October 31st

Tonight is Halloween, it is also the day before the National Novel Writing Month competition starts here on the pacific coast.

I couldn't possibly tell you when the last time I posted was, but I know it was still October and not too long before my birthday. Many things have happened that I have tried to post about but never got around to and with an hour to go before my NaNoing commences (insert stress here) I decided to distract myself for an hour and try to recap what happened to me in the last half of the month.

First of all my birthday was the twentieth. Lots of fun, however I got too many calls from relatives out of state/country who really just wanted to talk when I was actually trying to concentrate on something. I was still polite but I just don't like calling people or receiving phone calls.

On the friday following g my birthday my dad took me to see Shakira in concert at the Oracle Arena in Oakland. For starters we drove and drove and drove with me giving google maps directions, my dad veers off the path I got from google and as I tried to connect the dots between the map and where we were we got lost and kept going and going and going then we continuously missed our exit and kept passing he Arena and having to turn back around. I take full responsibility for that. Anyways we eventually got back on track once my dad stopped doing what I said and we got in, only 30 minutes before the show was set to start. Skipping over the getting-in part (which went pretty smoothly) we find our seats which my dad and I had jump over rows of seats to get to and spent an hour and a half waiting in our seats for the show to start. Shakira was quite late. I wouldn't have minded as much if my dad had gotten food while we waited or if that really obnoxiously flamboyant guy had been so...well, obnoxious! Ok the food wasn't gotten because we thought the show would start any minute and neither of us wanted to miss it. As far as the obnoxious guy goes, arch he annoyed the fuck outta me. I don't mind flamboyant guys much, in fact I quite adore them but this one was more like an embarrassingly drunk uncle (that's a story for another time) who wouldn't shut up. Anyways once the show started it was pretty amazing and lived up to my expectations, I don't know if I would jump on the next concert of hers near me but I do think that the money and time was well spent.

After Friday I had a birthday party with family. Keeping this short, I feel like I didn't even have to be there. From what I've experienced, birthday parties are just family reunions with more cake and less alcohol. I did get good loot though, money to buy a shit-load if books with. I also have $100 worth of barnes & noble gift cards!

Skipping ahead, last week was spirit week. We had the usual culprits, PJ day, Formal day, & Crazy Hair day. The two exciting ones were costume day and Backwards day AKA Transvestite day. I did have a costume and such (my main character from my NaNoWriMo novel) but I did not dress as a transvestite. Sadly my friend who shall remain nameless (she knows who she is) failed to bring me a skirt to wear and fell back on the back up on being backwards by dressing as a teacher! However the cross-dressing I lacked went straight I to another friend who got dressed up as a very good looking transvestite - no that's not right,he made a good looking woman! I feel I also owe the friend ho dressed him up. She made him do this again for costume day the next day, however he wasn't as much of a sweet transvestite at this point.

I got out of school to watch the elementary school do their Halloween parade through town and I passed out anti-drug lollipops.

Last Friday night our school did the halloween carnival, not much happened except I unofficially married my friend Wiggles at the marriage both she worked on.

Yesterday I helped make really good apple cider with all of my friends who are referred to as the captainship. So when not grinding apple bits into mush for cider we went into the hills and explored and played pretend for a few seconds before running back down the hills like adorable mythical children. Then we formed a cuddle puddle. I brought home apple cider.

Today however was interesting. I got picked up by half the captainship, we went to the beach and found a door which we claimed led to Narnia. We drew in the sand and talked and shopped for costume gear. Then we returned to the house/pirate ship of the Cap'n. We eat in the Cap'n quarter's, listened to music and spoke of many unrelated things. We watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog. More people I knew came as it ended and then we watched Commentary: The Musical! Which was hilarious! Even more people showed up and we watched Shaun of the Dead. We ate yummy snack foods and pizza and crack muffins. For the record, as far as I know there is no actual crack in these muffins they just happen to be good in a really addictive way.

So that's been my October, I have had quite an awesome time, but now I'm hungry and NaNoWriMo starts in about 30 minutes, luckily there are bags of sweets waiting to be earned via word-count. Happy Halloween everybody and good luck to the NaNo-ers

No contact info this time. I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm typing this on an iPod keyboard, and I can't be bothered to copy&paste from the blog entries of before. Did I mention I'm hungry?

