12 STORIES HAS A NEW COVER!!!!

12 Stories High has a new cover! Same stories! Some stories have a tie-in with The Fable Avenue Saga™ (more on that later).

12 STORIES HIGH: THE IMAGINATIVE TRIP THRU A BLACK MIND!!!!

Magic ReKINDLED!!!!!!!

I'm happy to announce that both Code-47: Memoirs of a Hip Hop Heist and The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn: Prologue to the Fable Avenue Saga are now AVAILABLE ON AMAZON KINDLE!!!!!!

THE GHOST OF GABRIEL'S HORN: PROLOGUE TO THE FABLE AVENUE SAGA

CODE-47: MEMOIRS OF A HIP HOP HEIST

Freedom and Culture

The Ghost of Gabriel’s Horn was a prologue to a grand, magical folktale, an African-American mythology that will continue for three more books. The book was actually copyrighted under the title The Ghost of Gabriel’s Horn: A Prologue to The Fable Avenue Saga.

I’m presenting a respectful amalgam of African and African-American folklore wrapped in a unique culture. I take some liberties so as not to be bogged down by definition, but great respect is paid to the concepts I’ve used as inspiration. This culture isn’t hidden, either. It’s right out in the open. There, on a fictional street in Brooklyn, New York. Fable Avenue. The Ghost of Gabriel’s Horn was written for the readers of the Fable Avenue Saga™ to gain an understanding of what went into securing this wonderful, black culture.

We will learn how the culture on this street operates. We will learn their system of rites and rituals. Who are their matriarchs and patriarchs—elders? What is their belief system? What opposes them? From The Ronin Poetz to A Company of Moors, I like presenting culture, expressed in one way or another. In The Ghostof Gabriel’s Horn, I set one up. It looks disjointed at first, until the audience discovers how everything is tied together. And there was a lot within The Ghost of Gabriel’s Horn that served as clues for what’s to come.

So now, we have this mystical black culture. Within the pages of the prologue for the Fable Avenue Saga™ I’ve presented the physical origins of this black culture as a street in Brooklyn, and from there, the Diaspora of black folklore around the world. To make this culture authentic, I’m looking at the stages and rites within different African mystery systems found anciently throughout black kingdoms in and outside of Africa, and I’m putting together a culture that represents these aspects symbolically. This is all to get the feel of the culture. It’s not the focal point of the series. The culture validates the people and characters we get to know, and whose journey we follow, throughout the remaining chapters of this saga, and, as well, the people validate the culture, their culture.

When creating this culture, I didn’t want to look at a concept like the Legba family and say, “I’m using that!” Instead, I studied the makeup of the folklore, the mythology, and asked, “How does this operate?” and take from that. Once that answer came to me through research (research, research, research, and research) I then understood how certain aspects of this culture would function without simply copying and pasting.
 

Taking respectful, creative liberties gives me the freedom to present this authentic, black, magical culture. Inside this universe there are wonderful characters, contemporary and historical, and they validate the atmosphere of this grand story.

One thing I like is that the main character is born into the culture. He doesn’t have to be introduced to it. The main female protagonist is a part of the culture too, but her family has had a falling out with the Fable Avenue community. With her, there are bridges to be re-built. Her grandmother respects the community greatly, but also believes it’s failed her family. I like this in contrast to other stories and heroes such as Harry Potter or Luke Skywalker. They are from wizarding and Jedi lineage, but they’re not born into it. In fact, it’s hidden from them until the proper age. As I’m outlining the story, I’m realizing that I like dealing with characters that have already been a part of a culture. It cuts down on a lot of exposition. There’s still stuff to explain, and familiar tropes to travel, but we start fresh by stating, “Look, these characters know most of what’s going on.” Even still, a mystery prevails, that no one of the culture is aware of; questions that need answering, and as can happen, many of the Elders have their secrets. A lot can happen in fifty-seven years from the end of The Ghost of Gabriel’s Horn. The rest of the chapters in this saga will take place in contemporary times.
 

