiration

What can I say? Stuff like this can go a very, very long way in inspiring character design. It's truly amazing what can and will give me ideas for visualizing the various characters and places that show up in my writing.

In any event, I survived giving my presentation today in the plant ecosystem ecology research symposium over in the botany department today. I was feeling wired to the point where I had to drink a triple espresso to slow down. Chalk it up to general fall restlessness, I suppose. Plus I've eased up a bit on my training for the week to get academic stuff done, so I've got more than a bit of pent-up energy in my system too. Now it's time to relax and get ready for the American 900 and Classic 600 this weekend! Pictures should be coming, barring any fumbles with the camera.

Small Record-Breaker

Even more than the 237 IKAC or the 92 and 84 Royal Rounds, the biggest highlight tonight was the 36/40 on a timed round at 20 yards. I'm still hoping to break 250 on my IKAC and/or reach Grandmaster Bowman ranking this season (top 3 Royal Round average 100+), with the 250 IKAC being the more attainable goal of the two. Right now my top 3 Royal Round scores are 94, 94, and 92. My top IKAC is a 247.

And now... back to prepping for a talk I give tomorrow afternoon in the plant ecology group and a poster I present on Tuesday. And prepping for the American 900 and Classic 600 shoots this weekend at Newberry. I really hope I'll have some fellow traditional archers to keep me company this weekend!

Oops Forgot...

Insomnia really sucks royally but there are ways of turning crap into gold. In any event, it looks pretty likely that Morgenstern will be the first of at least 2, more likely 3, different stories given the amount of material I've got in mind. As it stands, I'm at 100+ pages (with 12 point font) and still a long way from the "destination" I've got in mind. I didn't expect this one to reach the extent it has, but stories and characters have a way of growing in strange directions!

More details once I figure out where would be a suitable pausing point for Morgenstern and make the appropriate pre-posting clean-ups.

Funny Signs...

No kills this weekend unless you count the mosquitoes in the truck.

A Small Sample from Morgenstern

Disclaimer: There is no guarantee that this will appear in the "final" product but thought this was a pretty representative sample.

As usual, click on the title or here to take a look. I still have a very long way to go on this one though before a full draft gets posted. Right now, I can honestly say that of all the characters I've had in my stories, none have been as complex as some of the ones in Morgenstern and some of the characters from past stories have taken on levels of complexity I've never dealt with before. This is definitely not a Killer Parakeet & friends story, even if there is a fair amount of potty humor in it!

Vultures and Lighthouses

Suwannee River field trip: http://s375.photobucket.com/albums/oo194/cylithera137/St%20Augustine/Suwannee%20Canoe%20Trip%202009-Sep-26-27/

I don't know why photobucket put the Suwannee trip under St. Augustine but what the heck...

St. Augustine: http://s375.photobucket.com/albums/oo194/cylithera137/St%20Augustine/

Vultures are awesome despite the debate going on with taxonomists whether New World vultures are more closely related to Ciconiiformes (storks and herons) than Acciptriformes (kites, hawks and eagles). Taxonomy is really fickle in my opinion especially with all the DNA stuff going on. Now it seems like taxonomists have decided that falcons (still in Falconiformes) are more closely related to parrots and passerines (not so fond of them except for corvines like crows, ravens and jays... mostly wimpy little songbirds). Now I'm very, very tempted to incorporate a bit of taxonomy humor into some future piece of writing. Maybe Killer Parakeet arguing with someone over who his closest relatives really are... ach, the possibilities are endless!

In other news, I'm still plugging away at Morgenstern, which seems to have taken a whole new life of its own that I've never expected it to take. As it stands, this may be my weirdest work yet and may even make stories involving Killer Parakeet & friends look extremely tame in comparison. If the mood strikes and/or I make enough progress on some academic work, I might post a chapter or two, although Morgenstern is so fluid that anything can happen and no chapter is guaranteed to remain in the "public" draft. I also have reason to suspect this story will be even longer than Swan-Song given the inter-twining story-lines and that I'm really going in-depth with some of the characters.

Caltech Visitor

http://s375.photobucket.com/albums/oo194/cylithera137/OLeno%202009-Sep-19/
http://s375.photobucket.com/albums/oo194/cylithera137/Gator%202009-Sep-20/

Enjoy! Neither computer seems to be particularly functional at this point -- computer with pictures is worse of the two. More later when I get computer back up.

Oddly Fascinated

I don't know but for some reason I'm really, really fascinated with this video. Click on the title or here to watch. It's for "Rosenrot" by Rammstein. Let's just say this song might also color a bit of my writing...

And now back to my usual order of stuff...

