Let's dance in style, let's dance for a while,
Heaven can wait we're only watching the skies.
Hoping for the best, but expecting the worst,
Are you gonna drop the bomb or not?

Let us die young or let us live forever
We don't have the power, but we never say never
Sitting in the sandpit, life is a short trip
The music's for the sad man.

Can you imagine when this race is won?
Turn our golden the faces into the sun,
Praising our leaders, we're getting in tune
The music's played by the madman.

Forever young,
I want to be forever young.
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever, and ever

Forever young,
I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever young.

Some are like water, some are like the heat
Some are a melody and some are the beat
Sooner or later they all will be gone
Why don't they stay young?

It's so hard to get old without a cause
I don't want to perish like a fading horse
Youth's like diamonds in the sun,
And diamonds are forever

So many adventures couldn't happen today,
So many songs we forgot to play.
So many dreams swinging out of the blue
Oh let it come true.

Forever young,
I want to be forever young.
Do you really want to live forever,
Forever, and ever?

Forever young,
I want to be forever young.
Do you really want to live forever,
Forever young?

Benjamin & Kyyra

It's official. The first teaser of my novel project is available for review on Elftown. Hopefully more will follow soon!

Enter Evan Jones.

A buddy I made friends with during my sojourn in southern California. Evan is an aspiring cartoonist/artist. His skill with the pen and pencil are incredible. So far he's published one small comic book "The Girl Without Eyes".

Currently, we're working together on a Graphic Novel. I'll be writing the story, while he creates the illustrations. This is a project I've always dreamed of undertaking, but lacked all of the artistic skills required.

Our project is currently titled "The Seminary Gang: The Graphic Novel". Hopefully we'll have some sample art to display in the coming weeks.

Janie sat, staring at the floor, her hand in her purse, and her mind not on the current situation. Instead, she was doing the mindless task of counting in her head. Specifically, counting the people wasndering around. she never got past 200 without getting confused as to who had moved where, and starting over again, so it was rathe effective.
That is, until the screaming started.
Everyone turned and looked in horror towards the heavy metal doors, where outside they could hear. . they could hear. . .
"Didn't everyone get in. . .?" Janie whimpered, looking horrified.
"Everyone tried to get in," a man said grimly, looking toward the doors." But whoever is in CHARGE here shut them too quicky." he glared accusingly at the better dressed among them, he himself wearing clothes that looked as though they had been fished out of dumpsters.
"Even though it took five minutes for this to start," he said, waving a hand at the doors, from which the screaming hadn't stopped, and Jnie imagined she could hear, hoping she couldn't, ripping sounds. "Wouldn't FIVE MINUTES be enough to let those people in?"
Again his gaze was directed to the better dressed. A nevous looking man in a dress pants and shirt spoke up. i-"I'm sure they had thier reasons,"he stammered. "Nobody knew just when they would get here!"
"I'm sure," the man muttered. "I'm sure." But his gaze was locked on the man in a glare.
Janie felt tears run down her cheeks before she realized they were there. She was listening to the sounds beyond the door, which then suddenly became a violent banging sound. She jumped, as did a lot in the shelter, and those closest to the doors moved away.
"How did they find-?"Janie asked, but the man interrupted her.
"They could smell us," he said. "That's what they think, isn't it? Or they could hear us. . Hell, they might have even tasted us on the air like snakes."
"But they can't get in," someone said, but the way it was phrased it sounded like a question.
"We can hear them, can't we?" Jack said. His voice was bleak, and it cracked when he continued, "And they can here us. .. There's something there that isn't completely blocked." Janie gripped the gun in her purse tighter.
"I say we should let them go first," said a yonger man, who had been listening to what the homeless man had to say. He nodded toward the better dressed, the upper class. Janie noticed, suddenly, that the shelter had been deived into two halves, and she was on the rich side. "They never built as nice of shelters for us, never did anything for us.
"The least they can do is cause a distraction if thos monsters outside do get in, so we can escape."
Janie grew paler, if it was posiible. dear God, she thought, this is going ot break out into a riot.
A few in the crowd nodded thier heads in agreement, but a woman for the rich side spoke up "Are you all mad?? We're talkign about human beings here!"
"What are you calling us, then, lady?" another of the poor called out, and bickering broke out among the crownd, puncuated by the banging from the doors, which no one seemed to have noticed had gotten louder.
"Stop!" Jack cried, "Just stop!" His face had grwon pale too. "We are all terrified here. We don't need to make it worse, and no one says that those. .. those things are going to break-"
There was a groaning, ripping sound, and someone from the front near the doors screamed, setting off a whole new kind of choas as the bottom of one of the doors peeled away, and in came, pouring, and many at a time as could fit. Janie screamed along with them, and pulled out her gun, but with so many people in the way there was nothing she could so but listen to the sounds of those ahead as they got slaughtered.

