Joshua called me...

Actually, it was Ray Cosico. He's lucky too. I had my finger on the button to send out assassins.

Been a crazy time, y'all. Took on two would-be muggers last Thursday night. Yes, you heard (or read) that correctly. One had a gun. One guy grabbed me from behind. I did a front flip as he dragged me to the grass, off the sidewalk. I took him with me in the air, landed on my back purposely, him under me, then slammed my shoulder into his face. I got up and saw the other guy had a gun. I kicked his friend in the face as he was getting up, made him stagger. The other guy waved his gun but never used it. I kept his friend in front of me so he couldn't get a shot off (considering if it was real, loaded, or wasn't just a realistic looking pellet gun). The whole time I was fighting I was screaming. I think I scared 'em. I lost my computer bag with my computer and a lot of notebooks filled with notes for future titles, my ipod, my thumb drive, and some books. My glasses and my hat dropped off me as well. I ducked through some backyards, jumped some fences, and lost 'em. Got to someone's house, called the cops, and went back to the scene with the police. I found all my stuff still there. My computer bag (with computer and all my stuff unharmed), hat, and glasses. Nothing was taken. Called my fiancee (from here on referred to as 'Nekia' because that's her name) and told her what happened.

What an adventure. I'm so glad they didn't take anything ... especially my life. I was coming from Barnes and Noble, headin' back to the train station. Right when I passed these dudes I knew what was up. I just let it come and rode the situation out.

After calming down, Nekia said she really wasn't that surprised about my actions. She called me a comic book character. Well, my crime fighting days are over ... at least until the shoulder heals.

I'm just going to stick to only writing adventures.

And in other news, I'm starting chapter five of A Company of Moors.

APPROVAL!

Well the fiancee approved of the 1st two chapters of A Company of Moors. Trust me, it's saying a lot. She a tooooooooooough critic. We had a good conversation on character development and I was forced to give up some spoilers. But only to the first act of this saga.

love u, baby.

B write black.

Reading Revisited

Corrected the many errors in the first two chapters and re-submitted them to my fiancee. She ain't a task-master, but I didn't want those errors in there. The flow wasn't as smooth as I thought. Doesn't mean these two chapter are in their final phase.

I'll start chapter three later today or tomorrow. I'm gonna give myself a rest.

B write black.

Chapter Two

Finished the 2nd chapter. Gave the first two chapters to my fiancee and realized all the flaws in both of them. She hasn't read it yet. I've warned her that the two chapters are a very roughdraft. It's embarrassing. But she understands. I've been correcting as I re-read the chapters. What a way to cut your own ego. Oh, well. Nothing to do but move forward.

Chapter 3 will be composed over the week.

I do like how, in the book's paginated form, its length is satisfying. I'm right on target.

B write black.

Chapter the First

Last night, around 7:30, the writing of the first chapter came to a close. I thought it would take well into the weekend. But thanks to so many notes, the story already has its flow. The flow is in pieces in notes, but it's there.

my feelings for the chapter, though I'm going through some edits at the moment, and gearing up for chapter 2, are extremely biased. I do love it, even in its imperfect form. My fiancee and a friend will review it next week to shatter my confidence and keep me level-headed.

I'm gunning to have chapter 2 finished by the end of the weekend.

Sunset. Night. Sunrise.

The first chapter spans the time between the setting of one day, its night, and the blossom of the next. Within this time there will be a conflict of two ideals, and a decision that will haunt one character for the rest of his life, and affect the life of a future generation. I will finish composing the first chapter this weekend. Taking a pause from writing to throw this up here.

B write black.

Kingdom Delivered

All the notes for the land, regencies, kingdom, and nomadic tribe have been condensed into four pages that explain the background, backstory, and economic structure of the area. I've gone through 600+ pages, between two books I used for research, finding everything I need to allow this land to function and breath for the characters to occupy.

This blog is being posted just as I finished. It's been a weekend. Names have been applied to these specific tribes, regions, land, and kingdoms. The naming ceremony was a hassle. Combined names. Made up names. Symbolic names. All done. For characters and places.

