Personal Update: From All Sides They Came

So where to begin? Oh yeah:

It’s been almost a month since I posted anything here (or at the other self-hosted blog). I’ve intended to post several times, but as reported last post, work has been exhausting me. After that last post, I got curious about how much of the fatigue was real and how much was mental, so I wore a pedometer to work. What I found was that I alternated between a brisk walk and a light jog for 13,842 steps that day. Most websites say that converts to 6.5 miles or 10.46 Km. Never let anyone tell you an assembly line isn’t work.

Granted, that “light jog” of 6.5 miles isn’t much if you’re in great shape. I hadn’t been for a long time thanks to my spinal problems. The decompression therapy I did about 2 years ago really helped, but attempts at rehab after that resulted in me hurting myself a couple of times. Long story short, I started the job at far from ideal physical shape for the job.

I had a couple other strikes working against me also. First is I had BAD shoes pushed on me by the company store. They were not only really heavy, but hurting my feet badly also (serious neuropathy). Last week I went out and bought new shoes and I’m getting feeling back in my right foot. The left wasn’t as bad to start with.

THEN CAME RED-S

My biggest issue turned out to be a more subtle one. I was coming home increasingly tired and in greater pain each morning (I’m now on graveyard shift). My sleep pattern was almost nonexistent as well. LONG story short, alot of research turned up that the problem was that I wasn’t getting enough calories and especially protein to keep up with my new activity level. This can create a condition that looks superficially similar to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome that’s called Relative Energy Deficiency in Sports or RED-S.

As the name would imply, it’s a condition that’s most common in athletes, especially endurance athletes like triathlon competitors and marathon runners. It can occasionally impact people like me who are working at a physical job but not getting enough quality food to support the job’s demands also.

The frustrating part is that my body wasn’t telling me I was hungry. That MAY have been at least partially due to how much water I was drinking (80 to 100 ounces a shift) to stray hydrated though.

At any rate, I’ve modified my diet the last almost a week and have been doing alot better. Less body aches, better sleep, etc… so life is better in that regard. The biggest challenge moving forward is figuring out enough healthy food that I can bring to work to eat on breaks to keep in shape. It’s not like I need a ton of food, but junk food definitely will NOT fit the bill here.

THEN THERE WAS THE HOUSE THAT WOULDN’T DIE:

Long time readers will recall our battles here over a house that we were defrauded on. The home inspector we hired apparently conspired with one or both of the realtors involved in the sale to completely mislead us on the condition of the house. THEN we got defrauded by a lawyer who took several thousand dollars from us and after 10 months hadn’t even filed motions for initial discovery in the case. That’s the first step in a civil lawsuit here in the US for those who didn’t know. Essentially, you present the other side with legal documents requiring them to officially identify themselves for the purposes of the trial, and to give the very basics of their side of the issue.

Well, after running out of money and figuring the case was dead months ago, the home inspector’s lawyer recently filed a motion to dismiss the case against them and included a falsified home inspection as a part of the motion.

In said report the inspectors claim they documented numerous deficiencies in the home, that it was unsafe, they strongly advised us not to buy it and we did anyway. Also, that it was our fault we were stuck with a structurally unsound, asbestos and radon contaminated house with numerous building code violations.

Do I even need to say THAT got my temper up? Guess they didn’t read the warning label:

I’m doing my best as a non-lawyer to answer the summary judgment request and request that the court charge the inspectors and their attorney(s) with Perjury and Fraud on the Court. I think I’ve also got the evidence now to go after the inspectors’ and realtors’ professional licenses by using the falsified evidence as proof of fraud on their parts, MAYBE even conspiracy to commit fraud.

Am I optimistic? Not really. More like neutral. The laws in Georgia are so crooked that I have doubts that even with all this evidence that I’ll be able to get ANY level of justice from the system. I’m going to at least try though. If I don’t, these people will take it as a free pass to lie and cheat everyone they come across.

And If That Wasn’t Enough Drama…

I find out my half-sister outside of Nashvillle possibly has advanced breast cancer, AND missed her appointment to get proper screening and verify what it is (and thus enable her doctors to work up a treatment plan). In a bit of irony, I was catching up on the last couple of episodes of Superman and Lois on the CW Network the night before I got her email. Lois was similarly skipping chemo treatments for her breast cancer. Unlike Lois in TV land though, missing the appointment cost my sister another month before she got a new appointment.

She misses the next one, it’s going to be boots to asses:

I’ve got enough drama to deal with without my sister being too afraid to get her butt into the doctor before it becomes something that medicine can no longer overcome despite all the advances the last decade. Selfish? Yes, somewhat. Just once, I’d like to make a personal post here and NOT have to detail about some aspect of my life being out of control. She has young kids she needs to think about as well.

Still Standing

Well, despite all of that, I *AM* still standing.

Getting stronger by the day as well.

What’s Witchfire About?

Picture of Witchfire created by me using Baldur’s Gate 3 character creator

I’ve gotten some mild interest here and elsewhere about the planned reboot of my Witchfire series. With that in mind, I thought I’d fill newer readers in on what the series is about.

In The Beginning…

I started the original Witchfire series (NSFW link to my new self-hosted blog’s adult section) about three and a half years ago. The idea came about as I was looking for some writing inspiration and made one of my occasional visits to Danger Babe Central. DBC is a superheroine peril website. Much milder than some other sites out there, but the heroines are rarely portrayed as competent, and always end up defeated and in “adult” situations. The site’s owner, “Mr. X”, also hosts a fan fiction page where readers can submit written stories and get them posted.

