Creative Writing

[Brick Jayne]

Hello,

The first time I used Brick Jayne as a pseudonym was in 2013 when I released:

Thermite – pdf

I've written a couple of more fiction books since then.

I've only posted a few times here since joining.  Somebody, a little while ago, posted a thread about an audiobook:

A Court of Thorns and Roses Audiobook

I'll have to check it out!  There's also a PDF: click here

I explained in the other thread that this time of year, I do a lot of contemplating.  I wonder if I have what it takes to write another novel of fiction.  The will is always there, but it takes more than that.  I need to have inspiration for a project, and I need to have time and energy.

This year?  I like the looks of things!  I have craploads of notebooks, I have the time, and now I need lightning in a bottle.  I'm not sure if it'll happen.  I want to update my personal webpage, and I'll share it here when I do.  I've already shared hand-written notes at a Vitus Carlyle thread:

Timeline

I might keep sharing notes.  It helps with the creative process.  Back in 2018 when I was writing Cretins, I was posting PDFs online as the story was being written.  I didn't tell people at work what I was doing, but something weird happened.  One of my coworkers was an attractive girl, but she was involved in a committed relationship.  In a different universe, I would've liked to date her.  I treated her well because we were required to work together often, but I restrained myself.  At the beginning of each shift, all employees would form a line, waiting to be let into the facility.  One day, I posted a scene where I wrote about a magenta sky in an alternate dimension.  Magenta is not an ordinary word though, is it?  Most people would say "purple" to describe the same situation.  Years ago, I programmed computers and "magenta" was one of the colors in the manual.  Not purple.  So it was lingering in my head, and I used it to write about the sky.  The next day, when all the employees standing in line, the attractive girl didn't speak to me directly, but she was standing next to me.  She talked to her friend, "I had the most awesome smoothie!  It was magenta, and it tasted so good!"  It was something along those lines, and I figured it could've been a coincidence.  I let it go, and I tried not to make anything of it.  Days went by, and I found myself writing about Donovan Cobb and his lover, Sakata Tara.  They lived in Highland apartments, and they discussed their lives.  Sure enough, the attractive girl did the same thing as before.  Standing in line, she started talking about an apartment complex she lived in not far from where fictional Donovan and Sakata lived.  Could it still be a coincidence?  Not after the third time!  Dean Koontz wrote a book called The Face.  It centered around a celebrity named Channing Manheim.  In Cretins, I wanted to create a few characters akin to the Baldwin brothers.  I used Manheim as their last name as a homage to Koontz.  Well?  I found out at work that the attractive girl had worked at a place called Manheim Riverside, a place that bought and sold salvaged vehicles.  It was inventory day and we were working a Saturday before Halloween.  I had a Freddy Kreuger sweater on, and she was sitting at my table talking to her friend about her job history.  "By coincidence" we got paired up to work together.  It was surreal because everyone was dressed up in Halloween attire.  She never, ever, ever admitted to me that she read my stuff.  The book, Cretins, wound up going into a strange feedback loop, and more people became involved.  There was a redhead I worked with who was also quite atrractive.  She seemed to also know what was going on in the book.

"We spoke in walls and web..."
— The Man Who Sold the World, Nirvana

So that's the life of an author, at least if you're in my shoes!  I love to write, but it's been on the backburner.  The reason I mentioned the story about posting PDFs as Cretins was being written is that I might do the same thing here.  There's something to be said about releasing a story as it's being written.  Obviously, you must be a pantser to do this.  There's something difficult to describe about "putting it out there" and having no clue where it might wind up.  There's a level of commitment that takes place.  For me, it's difficult to have writer's block at that point.  Imagine sending a hundred invitations to a New Year's Eve party.  It's too late to back out at that point.  Ya' gotta hire a band, buy some booze, call a catering company, and do what it takes.  If the band can't come, ya' gotta call a DJ!  Plans might get changed, but curling in a fetal position is not an option!

I have loads and loads of stories I've been working on.  A couple of months ago, I re-engaged in planning for Ferral, a project I started in 2019.  Of course, Covid came in 2020 and that changed a lot if things.  Ferral was a Western.  I like to take stabs at different genres.  God knows if it will ever be finished, but at the moment, I'm at least considering it.  I have stories dealing with the future, ghosts, and far away galaxies.  Each story is like a seed, and it's impossible to know which one will grow.  I have many characters on file that were meant for past projects, but never used.  Will they ever see the day of light?  I have a lot in my mind, and it feels good when the juices are flowing.  I also had plans to turn...

polybius.blog

... into a 2nd-person site.  That would be fun!  The framework was started, but it never went as far as I wanted.  I would love to finish that project in 2026.  We'll see how it goes!  You all hang in there!

Happy New Year!! 

— Brick