________________________

Ramsey swore.
The Central Plaza was a disaster. All the bright decorations for the festivities had been torn apart, some stiff flapping uselessly in the wind. Anything not bolted to the ground had been overturned, debris trash spread abroad. But above all else were the bodies.
At least fifty lay dead and ripped to shreds in the carnage, while another thirty were being systematically shot by the militia as they began the awful transformation into zombification.
If there was one special reason Ramsey had to choose why he didn't like being in the company of others, it was that he couldn't bare to watch THIS happen to them. Thankfully, such feelings did not bother him as he dove in with Rex, Carly, and Garret, setting to work. Because he knew none of these faces. They were just casualties in an unfortunate disaster.
Still, he couldn't help but hope Janie wasn't one of them.
"C'mon!" Garret called out to the others. "We've got to get underground NOW! The west bunker is breached!"
Ramsey cringed. It would be a miracle if anyone was still alive by the time they got down there.
They pushed into one of the highrises situated on the west side of the venue, downing a small horde of the freaks that had dispersed throughout the lobby. Then they pushed down a long concrete ramp to the basement floor, and through two busted doors...
Into Hell.
Naturally the first thing Ramsey did was hesitate. Instead of people darting left and right from the overwhelming forces of the undead, it seemed the fighting had broken into some kind of gruesome three-way battle. The poor people against the rich, while the zombies weren't picky about either side.
"Everyone DOWN!" Carly screamed to the crowd, bringing her weapon up. A tongue of lightning leapt from the barrel, and twenty of the freaks in front of her had their heads explode in a dazzling display of gore and brain matter. Unfortunately, a handful of civilians met a similar fate.
Ramsey swore repeatedly as he charged into the chaos. There was no way they were gonna get out of this without friendly fire. They were just too mixed in with the freaks. It was almost pointless, he realized, since even if he shot down one, there might be someone on the other side to take the bullet as well. The zombies rotted flesh didn't exactly stop bullets.
Then a familiar voice screamed in his ear.
"WE NEED TO GET EVERYONE MOVED BACK!!!" Janie screamed. She had somehow it seemed, slipped out of the more tangled of the crowd, but her weapon was drawn and her dress was splattered with whatever it was that served in a zombie's head as a brain. "THE POOR ARE STOPING EVERYONE ELSE FROM MOVING BACK BECAUSE THEY THINK THE RICH ARE ALL IN FRONT!!
Ramsey blinked. He had to make sure this wasn't some kind of freaky hallucination brought on by the stress of the evening. But no, it wasn't. And he had to admit, the damn girl had given him an idea. . .
"Rex," he said, switching over to his squad-COM, "start ushering the civilians towards the far end of the room. Same goes for you, Carly and Garret. Grab as many as you can, and lay down cover fire."
"Great plan, genius," Carly cracked back, "And what about the stragglers?"
"We either save as many as we can, or we save none of them," Ramsey replied grimly.
It took a little longer than he liked to bring up the formation, but soon they had weeded out the majority of the citizens, and were herding them back like sheep to far end, where another chamber lay beyond. This one was divided by an open blast door, which for the moment would keep the freaks out long enough for them to either finish them off or seek higher ground.
Still, Ramsey tried not to think as he watched twenty or so more of the unlucky ones either get left behind or mowed down by his own gun. But there was nothing they could do, he kept telling himself. This was the horror you had to deal with on the battlefield.
And suddenly he wanted very badly to shoot Hoffmann for this.
It took another nintey seconds to get everyone through, and then Garret and Rex both slammed the blast doors shut.
Mission accomplished.