The Fable Avenue culture is fifty-seven years strong. Unified under African, ancestral concepts. But there are diabolical forces that want to tear it apart like Set did Osiris.

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Aaaaaaaand Scene

Chapter one is complete. Let’s say, it’s in the books (sorry, couldn’t resist). At 11:50 pm, May 7 the first chapter of this new project came to a close, and a quick few sentences of the next chapter were written. This chapter was heavy, and it took a while to compose and get all the parts moving fluidly from scene to scene. There were moments where the transition from point A to point B could’ve gone wrong. Writing this chapter had to be done carefully. I had the same challenge I encountered with the first chapter of The Ghost of Gabriel’s Horn (i.e., in terms of making the chapter have a fluid, forward motion while properly tying together a group of concepts that aren’t always group together when it comes to storytelling).

Imagine a lot of pacing and staring at the screen.

I had to make certain that I was drawing out the proper emotion, especially when composing the second scene of the first chapter. I took it slow. The goal was to make each segment of the chapter blend seamlessly with the next. Writing-wise, it was most difficult at the beginning of the chapter. I’d written the first two or so pages in early April when inspiration just hit and I couldn’t wait until the end of the month. I had some down time. I liked what I’d written as a rough, rough, rough, rough draft to piggyback off when the proper writing began later in the month. After my birthday (Thank you, thank you. You’re too kind) I copied and pasted the scripted pages in the proper document for the project, and at first, I kept going back to the early pages and editing them. On one hand of editing, I just wanted to make sure that certain words weren’t being used over and over…and over (and over).

Also, I needed the transition between the beginning, an interior (point A) to an exterior (point B) and ultimately the second scene, another interior (point C) to feel as if the reader was walking between points A and C, considering there are no characters to take us there. It plays like the opening shot of The Player or Scorsese’s Copa shot in Goodfellas, both of which inspired Joseph Pepper’s entrance into Water Bug Hollow’s Independence Day celebration in The Ghost of Gabriel’s Horn. But here, there are no characters and people aren’t recalling a history. It’s silent. I have to take the reader through a Brooklyn neighborhood from train station to a brownstone, and make it all interesting.

Well, don’t know about the interesting part, but the ‘track shot’ was accomplished. And then we have to move through a brownstone window’s glass pane and peek in on two characters sitting at a table and having a conversation…or rather one character is talking while the other is listening nervously. We know immediately that the person talking is intoxicated. The person is drunk and high, right in the middle of indulging. As more and more information is given about the scene (especially the second person in attendance), I want the reader to be just as nervous as the second person in the scene. But the trick is also to put information (again, seamlessly) into the scene that also draws out sympathy for the intoxicated character, without being cliché. I established the sympathy first, but when we’re made aware of the second person, it’s substituted with worry.

I scrutinized and scrutinized the intoxicated person’s dialogue carefully, over and over and over again. These are words I’ve thought about for several years, even during the editing of A Company of Moors. Now I’m here, in the moment of writing this project. I get to see if this person’s words look good and read well. I had notes on the dialogue, points that I needed to hit, as well as how things should be phrased. A lot of that got reworked, some of it just no longer fitting. If you begin asking questions to what the character exposes with what’s being said, all that has to be explained as the story goes on. And those questions have to be answered properly, or you’re creating plot holes.
But the writing difficulty increased when a third character comes into the scene. The tricky part was the character’s introduction. It could’ve easily deflated the intensity of what was happening, but (hopefully) I handled the introduction correctly. The way this third character comes into the scene is presented as a struggle, and it fits nicely with what’s happening between character one and character two. It’s not even comical, which it could’ve been. It could’ve fallen into that trap. It’s not even comical, which it could’ve been. It could’ve fallen into that trap.