To be blunt, the fan page content runs the gamut of boys living out some pretty dark and twisted fantasies to a few authors trying to portray the heroines in a more positive light while keeping things sexy. LONG story short, there were just enough stories where the heroines were portrayed as capable and having some depth (both on the main site and fan page) that I thought “I could put a more positive spin of my own on this also”.

And So It Began:

So I set to work on my idea. I wanted a unique premise for my storyline, and I came up with the idea of a redhead Wiccan named Krystal who was a fan of the site, but had an objectified view of the heroines. She had also been otherwise drifting off the path with her Wicca, and as a result, her goddess (Freya from Norse legend) banished her to Danger Babe Central’s story world to teach her humility and compassion for her fellow women.

Krystal finds her magic works in this new comic book reality, and makes quick work of her first villain based on her knowledge of the tropes used at the website. Just as quickly, she found out life is pretty complicated in such a world though, and had trouble from heroines and villains alike as she attempted to uncover whatever big conspiracy was going on, and hopefully earn her way back home.

Crash and Burn:

Lack of planning, along with trying to keep up with another writer whom I was collaborating with, and mostly an epic amount of drama in my personal life led to my being increasingly unhappy with what I’d written, and less able to come up with new content. I finally shelved the whole storyline after 11 chapters. That was roughly two and a half years ago.

Regrouping

The desire to finish what I started was always there. I’ve kicked around various ideas to do just that for a while. It wasn’t until things really started to clear up a over the last 4 or 5 months that I really felt my focus had returned enough to start anew.

Looking over the original story, I took notes of the things that I hated, such as how Krystal was too much of a bitch, and that the grand conspiracy didn’t seem to have the right kind of foreshadowing and clue reveals. That last part made the story line feel inconsistent and awkward. I’d also partially fallen into the trap of making the original heroines less competent than originally intended.

Witchfire Redux:

Reviewing everything, I decided that a fresh start was the best option. Calling the new series “Witchfire Redux” came to me surprisingly fast. Here’s what’s changed:

First, I decided that Krystal needed to be a little wiser and more mature. Instead of an oversexed 21 year old college junior at UC San Diego, she’s now 23 and pursuing the beginnings of her post graduate work at the college. Her field of study is Criminal Profiling and Forensic Psychology, primarily because human behavior in general is fascinating to me. It also allows a bit more of a suspense and detective angle to come into play in the new story.

Krystal is still a redhead, with all the stereotypes that come with that, including a highly passionate nature. She’s no longer a spoiled brat though. She’s still a Wiccan also, which will again be the source of her powers.

The BIG shift ended up being more to do with the original characters from Danger Babe Central. I re-read every story I could find and took note of everything that could help me uniquely define each character; interests, appearance notes, how they fight… you name it. Everything from social life to their kinks ended up on the spreadsheet I mentioned in a previous post here.

I also made note of past locations used in stories, so that I could keep canon somewhat consistent, then I filled in the details for Delta City (where the vast majority of stories are set). Six city zones (NSFW blog link) with key landmarks and points of interest both from the canon stories and others added by me to flesh the city out. A massive project, BUT I’ll have everything available at a glance so I know what could or would happen where.

I did the same with organizations and factions for my story. I even put in some thought as to how the laws in that world (again NSFW blog section link) might vary from ours.

OK, but What About the Actual Plot?

Alright fine… Here’s some plot info. 😀

The story will start out similar to the original. This time though, Krystal will be haunted by very erotic but equally dark dreams. She will get called before Freya again. Freya will explain that there’s something sinister going on in the multiverse and it’s centered in Delta City. Krystal needs to go there and oppose it. Still a fan of Danger Babe Central, Krystal will initially balk, not wanting to end up like the heroines always do. Freya will tell her that she’s pulled the same move that Doctor Strange did before turning over his Infinity Stone to Thanos; after scanning all the possibilities, Krystal is the best option for preventing this darkness from spreading. If she doesn’t, the darkness will continue to haunt her in “The Real World” and eventually find it’s way fully there.

So Krystal reluctantly agrees to play the heroine. When she gets there, things are problematic right from the get go. As the story progresses, she and the other heroines slowly uncover a wide ranging conspiracy between governments and a shady collection of high tech businesses to decipher and control the unique genetic mutation that gives the Danger Babe Central heroines their powers and abilities. The conspiracy’s goal will be to create an army of metahumans that are completely under their control.

There will be a good deal more to it than that, BUT I can’t give away too much. Others might steal it, and there’s less cause to read if you know it all. I promise lots of subplots as well however.

All this coming soon to the other blog.

As a Side Note: The links to the Delta City notes, and the blog page on laws both link to pages that are themselves work safe, BUT they are in the NSFW partition of the “self hosted” blog. Don’t wander off of those two pages and you’re fine. Beyond that, you were warned. 😉

What… The… Hell…

I’m tempted to cite this as proof that SOMETHING about WordPress or (more likely) it’s community is VERY broken…

SO, what am I talking about? The fact that when I logged back into my “adult” blog, which I hadn’t done in over a year and a half, I consistently had HIGHER totals for views and likes than this blog, FOR THE PAST 15 MONTHS STRAIGHT.

THAT despite the fact my erotica blog has 54 followers and this one has 779 followers.

Anybody see some inconsistencies here?

Now it COULD be that I’m just that good a story teller, BUT somebody here recently told me I wasn’t a good enough writer to migrate to Medium.com. Regardless of that, I’d say it does prove what I’ve been saying for a long time now: The vast majority of WordPress members don’t give a damned about any content beyond their own. Similarly, Likes and Follows aren’t genuine, just something to trade to give the illusion of popularity. Complete social media mentality.

I can’t remember the last time I asked a question or provided a writing prompt here and got a single reply without bitching later.