Night folks!

Nightmares

Hello everyone, I just noticed I have a new follower on Anglemeister Chronicles and wanted to welcome to the blog! I regularly am assigned to write some sort of article/poem/short story for the P-Town Post, my school's "newspaper" I use the term loosely. Very loosely. I love getting a new P-Town Post every now and again but really it's not a difficult place to get published in. Anyways, the theme for this edition was Halloween, I decided to write a Halloween short story. For awhile I was uninspired and just browsed the NaNoWriMo forums. One day I looked under the amazingly inspirational Illyria quotes on my blog and found one that greatly inspired this short story, there is a possibility that I will continue this story in some way, shape, or form in the future but for now just enjoy my P-Town Post Short Story, Nightmares

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Nightmares

“In my time, nightmares walked among us. Walked and danced, skewering victims in plain sight, laying their fears and worst desires out for everyone to see. This to make us laugh.” - Illyria

The Harbinger followed the child intently; he was no more than 13, with ice blue eyes. Eyes which spoke of all the terrible things someone his age shouldn't have seen. That's why he chose him. Fear was the Harbinger's drug; a Nightmare could have no sustenance but fear, paranoia was just the aroma, panic the first bite, terror the delicious dessert. This Nightmare could sense that this one's fears would be a feast.

The boy looked over his shoulder, straight into the eyes of a nightmare. If only he could have seen it. Nightmares were seen only when they wanted to be, and when they were seen they had already manifested as their victim's fear, not that they'd ever live to tell if they had seen a Nightmare's true form. The boy shivered and continued his solitary journey.

The Harbinger had followed the boy for some time now. He knew that the boy was making his usual trek to visit his aunt and uncle on the outskirts of the mundane village he had grown up in. The Harbinger's skin tingled at the fear that the boy felt when he thought about that place. He could feel the boy's emotions, mostly his fears, and the memories attached to them. There were so many fearful memories, the Harbinger almost felt overwhelmed in the sea of terror, almost.

The boy was isolated, now there would be no one to interrupt his feast. He didn't mind eating in front of the other villagers. In fact he usually reveled in it, but this time was different. This was too great a feast to risk. The Harbinger probed the young boy's mind; he would start small, planting the tiniest of seeds to feed his fear. The Nightmare spoke, willing himself to be heard. He spoke the boy's name.

“What? Is someone there?” The boy quivered. The aroma of fright curled off him like smoke, the Harbinger was in a trance. The Nightmare placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, causing him to jump. The boy madly turned to look in every direction, trying to see if someone was playing some cruel joke. It was cruel but this was no joke for the Harbinger, this was survival. Without fear, he would be nothing, he couldn't allow that to happen, he would not fade away.

He became the boy's worst fear, and revealed himself.

“Wha - what are you doing here?” The boy stumbled, backing away from the Harbinger. He just smiled in return.

***

The Harbinger dumped the boy's corpse back to the ground, his face frozen in terror. He was surprised by just how much he had feared this woman, his aunt. Not that he could blame the poor kid. The things she did, that he did. No, she did these things. That was his fear, that was what he made the boy experience in order to live another day.

END 

______________________

So that's the end of that, If you have any opinions about it you can comment below or contact me in any of the following ways:

Email me: anglemeister.lpz@gmail.com
Email my shows: FEshow@kpdo.org or AbstractDiscourse@gmail.com
Follow me: @Anglemeister
Ask me questions: http://Formspring.me/Anglemeister

Geist by Philippa Ballantine

I have quite a few announcements that I need to make in the coming days, I can only remember one at the moment. Today I wanted to talk about a new book coming out October 26th, Geist by Philippa Ballantine.

Geist is the first in a two book series, hopefully a third. Books of the Order, allow me to share with you the description of the first book.

"Between the living and the dead is the Order of the Deacons, protectors of the Empire, guardians against possession, sentinels enlisted to ward off the malevolent haunting of the geists...

Among the most powerful of the Order is Sorcha, now thrust into partnership with the novice Deacon, Merrick Chambers. They have been dispatched to the isolated village of Ulrich to aide the Priory with a surge of violent geist activity. With them is Raed Rossin, Pretender to the throne that Sorcha is sworn to protect, and bearer of a terrible curse.

