Some random stuff that's been on my mind.

So the month of July is almost at an end. I suppose its time to review the stuff that has happened in my meager existence up to this point.

Apartment is very small, but perfectly fine with me as it gives me just the right amount of space for me to rest my body after a long day at work and to conjure up ideas for my novels. Those of you on Facebook know that Xenoearth is getting very close to being completed and I have to say, I'm excited to start sending it away to publishers. Sure, I'll probably get a ton of rejection letters, that's part of the game, but I know that someone out there will think that my book is worth sharing with the world.

My reading is still going pretty steady. This week I checked out Stephen King's IT from the local library; a classic piece of horror literature that I just hadn't gotten around to reading before. I'll be the first to admit that horror is far from my favorite genre, but it's still way better than cheesy romance novels or plain and boring murder mysteries.

In the world of gaming, I haven't really been doing much of anything, but I did purchase the core rulebook of Pathfinder off of Amazon, something that I had been meaning to do for some time. For those of you who don't know, Pathfinder is a tabletop role-playing game system that is based off of Dungeons and Dragon's 3.5 edition of rules, taking the best from that system and sprucing it up with their own things. It really is what 4th edition (which is a heaping pile of shit in my opinion) should have been like. I could go on for a while about the failings of 4th, but I'm going to stop myself now.

Friendships/Relationships are about as dry and barren as the Gobi Desert right now. I know that I really should try and get out there and socialize, but let's face it, the bar/club scene is not exactly my cup of tea. I have been tempted to throw something up on craigslist searching for a group of gamers that play during either Saturday or Sunday. I know they're out there, I just have to take the time to look.

Philosophically speaking nothing has changed really. I still try to maintain an existential view on life, though I am still plagues by nihilistic thoughts from time to time. Since moving into my apartment however, those self-nullifying thoughts have become less and less. Religion is, and in my mind always will be, a steaming pile of garbage that has no place in the civilized world. This isn't the Dark Ages anymore people, put the silly superstitions aside and try to learn and appreciate the world as it is. It really is quite wondrous and awe-inspiring on its own. Politics can go screw for all I care; both sides are full of shit and they constantly bicker over trivial matters while the people that they're supposed to be serving are neglected as they just do what they can to survive. Now I'm not speaking of welfare trash, those people that leech off of government cheese because its easier than finding an actual job and doing some real work, those assholes need to be kicked in the keister. I'm speaking of Joe Schmo, the guy that scrimps and struggles every day of his life to provide for his family.

Really it boils down to this: I hate seeing good people that deserve to win lose. It angers me to see the underhanded guy get away with cheating or stealing while people applaud him for it. No one likes good guys anymore it seems; all they want to see are villains. It could just be that the average American can't relate to a larger-than-life hero that seems to have no believable flaws and therefore turn to the bad guy that has obvious flaws, and is therefore, a much more real character than the hero they fight.

That being said, the antihero is something that is extremely popular these days. Someone that is doing the right thing for the right reasons, but doesn't feel the need to play by the rules all the time. The Blue Lupine is an antihero of sorts, not afraid to take the life of someone who is an obvious threat, at least he is that way in the short story. I still think traditional heroes will always have a place in society, considering that Superman and Spiderman are still the most popular superheroes in the world right now, with Batman not too far behind, so perhaps my worry that no one likes heroes anymore is unfounded.

Alright, I guess that's all for now. Time for me to hop in the shower and get ready to leave for work. Everyone have a pleasant day and remember, question everything.

The World of Aaron as of Now

Well, those of you who are friends of me on facebook know that I am now moved into my new studio apartment in Intown Gaffney. It's not much of a space, but it is mine and it will give me all the creative space I'll need to focus on my stories when I'm not out working long hours at one of my two jobs. My first short story, titled, "The Blue Lupine" which is also the main character of my modern day novel called "Xenoearth."

I guess I might as well give a little background on the setting.


Xenoearth


The Blue Lupine short story is set about a half a year before the shift. Magic is still a reality, but it is like a leaking faucet; unnoticeable to most, and not enough comes out except for those with enough natural ability of their own to make use of it. Blue is one of those people as is seen with his ability to tap into his body's natural energy, or ki, and use it to perform superhuman feats of speed and strength. I won't spoil how the story goes, I'll let you read it yourself in the September issue of the Australian magazine "This Mutant Life."

My next short story which is still in the works is called Project Blue. It is a documentation of a lead biochemist that had worked with the strange substance called "mana" or magic in its pure liquid form. It explains the first encoutner with the substance, what it can do, and the various experiments that are performed with it.

The full length novel, which is simply called Xenoearth, is in many respects, the origin stories of most of the major players in the books to come. The fateful day had come, and hordes of zombies had been risen from their graves to strike at the living. They were beaten back for the time being, but the damage had been done, leaving all but the biggest of cities intact. A massive blizzard which didn't follow any sort of natural laws of weather swept through the world from Russia and many people took it as a bad omen. People began to change, animals began to change, creatues that were thought to be the stuff of myth and legend prove to be all too real as they move in to stake a claim on this new earth. It's hard to say, who exactly the main character of Xenoearth is, but overall, Glenn Allister a.k.a., The Blue Lupine, and Malcolm Wesler, who will also be known as Bloodpyre later on are the characters that will get the most screen time.


That's all for now, so have a good day, keep and open mind, and question everything.