The universe is a big and strange place. In our relatively quiet corner we created our theories, we made our observations, we came to our conclusions.

But the universe would not be ignored. For we were but one little exception to this grandiose battlefield. And so the moment fire rained down from the heavens, we were frightened.

Our scientists began to realize new realms, our peoples began changing, and our world began falling apart.


It began with fire in the heavens. Our scientists and theorists thought they were rocks. Then they thought they were strange matters. Then they thought they were phantoms.

Cosmic oddities had rained down on our relatively insignificant planet for millennia. But even when our eyes saw, our minds were blind. This blindness, coupled with our arrogance, ultimately led to over six thousand years of darkened minds. Even as the dawn of a new millennium promised enlightenment, we used our own devices to destroy our minds.

Still, the universe would not be ignored. By the year reckonened twenty thirty-six, as was common among men in those days, the fires of heaven had finally visited our planet in great abundance. Already our scientists had secretly understood now that there were grandiose forces at work on the subatomic scale that would revolutionize our very existence. But man was descending into another dark age. We did not care about what we thought was a quiet universe. All we wanted were our selfish desires and pleasures. Our world, rank with corruption, did not even care to bother silencing those who were beginning to realize these secrets.

The day fire rained down, we did not even look to the skies. So contented we were with our arrogance and pleasures of the flesh that the beginning went largly unknown to most of mankind.

Nevertheless, a few still watched. Mostly the governments. They pondered on such mysteries, and wondered if perhaps they could use it to their benifits. As it were, the fire made very little destruction when it arrived. Such irony. Our ultimate undoing started so quietly, like a thief in the night.

Others watched, as well. Scientists, organizations (both good and evil), and even a few of the uncorrupted still observed the strange happenings. And they were the first to notice the changes.

And as these changes took place, one such man found himself in the middle of the madness. Diligently, he searched the world for answers. He met with the scientists on several continents, who were only just now beginning to understand what chaos the universe had thus far spared us. He met with a secret organization preparing against this armaggedon that was rapidly approaching. And he met with those few individuals.

Those few uncorrupted souls that would lead humanity into its next age. For while the old world of corruption crumbled around them, a new one was beginning to rise in its place. Even if the old ways died, it would profit them nothing if they were condemned to repeat the same mistakes in this new age.

And while the man died during this transition--this change of hands--his son lived on. And with him, he led the next age of man, as they confronted their final conflict.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z89adFGjR3g

EndWar
Ben Houge & 99 Men

Before it began
And the signal scrambled every piece of your plan
From a promise to a lie
You couldn’t believe
It could happen here, then the fighting forced you to leave
And you watched that future die

But you’ve got a chance
You can wrest control, you can alter your circumstance
See the world through different eyes
And all that you need
Is a will of steel, unafraid to struggle and bleed
Just one option: strategize

From above
It must seem so peaceful
A mirror of
How it used to be
But in the distance a virus-like winnowing fire
In a satellite feed consumes all you see

But now you’re down in it
And what you feel from down here
Doesn’t keep your conscience so clear anymore
‘Cause this is EndWar
Yeah, this is EndWar
And you’re here to win it
So take a stand where you can
Because you can’t count on the same plan as before
‘Cause this is EndWar
Yeah, this is EndWar

It’s yours to command
As the battles rage, what’s at stake is your motherland
Every soldier plays a role
The cry of defeat
As the fire erupts into chaos out in the street
Says you’ve got to take control

From the sky
You can push a button
And thousands die
In a split second
But in the trenches great flames of apocalypse rain
From an angel of death come to recon

But now you’re down in it
And what you feel from down here
Doesn’t keep your conscience so clear anymore
‘Cause this is EndWar
Yeah, this is EndWar
And you’re here to win it
So take a stand where you can
Because you can’t count on the same plan as before
‘Cause this is EndWar
Yeah, this is EndWar
‘Cause this is EndWar

These are some of the various random short stories I wrote related to the TSG4 universe. They were written during the creation process of TSG4, mostly for my own entertainment, but also to get a general idea of the various interconnecting bits and pieces throughout the plot. Maybe you'll find them interesting.