But what greets them in the strange settlement is something far more predatory and more horrifying than any mere haunting. And as she uncovers a tradition of twisted rituals passed down through the dark reaches of history, Sorcha will be forced to reconsider everything she thinks she knows.

And if she makes it out of Ulrich alive, what in Hell is she returning to?"

Sounds like such a delightful read! I've been looking forward to it ever since I first heard about it a few months back. It wasn't until recently that I heard about it's upcoming release, which has thrown me into a Geist frenzy.

Philippa Ballantine is the first New Zealand Podcast Novelist, her previous podcast novels being Weaver’s Web, Chasing the Bard, Weather Child and Digital Magic. Her current podcast anthology, the podcast that got me interested in reading Geist and Chasing the Bard, is Erotica a la Carte. Please hold the snickering.

Erotica a la Carte is exactly what you're thinking, sort of. It is an anthology of many erotic stories, often also falling into the speculative fiction genre. Philippa as well and other podcasters have contributed great stories that are fun and interesting, and then there's the sex. Look I could go into defending why I subscribe to EalC but that's not the point of this post. Although, I think I know what my next entry is going to be.

With the book coming out in a little less than two weeks, I just wanted to give it a little pimping on my blog for whoever may want to check it out. The Author was also kind enough to have Ace books send me a copy so I can review it on Abstract Discourse. You know, that new radio show I'm doing on top of Furthest Edge. I'll talk more about that later. At the end of this post I have embedded the video trailer for Geist if you'd like to look at that as well.

The author's website is pjballantine.com, the official Books of the order website is booksoftheorder.com where you can enter a contest to win some fabulous Books of the Order prizes and read the first two chapters of Geist. also check out eroticaalacarte.com if you like, c'mon I know someone is going to...

Right. Moving on, contact me in the following ways:
Email me: anglemeister.lpz@gmail.com
Email my shows: FEshow@kpdo.org or AbstractDiscourse@gmail.com
Follow me: @Anglemeister
Ask me questions: http://Formspring.me/Anglemeister

The Chronicler's Return

Hello all, once again I'm not following my blogging schedule, and I haven't been reading things off my list. I know, I know, I'm a very bad Angel.

Now I've already scolded myself so I don't need to do it again publicly. Unless you're into that sort of thing. I'll try to ignore the sexual innuendo and say that I do have things to say regarding...well everything!

Going in chronological order, I'm going to start an October Novelette tomorrow, I intended to start it as soon as October started but I was busy with having nonstop lunch meetings at school for various things I'm involved in. What things you ask? Well I'm glad you asked!

I had a class meeting last Tuesday to talk about our Halloween Carnival and planning the school dance. It's rather sad that the decisions are now being made by a 3rd of the class, at the beginning of the year we made it quite clear that if you aren't going to help raise money for the class then don't bother coming to the meetings. Now there's less chaos coming from those that don't want to be there, unfortunately we had a mandatory class meeting during the first 30 minutes of our 3rd class. I didn't miss the chaos of the old meetings.

Wednesday I was at the Game Day at our school which was put on by the Youth Advisory Council (YAC for short) which I am a part of, we are essentially a drug and alcohol prevention program with a side of peer mentoring. Game Days are fun a lot of the time but It's rather lonely since the afternoons are so bright and sunny now and no one wants to be inside. It isn't actually a meeting but when you're told you HAVE to be there it can feel a lot like one. Thursday I did have an actual YAC meeting and we just did mentoring retrospective and came up with some ideas on how to improve on our mentoring. No big deal.

Friday (yes on a Friday) I had a meeting regarding Youth and Government. I love this program a lot and last year was a total blast to be a part of. We are still covering the basics which is understandable but by this time I was starting to get fed up, although next week we get to talk about sweatshirts (WOOT!)

I'm sure you can see why I would be aggravated to have a meeting during lunch? I know I could quit some of these but there are some decent perks.

1) I get to go on the senior trip provided that my academics are in good standing.

2) I get to get out of classes so I can mentor the lower grades

3) I get to go to Paso Robles and Sacramento.

I do miss hanging out with my friends and being an obstacle in the hall (yes singular) especially since the group's leader, Cap'n Sassy San Pedro Felipe is only at school on Fridays so I don't get to catch up with the Cap'n except in Biology which is after lunch but I must be ever so quiet in order to catch up.