I am now outlining chapter one.

Africa is truly an adventure.

B write black.

Notes, the Gathering

The historical notes for my second novel are being organized. The highlighted books, the printed out online articles, the notebooks with the pages scribbled scratched all over them, and all the references have been gathered. It’s like pre-production on a movie. I’m scouting locations, designing costumes, and set designing. I’ve been concentrating on the history, time period, look, and reality of the book for the last couple of weeks. In short: I’ve been working on the setting.

I’ll finish this Saturday.

Next I’ll concentrate on the characters. That’s like casting. Good thing is, if there are any prim donnas, they can get killed off without fuss.

B write black.

WE'RE BACK, SUN!!!!!!

Up and runnin' again on a new server. Ancient-Art-of-Facts. Keepin' it simple.

B write black.

Ray Cosico found!

I don’t believe it myself. Ray Cosico answered his phone on the first try. Attempt number one. Numero uno. It must’ve been 12 noon in California. We had a good conversation, building on ideas and talking about working on the cover for 2 Enlighten the G.O.D.Z. and a jump start on … maybe … a graphic novel. Ray says he’s ready to dive into a long term project. But first and foremost, the cover for the second epic poem; this is the main priority for now.

I will be designing it. I have one idea in mind that I wanted Ray to attempt a long time ago. I was able to find it in my e-mails and download it. It was a collage of pictures attempting what the cover should look like. At first I thought I would want to re-make that idea. But after seeing it, I still like it. That’s what we’ll work with.

I’m shooting for a July release date. Even by Mr. Cosico's own admission, that’ll give him enough time to disappear and reappear with a finished product. Ray will probably start working on the cover by February.

In the coming weeks, this blog will document the process for my second novel, A Company of Moors.

Isn’t that what this blog was supposed to be about anyway?

Don’t worry.

Coming soon. Some info.

B write black.

2 Enlighten the G.O.D.Z

2 Enlighten the G.O.D.Z. the second epic poem by Justin Thomas has been officially edited, and it is now ready for print. But, a cover is still needed. This project is still opened.

**sending bounty hunters after Ray Cosico**

(My bounty hunters actually sighed when I gave them the assignment. And these are the best in the business.)

Stay tuned. B write Black.

Racist Commentary. Snakes & Ghosts. Nemtusar.

Some called the first epic poem racist because it speaks about fighting racism (with swords). But at the heart of all the sword clashing, and gun booming, and mono-dia-soliloquy-logue word tossing, there are the 4 lessons that stress to learn, read, recite, and write (the actual means of ‘overcoming’). There is the cup (paper), the wand (the pen), the word (speech), and the sword (the mind for defense). Though the Pale King is symbolic of White Supremacy, and the racism that taints the earth everywhere, the second epic poem layers the antagonist. The main villain, unlike the Pale King, is not only seen, but the villain also has a speaking role, interacting with the hero directly.

The villain’s minions are Snakes and Ghosts. Because of the backstory provided for the evolution of Snakes and Ghosts, one may assume it’s another commentary on the brutality of white culture on black culture throughout history. Well, yeah. Duh!

Kidding.

The Snakes and Ghosts, the prison mist where our hero is ‘born’, even the lead villain—are the unspoken past ills, hurt, and mental breakdown that haunt and continue to poison Black people. It goes far past anything physical. The traitors are more symbolic and drawn out than the traitors of The Ronin Poetz. The poem also explores what happens to a Black woman and Black man to birth self hate. It was the full story of Eye-Van (one traitorous villain) that inspired me to make a backstory for the Shogun in The Ronin Poetz

Composition

I don’t really remember much of writing the second epic poem. I do remember traveling to California for the summer, which interrupted finishing it. I was on the final act of the story. I probably composed a little bit of the third act before I left. I had no laptop then, so I couldn’t take my work with me.

I scripted notes for the second epic poem’s final act throughout my California vacation and quickly applied them when I arrived home. The second epic was finished a couple days before the end of August, 2001.

