I almost forgot to post this. Yesterday was a bit of a grab-bag. I played around in the peripheral materials and wrote a bit on a few different shorts here and there. Nothing particularly focused or goal-oriented. Sometimes that’s not a bad thing, though.

More progress on the prologue of TSoM1. While there may be a short in the future that depicts Ally’s father in the Space Arc canon, TSoM1 is his only appearance until then. He’s spoken about somewhat obliquely in “The Case of the Striped Leopard”, but that’s another If Arc story. That being said, the If Arc stories are as true to the characters’ canonical depictions as the setting and plot allow. There wouldn’t be much point in a What If story if the characters were totally unrecognizable, after all.

Anyway, back to Ally’s father, he kinda got away from me being an immensely unlikable person. There’s some justification for his hostility in the prologue as he’s opposed to Ally attending SOMA, but there’s this very oppressive atmosphere in the house that certainly gives you the feeling that his ill temper is a regular thing.

Dr. Steven O’Connor, Sr. is a real piece of work.  Married four times. Each time the wife got younger and younger. He may or may not have been having dalliances with future Wife #4 while still married to Wife #3.  (For that matter, he may have been having dalliances with Wife #3 while Wife #2 was still alive.)  Womanizing, ill-tempered and a drinker though he was, his domestic tyranny was mostly non-violent. I imagine Wife #3 had a little more fire in her belly, which is probably what drew him to Wife #4, who had a more submissive personality. Probably explains a lot about Ally’s timidness.

However, Steven Senior was killed along with Wife #4 and his eldest daughter in a traffic accident, leaving it to eldest son Steven Junior to head up the household. Steven Junior is remarkably unlike his father, an all-around nice guy (though he does resemble his father with his soft spot for the ladies). He was just starting out his own career as a doctor when their parents were killed, which resulted in a 15-year-old Ally having to take up domestic responsibilities for her youngest siblings. Then, of course, she was drafted into the Army and things went downhill for her from there.

With the TSoM series, though, because it starts with Ally at age 10, we actually get a glimpse into the O’Connor household back when it was still intact. They’re not exactly the same O’Connors from the Space Arc cannon, but you do get a better idea of what it was like.

Well, this has turned more into a commentary post than a WIP update, but there you have it. We’ll see what I get accomplished over the weekend. Stay tuned.

On a whim, I started filling out the narrative in the prologue of TSoM1. Sometimes it’s nice to just write where fancy takes me and not obsess too much over release dates. Don’t get me wrong. No small part of the reason I’m serializing my work is to help ensure I’m making steady progress on my writing, but it’s good to write where the inclination takes you from time to time. It’s a tricky balance to strike between professional structure and flowing with the more capricious currents of inspiration. I’ll probably finish this chapter and then get back to TTWC1. Stay tuned.

I did more writing on KoB and I think I’m finally ready to turn things around and focus on Tico3, but at this rate it could mean that the update gets delayed a day or two. We’ll see.

I did more work on KoB. Yes, I know it doesn’t get me to where I need to be for next week’s update, but every now and then I should write where inclination and inspiration take me. It really is an interesting alternative take on the KoG mythos.

I don’t know if I’ve talked about it before, but the basic premise takes the end of the “Quest for the Pendants” sub-story of KoG2 and branches off from the main continuity by having Mark embrace his warrior blood and join the Dragon Guard rather than reject it and become a monk. This now places Mark in Byrn for the “Fall of Byrn” sub-story. Everything that happens in KoG1 and 3 get chucked out the window. Without becoming the Guardian, does Mark stand a chance against Randwulf? Well, that’s the sort of thing you can look forward to finding out.

A big part of the story involves Mark’s interactions with the men of his banner, among whom is the son of the late Captain Vitaliy, who Mark killed at the entrance to Pandemonium. Do sparks fly? Why, yes, they do.

There are also the subtle changes to how the other characters developed based on Mark’s decision. Mark and Catherine’s relationship, while being put on hold until he can raise his station sufficiently to justify wedding the Lady of Fiora, is far more actively engaged. Stefan, because Mark isn’t tucked away in the abbey, doesn’t leave Byrn to train in the Eastland, so as an adult he hasn’t cast aside as many of his Romany trappings (and this significantly affects his fighting style, too). Also, Stefan can’t blame Mark for not being able to form the Crystal Knight when the Marauders invade, but what about Ignatiy? Well, that’s a factor, too. ^_^

Anyway, I really should be switching over to Tico3, but I may just spend a little more time with KoB first. Stay tuned.

I didn’t get much writing done yesterday, but what little writing I did was on Knight of Byrn, strangely enough. For some reason I was thinking about it, so I managed to get some dialog written before I conked out.

Before that I was futzing around on this rambling post, but I wasn’t happy with it and scrapped the thing. The more I thought on the subject, the less I wanted to keep going. Maybe I’ll revisit it at a later date, but not now.

I really need to switch gears to Tico3 so the update will be out on time. Maybe if the mascot would stop meowing me to death and let me focus on my work…

On a bit of a whim, I did some writing on TSoM1 today. More of the work was in the peripheral materials than the story itself, but I feel compelled to add stuff to it.

In other news, I finished Xanthe’s epilogue a little while ago. Now I just have to let it sit a couple days before I go back over it to tighten things up for posting on the site. I’m planning on a Wednesday post date.

Now I have to decide if I want to move right on along to Chapter 11 of Tico3 or what. Decisions, decisions.

Internet access may get spotty in the coming days as I’ve warned, so I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to maintain a daily posting schedule here. Perhaps I can offset that by coming up with some nice substantive posts while I’m incommunicado (or a few beforehand to tide you over). Stay tuned.