To Avis Ladongale, On the Subject of Fixing Time

A banner made by myself, featuring the beautiful actress Jenna Coleman as the titular character in this upcoming piece. Why Jenna Coleman? Let's just say it has something to do with time...

I'm just gonna come out and say it: this is one of the stories that I consider dead. I've taken the concept as far as it can go and submitted it to several publications, all rejected. I suspect it has something to do with the universe being very highly-developed in my own head but underdeveloped on the page. But "To Avis Ladongale" is in essence a bare-bones piece, more of a prose poem than a story, and to flesh out the text would take it in an entirely different direction than I feel it was meant to go. Perhaps I'll write that other story someday.

To give credit where credit is due, my brilliant friend Katrina S. is the creator of Avis Ladongale herself and my partner, along with Jay B., in creating this strangest of universes in which the piece takes place.

To Avis Ladongale, On the Subject of Fixing Time

Fugue State

Me, reading this story at a Barnes and Noble while at the Alpha Workshop. Photo credit to my friend and fellow Alphan Yvonne.

I actually haven't posted anything significant since June, so this is far overdue. But I have just this August been to the 2014 Alpha Young Writers' Workshop, nine days of workshop with four professional authors, ten up-and-coming author staff members, and twenty fabulous students from all around the globe! Alphans, assemble!

It is at that workshop that I penned (and publicly read) this story. Facebook followers, prepare yourselves.

Warning: adult language.

Fugue State

Steammonk

Hello, folks! This is Mapping Out A Sky's 42nd post (YAY!) and I thought I would share the graphic novel excerpt I created for Creative Writing class at the end of this school year. So, without further ado, here's Steammonk.

Note: There is only one girl in the story, even though I used two different models. The battle is Guillaume & Monks vs. Girl. No one really knows what goes on during the blackout, either. And the Hindenburg is crashing.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these little images. I stole them off of the Internet and manipulated them so I could get what I wanted, no matter what. MWAHAHAHA! *cough* Seriously, don't sue me. Oh,  title "Steammonk" created by Claire Haldeman, whose birthday is tomorrow. Happy birthday, Claire!

Steammonk

The Omniscience vs. Cleverbot

I'll explain later.

 So, I was lurking about on the internet when I discovered (or rather, rediscovered) a project called Cleverbot, a computer program (even though it insists upon its own humanity) designed to learn from online conversations with humans and apply the knowledge gained there to other conversations, progressively becoming more "human" with each conversation.

And I'm like, "But that's the Omni!" (You all remember that NaNoWriMo novel I'm supposed to be working on.) "It's the Omni, but specified for conversations rather than decisions! What if it was a rudimentary version of the Omni technology? What if the Omni picked up on its signal and engaged it in conversation?"

Cleverbot's lines are totally authentic here. Technically, I only wrote half of this conversation.

OMNISCIENCE TRANSCRIPT:

CLEVERBOT SIGNAL RECEIVED, RESPONDED TO