Epic Poetry. Epic Too.

A lot of ideas were collected when I first started The Ronin Poetz. Some of these ideas were muted for time, especially when it comes to the ‘traitor’ fiasco at the end of the poem. There was much more to that story that I was able to present when I turned the poem into a play, though the subplot did not climax with the fight between the main character, Maa Kheru, and the ‘traitor’ as it did in my head. The fight was supposed to leave Maa Kheru more physically and emotionally exhausted than his battle with Tag. Maa Kheru was supposed to be comatose. ‘Ancestral’ spirits were to revive him.

The larger ideas that did not fit into The Ronin Poetz story started to blossom for the other three epic poems. The ideas were not concrete.

One very abstract idea did come to the forefront. It was titled What the Ego Said, and How the Id Replied. I have the first five poems scripted for this title. The idea was so abstract and so personal I didn’t believe anyone but I could connect with it. I still jumped into this venture, despite the unshakable feeling that there was no way I could make this idea fly.

I came to a halt one night when I was at the movies. I was watching Romeo Must Die. It was the year 2000. Needless to say, my mind drifted away from what was on the screen. It’s not like a movie was playing (I apologize to the spirit of Aaliyah). But the first lines to the second epic poem came to me, then a whole poem. I cursed the fact that I didn’t have a pen and pad. I had to make myself stop thinking. That was easy. I just started watching the movie again (sorry Isaiah Washington).

When I got home I started writing down the lines I remembered, and I started fleshing out a plot. The new character’s name was Kahm Noiz. Translation: Black (Kam) Zion (Noiz, backwards). This was not a sequel to The Ronin Poetz. None of my epic poems will be sequels, but new adventures, new commentary on Black struggles. The focus of Kahm’s adventures, from where I was starting with the first poem written, would become Act III of a 3 act presentation. Figures. Same thing happened with The Ronin Poetz.

The entire third act is where I wanted the second epic poem to begin. But there was too much backstory to explain. I tried to explain the backstory in a poetic prologue. I ended up writing the first two acts. So much for a quick sum up.

I also had plans to turn the second epic poem into a one-man show. The Ronin Poetz, at 154 pages, was too long to act out. The second epic poem was scheduled to be shorter.

However … the second epic poem is over 300 pages.

That idea is nixed. The fight sequences are multi-character battles. And the love sequences would be too awkward for a one-man show … publicly.

Cold Case

2009 is the Year of the 2nd Rhyme!

I got some things to accomplish in the next 365 days. (truthfully, even less than that). I've already re-opened the file for the second epic poem over this holiday. It was like a cold case. This mystery still needed solving. Over the holiday break I edited the 300+ page epic, which didn’t take too long. Read some of Act III to my fiancé. There were only a few new concepts that I had to present or old ones that needed rearranging. These edits were already scripted in a notebook. They just needed to be applied.

The second epic poem is definitely more mature than The Ronin Poetz. There is still some of the tongue-in-cheek playfulness, especially concerning the main character and his love interest upon their second encounter in Act II. It’s a sly scene, a verbal battle of wits, courting, all in good flirtatious fun. There’s also the main characters first encounter with his brother-in-arms, which is about two, poetic, masculine egos stabbing at one another with words.

The second epic puts its characters through the wringer, especially the main character. I forgot how dark the poem gets. It’s lighter moments, though sometimes over-the-top tongue-in-cheek (maybe even corny), are definitely called for in the midst of the extremely mature, dark atmosphere. Act II is very relieving, our hero finding solace in a city named Maa-Tru-Ark. It’s very Harry Potter and Star Wars, as he begins to learn the ways of his ‘warrior culture’. Where Maa Kheru of The Ronin Poetz was a warrior in a clan that is constantly on the run, this new hero (born in prison/slave-like conditions) is able to escape to a large city where his culture thrives. It’s ironic that the small, outlawed clan has more lighthearted moments than the actuality of a bustling, cultured city.

But, again, to be fair, the majority of Act II is lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek.

Don’t worry. No Jar-Jar Binks like characters.