*SIGH*

WE NOW RETURN YOU TO YOUR REGULARY(ISH) SCHEDULED BLOG POST

I believe I was talking about my Novelette? Ah right, well I have a character I'm preparing for NaNoWriMo named Zyon Cairn. Zyon has the power of Psychometry, meaning he can divine the history of an object or person associated with the object by touching said object. It's a neat little power that will have some hopefully neat consequences as well. How does this relate to the Novelette I'm writing? Well, I decided that I wanted to write something that tied in to my NaNoWriMo novel, So I'm writing a story about a set of characters told by Zyon, his Psychometry allows him to logically have most of the memories of the characters which he acquired from an undetermined object that will be relevant to the story. Zyon feels like the right narrator for this story, plus it allows me to really get to know him before November comes around. I'm hoping to have a lot of fun with the story, once I figure out what the plot is.

While I'm on the subject of writing, I have to have a scary story ready to turn in by Monday and I still don't know what to write, I may just throw together a fantasy story with subliminal gay undertones. That's always fun.

Last Friday I turned in my English assignment in which I had to write a Public Service Announcement, I decided to do one for NaNo. I want to get it back on Monday so I can record it and through it online! I'm proud of this little PSA, it doesn't seem like anything special but I had fun writing it!

I seem to be finding the perfect segues today because I have a friend who wrote a PSA regarding the several suicides of teen gay males. I won't go into a whole rant on this because I am slightly pressed for time but I did bring it up because on October 20th which happens to be my birthday, there is a number of people who will be wearing purple in memory of the teens who committed suicide, I know what I will be wishing for on my birthday. I just wanted to inform those of you who were not aware.

Segueing to lighter matters, I'm still going to the Shakira concert in Oakland on the 22nd. Really excited for this! On October 26th Geist by Philippa Ballantine comes out, Pip is a podcast author, therefore I am excited about the release of her book. I am also excited because I read the first chapter of her new book on the book's website, BooksOfTheOrder.com and I definitely want to buy the book. Not only am I going to buy a copy, but I hope to win another copy and if I can buy a third copy so that I have one for me, a loaner copy, and a copy to give to a friend.

In November I hope to do some more writing themed posts, and/or link to my daily novel progress, again really excited.

I'm not sure if this is in November or December, but I will be in Paso Robles for a weekend in one of those months for the Youth and Govt. meeting. I don't have to go but I would like to see everyone I met there again, If it's in November it will through off my daily word count, so that's not so exciting.

In December I will be finished with the Cybrosis novel on my radio show Furthest Edge, which you can become a fan of over on the facebook gadget to the right. I will either go on a winter hiatus or do guest interviews. What do you think? I'm going to make a poll for this blog and on facebook. Expect that widget up soon.

This is all I'm up to, I am still reading other things off my Kindle app but I hope to finish my book list by the end of the year or early next year. I feel bad for not being further ahead. By the way, I've recently been copying all the stories my friends have sent me and turning them into e-books so I can read them in bed with the lights off, the only time I actually can slow down enough to enjoy a good story.

You know, I didn't think this post would be as long as it turned out to be... I guess I have more stuff going on in my life than I claim.

I do have a number of other things I want to discuss, but there shall be other posts for that. For now, know that your Chronicler has returned and he will continue to be the scatter-minded rambly writer blogger you have come to...appreciate?

Ooh! I just remembered this, I'm considering turning my NaNoWriMo Novel into a podcast! I plan to bring it up on the forums but I wanted to immortalize it here first, but I want to bring in any willing participants, I need voice actors and I would like to not have to kidnap them in order to have them. I do would like to podcast other NaNo-er's novels afterwards but I will just have to see if people are interested. My novelette may become the first installment of the new Furthest Edge, coming 2011 and possibly other local writers will contribute and if things work out even some NaNo-er's works.


I think that's absolutely all I have to say.

As always, my contact info:

Email me: anglemeister.lpz@gmail.com
Email my shows: FEshow@kpdo.org or AbstractDiscourse@gmail.com
Follow me: @Anglemeister
Ask me questions: http://Formspring.me/Anglemeister

- Warm regards, your Chronicler