Category Archives: Writing

Patience is a Virtue: Wanda

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His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue

Wanda is the most important new character in Patience is a Virtue.  Like Patience, she is a robot– a Daffodil Amonte 2.  She is a bit on the short side and very curvy, with lots of wavy red hair.  She belongs to Ryan and was built to his specifications.

Wanda is far more robot-like than Patience and the latter becomes her mentor, teaching her how to be more human-like.  Wanda is shocked and frightened by Patience’s general disregard for the laws of robotics.

Having someone to tutor in the ways of the world has given me a chance to play with an entirely new side of Patience and it’s turning out to be a lot of fun.

Patience is a Virtue: Ryan

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His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue

Ryan is a new character in this book.  He becomes an unlikely companion to Mike– unlikely because the two of them are really nothing alike.  Ryan is, or rather was, an outgoing boisterous fellow, and is a car salesman.  Recently his life has been turned upside down with the discovery that his wife was cheating on him and his subsequent divorce.

I was thinking about my stories the other day, and realized that I had numerous stories going on that all had cheating wives in them.  I don’t know why that’s on my mind, as my wife is as faithful as a Barsoomian calot.  I suppose it’s something that just tends to be on a man’s mind at a certain time in his life– a sort of evolutionary imperative, if you will.  But I have a cheating wife here, one in 82 Eridani, and one in Kanana the Jungle Girl (currently in limbo).  At least two of them will see the light of publication this year.

Patience is a Virtue: Harriet

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His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue

Mike’s daughter Harriet has a much larger role in this story than she did in the previous two.  She was really just a background character in the first two books, so I’m enjoying fleshing her out now.  She’s become a real girlfriend for Patience, as well as a mom in her own right now.

Originally Mike had two kids, a daughter and a son, because I had two kids, a daughter and a son.  And while initially I did pattern a few traits after my own daughter, Harriet really bears little resemblance to her now.  Despite that, my daughter still refers to Harriet as “her character.”  I think this has less to do with the two of them being alike, and much more with the fact that I am very much like Mike.

When I first wrote His Robot Girlfriend, my idea was that there had been a resurgence in old-fashioned names, so Mike’s kids and the kids in his classroom would reflect that.  Later I made a few changes and additions, some of which didn’t hold with that idea.  Specifically, I changed the name of Mike’s son for some reason to Lucas, and I added a couple of other characters.

 

82 Eridani: Behind the Scenes

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Scan

This is my sketch for the starship in 82 Eridani.  It is described in the story as looking like a 16 penny nail flying through space head-first.

You can see some of my notes and adjustments made on the fly.  You might also note that this is drawn on the back of a 7th grade History worksheet.  A lot of those have been used as scratch paper for story details over the years.

On Being Behind

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I started off the year with a New Year’s resolution to write 8 pages a day.  It’s now February and I am 128 pages behind!  Even today, when I felt like I got some good writing in, I’m only on page four.  There you go.  Now at least I’m back into a groove.  Feeling a little better certainly helps.

I’ve been experiencing something unusual for me.  I’ve run out of names for characters.  I usually keep a list of good character names, but I’ve used them all for 82 Eridani.  Some stories don’t require much in the way of names.  I use baby name web sites.  But this story just calls out for some interesting names.  I’m going to have to pour through my mythology books.

Almost a year on WordPress

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I just got a message that I needed to renew my domain name– WesleyAllison.com.  This reminded me that I have been publishing my blog on WordPress for almost a year.  Prior to that I was on blogspot for almost four years.  This August will be five years of daily blogging.

As I was writing the first paragraph, a notice popped up that my virus protection had been updated on the new computer.  On my HP, last time I updated my virus protection, the whole thing crashed.  I had to uninstall it, reboot, reinstall, and fiddle with a whole bunch of settings.  That is one reason I decided to get an iMac.  I wanted to turn it on and just have the computer work.

I actually managed to sit down and get some writing done yesterday and I’m going to try today.  Sadly with five weeks in January, it means that there are three weeks between writers’ group meetings.  My wife is filling in though.  She doesn’t much care for sexually/violently graphic material, but she is being a good sport and listening anyway.

Getting Ready

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Well, I’ve got my important files transferred to my new iMac– my writing, my music, and my pictures.  I’ve got a new version of Microsoft Word ready to go (one of the few perks of being a teacher is $10 MS Office: nice), so now I can get to writing.

I’m really happy with how 82 Eridani: Journey is coming along.  I’ve finished chapter six, and I’m really starting to enjoy writing these characters like I did my people in Senta and the Steel Dragon.

I only have a smidgeon left of Astrid Maxxim, but I’m going to work on Journey until I feel like getting back to her.  For some reason I’m just not ready to write the end of this book, so I’m going to follow my gut.  As long as I get some writing done, I’ll be happy.

Cleaning Out the Old Compter

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Ladybugs StickerA ladybugs album mock-up from Tesla’s Stepdaughters.

Cleaning Out the Old Computer

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coletteHere’s another picture I had sitting on my hard drive.  This vintage hat I downloaded as a reference for Cissy’s hat in The Two Dragons.

Cleaning Out the Old Computer

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2402I’m cleaning out my computer of old files while I await my new iMac, and I came across this floorplan of an apartment. I don’t remember where I found it, but I used it as a reference when I was writing Women of Power. This became Stella and Linda’s apartment. Stella’s bedroom is on the right and Linda’s is on the left.