Some Delayed Pictures

One of my fellow shooters sent them to me... and I also have some that I pulled off the camera. Some were from the FITA shoot, some were from an International round in Inglis, FL at Citrus County Archers. I think I've been inspired to try and not look *too* much like some of my fellow archers but I've also got a very positive role model in the form of my fellow longbow shooter :)

FAA FITA State Championship

I set some records up in the women's longbow division. In fact, the two of us also set a record for the most women wielding longbows at a single event. My scores are as follows: 108 @ 70m, 105 @ 60m, 100 @ 50m, and 202 @ 30m, all out of 360, with a grand total of 515/1440 for the entire shoot. It was a real blast just knowing that I *can* hit the target 3-4/6 times pretty consistently at 60 and 70 meters, although I know the sound of thunder can really throw off my shooting. Just ask my fellow longbow archer about what a storm in the vicinity will do to me :) It was also awesome getting to chat with an Olympic hopeful and her coach and learning some of the things they do, even if a lot of what they do for their shooting goes against everything I've learned as a hunter. We also had awesome moral support in the form of my other half and my fellow IKAC shooters. It was definitely worth getting up early and being lightly cooked this weekend after a week of hell!

Now I just need to break my own state records eventually and make sure my ego doesn't get over-inflated!

Another Bad Idea (tm)

I really like jalapeno peppers although I haven't been eating them (along with beans) as much as I used to, mostly because of the people around me being excessively prudish. I really wanted some so I got a few from the store and made miniature chile rellenos, complete with some really good cheddar cheese, and they came out to be a lot like those little popper things I really, really like, but a bit healthier. At the time, they sounded like a good idea. Now though I'm sitting at my computer and realizing that they're more of a Bad Idea (tm). Let's just say it'll be a while before I can get to sleep so here I am.

For an extra measure of entertainment, either click here or on the title. This was mostly from the 40 yard line in my friend's yard while we attempted to do an IKAC round before we got rained out.

Spider at Work

Would've preferred the prey to have been a big mosquito or something a lot less appealing than a dragonfly, but cool nonetheless.

TBoF Fall Shoot 2009

As always, click on the title or here for the entire set of pictures. Not attaching pictures directly tonight because for some reason my internet is spazzing but might do it later when I have a better connection.

Something urged me to shoot in all three classes (longbow, primitive, and recurve). I knew I was going to shoot longbow and recurve (well, they call it traditional but it's anything that involves any inclusive subset of the following: recurve or non-natural material arrows) but after shooting what felt like a really embarrassing longbow round with my Chek-Mate Crusader (190/300), I figured I was going to amuse myself by shooting the other divisions. My recurve round was a lot better, although the first half was a bit rough because I had a few misses that were worth the damage to my score, including a wimpy little vine that intercepted my arrow on its way to the kill on a standing bear. I pulled a 235/300 with the Chek-Mate Hunter I. Then I returned to the base station and started chatting with the people running the shoot and one of them offered to loan me her self-bow and cane arrows. I have no qualms about borrowing her bow but I do have serious qualms about borrowing cane arrows because they're hard to come by, build, and cost a fortune. So I look around for some subset of arrows or bow. Luckily, there's some guys selling some nice self-bows who not only let me test-shoot it and loan me arrows, but also help me convert a few of my "junker" wood arrows into self-nocked arrows and let me compete with the bow. This morning I shot a 165/300 with the cedar-hickory self-bow, which was surprisingly good for a bow I had gotten my hands on last night after test-shooting, calibrated at 15 and 20 yards only, and then shot without any real experimentation.

I honestly wasn't expecting to place in any of the divisions after glancing and/or overhearing the kind of scores people were shooting... but somehow, I was able to take 3rd in primitive and longbow and 2nd in recurve. All in all though it was a great shoot and I finally got to shoot what my friends call the trifecta of TBoF. It was the first time (in the time I've been around at least) that TBoF allowed people to shoot shorter courses in multiple divisions and I took advantage of that opportunity. The self-bow I got my hands on certainly had a whole different feel and provided a breath of fresh air from its more technologically advanced kindred. It drew smoothly, shot quietly, and didn't shake me up like some other bows do. But when all's been said and done, my favorite is still my fairly high-tech two-part stick with a nice string on it.

Rejected Sequel Material

This was something I dug up recently. Originally it was supposed to be material for a sequel to Telcontar Restored (Children of the Tuatha in the compilation) but rejected in favor of The Lay of Imladrien and Tinuvion and Swan-Song. Killer Parakeet's eating habits do make it into Swan-Song though.

As far as the Shadowhawk/Morgenstern story goes, I'm pretty much standing alongside a graduate student taking her qualifiers and learns more about her fey roots while another graduate student is trying to finish his dissertation but is haunted by not only his fey roots but also an oath he had sworn years ago and a mysterious creature with suspicious motives.