Charlotte (young)

Shékil's Story

Frontier

A Decent Boy

Well I’m not paralyzed
But, I seem to be struck by you
I want to make you move
Because you’re standing still
If your body matches
What your eyes can do
You’ll probably move right through
Me on my way to you

Things I'm going to miss about Texas...
Texas
My job and co-workers (the best of the best!)
Our wonderful house
The warm winters
Texas
Living in the Frisco 6th Ward, in the Frisco Stake (we're a close-nit community)
The accents (there's a certain charm about a Texan accent)
Speeding, because driving fast in Texas is state-law
Texas
The Mormons (Utah filled up with Californians, so the Mormons all came here)
Living just outside of Dallas
Those little bumps in the streets, whereas every other state uses lines
And did I mention Texas?


Things I'm not going to miss about Texas...
The hoity-toity rich people living everywhere
Early shifts at Target
The ghetto people that come over from Little Elm
Slow drivers
The worst allergy place in the country
The water restrictions during the summer
No snow...ever
No swings at any of the parks!
All the Dallas Cowboys fans
The Mexicans who won't learn English
April/May storm season


Things to look forward to in the times to come...
The old, familiar places
Snow at Christmas time
Mountains
Once again cheering for the Broncos as a home team

This shining city built of gold, a far cry from innocence,
There's more than meets the eye round here, look to the waters of the deep.
A city of evil.
There sat a seven-headed beast, ten horns raised from his head.
Symbolic woman sits on his throne, but hatred strips her and leaves her naked.
The Beast and the Harlot.

She's a dwelling place for demons.
She's a cage for every unclean spirit,
every filthy burden, and makes us drink the poisoned wine to fornicating with our kings.
Fallen now is Babylon the Great.

The city dressed in jewels and gold, fine linen, myrrh with pearls.
Her plagues have come all at once as her mourners watch her burn.
Destroyed in an hour.
Merchants and captains of the world, sailors, navigators too.
Will weep and mourn this loss with her sins piled to the sky,
The Beast and the Harlot.

She's a dwelling place for demons.
She's a cage for every unclean spirit,
every filthy burden, and makes us drink the poisoned wine to fornicating with our kings.
Fallen now is Babylon the Great.

The day has come for all us sinners.
If you're not a servant, you'll be struck to the ground.
Flee the burning, greedy city.
Lookin' back on her to see there's nothing around.

I don't believe in fairytales and no one wants to go to hell.
You've made the wrong decision and it's easy to see.
Now if you wanna serve above or be a king below with us,
You're welcome to the city where your future is set forever.

She's a dwelling place for demons.
She's a cage for every unclean spirit,
every filthy burden, and makes us drink the poisoned wine to fornicating with our kings.
Fallen now is Babylon the Great.

She's a dwelling place for demons.
She's a cage for every unclean spirit,
every filthy burden, and makes us drink the poisoned wine to fornicating with our kings.
Fallen now is Babylon the Great.

Wow, I haven't updated here in months...then again, no one from Pierre ever comes on here anymore, so what's the point?


Anyway, enough depressing rants. Here's some nifty widgets from NaNoWriMo.



</a>



<a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/NanowrimoUtils/ProgressReport/159641.html"></a>

And what would any Road Trip be without an awesome montage video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJfafNOIKPI

The road trip photos are finally up at Flickr. You can find them at this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7751102@N03/sets/72157606937727161/

Enjoy.


^{P.S. You'll notice the TSG photoshoot is missing; I'm waiting till the end of Book 3 to post those, since some of them reveal plot points.}

The Tree Top has landed. . .

Jonny boy is officially in Texas, all you peeps in South Dakota. Any comments, Jon?

*Through clentched teeth* That's not my name!

Fine. . .TT. Better?

. . .

Anyways, so yeah, he's here. Which means, very soon, we depart for South Dakota.

Be ready, you peeps.

Be very ready.

And the crap hits the fan. . .

xkcd