Following the third character through the rest of the chapter again could easily take away from what’s been established. But the proper emotions are brought in, as are more and more characters, ultimately ending with a character that will dominate the rest of the book, though not the main protagonist. All the emotions of the chapter come to rest on this character’s shoulders, and we know that immediately. And we definitely understand this by chapter’s end. It’s not so much the events of chapter one that has the character’s spirits slumped, but the fact that it marks a change. The character’s feelings are based after a quote from the movie Fallen, starring Denzel Washington as Detective John Hobbes. The quote (spoken by Denzel as Hobbes) goes like this:
 
“There are moments which mark your life. Moments when you realize nothing will ever be the same and time is divided into two parts, before this, and after this. Sometimes you can feel such a moment coming. That's the test, or so I tell myself. I tell myself that at times like that, strong people keep moving forward anyway, no matter what they're going to find.”

The antagonist is also introduced. He makes a simple appearance over the phone asking how things are going. Of course he knows things are shot to hell. It’s creepy. He’s struck an entire community, breaking one of the families living within it. He tells the patriarch of this community that they will always be in his heart. And then he issues a warning and ends the phone call.

As any writer will attest to, the first chapter is the chapter that gauges how you approach the rest of the writing process. It has to be the strongest. Not just to pull the reader in. It’s about the story. You got to be like the X-men’s Gambit. All the potential energy has to be drawn out. It’s got to glow like Bruce Leroy. It doesn’t have to be action packed, but it has to be tight and strong. Again, it’s not just about instantly grabbing the reader. That’ll come if heart is poured into it. It’s about giving a proper introduction to the story.

So, what do we have with this first chapter? We got the potential energy as kinetic, heart poured in. We got the glow to grow. Activate Interlock - Dynotherms Connected - Megathrusters are GO! Flux capacitor is…fluxing… It’s a storm. The rest of this book will be a wave. Get your boards. Surf’s up!

b write black.

The canvas

“Chapter I”

A writer paints with words.
 

Ah! Progress! Getting started today! A little has already been written earlier this month. Two pages, to set the scene. Was written on some downtime. Simple copy'n'paste into this new document to continue on. Has already had some edits to it, make it a lot smoother.

So let's get ready. New project starts getting chopped away chapter-by-chapter.

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Including the Fourth

Aside from these new characters developing and getting set to act out this new drama, there is the fact that, much like the plot for The Ghost of Gabriel’s Horn, an epic poem will be woven within the narrative fabric of this new project. The themes of this new project and the fourth epic poem weren’t as obvious to me as the parallels between The Son Dial Tone and The Ghost of Gabriel’s Horn, but the similarities are there. The story for the fourth epic poem doesn’t serve as a past life for the characters that are a part of the main narrative. It’s a guide for them, a mirror. At times they can control the narrative of this story, and at other times it’s there to reflect who they are—for better or worse.

This time around, it’ll be a little easier putting the pieces together. Much of The Son Dial Tone was outlined before it was part of The Ghost of Gabriel’s Horn, as well as much of the verses having already been composed. I had to play around with the poem’s structure to fit what was there into The Ghost of Gabriel’s Horn’s narrative. A couple subplots were dropped. Some of the subplots didn’t fit, and some I didn’t have the time for. A lot of cynicism was cut. But much of that cynicism pops up in the fourth epic poem, and is more appropriate to its story. Fitting The Son Dial Tone’s story to The Ghost of Gabriel’s Horn helped me to focus the areas where The Son Dial Tone was becoming too big. I don’t believe the final product for The Son Dial Tone would be as long as 2 Enlighten the G.O.D.Z., but it would’ve been in the vicinity of The Ronin Poetz’s page count if it had been a standalone story, possibly more. On its own, The Son Dial Tone stands around 75 pages.

The fourth epic was etched out in the same brainstorm sessions that, after putting aside What the Ego Said and How the Id Replied, saw the better parts of 2 Enlighten the G.O.D.Z. and The Son Dial Tone put together. Ah! 1999 and the year 2000. Anyway…the fourth epic was only notes. Lines of ideas jotted down, one after the other, streams of thought. I had the armies of enemies, some points about the villains, and a few lines dedicated to the hero and the hero’s tasks.

So far, the three epic poems I’ve composed have had a set of lessons for their heroes to learn. Maa Kheru had the four lessons of the cup, the wand, the sword, and the word. Kham Noiz in 2 Enlighten the G.O.D.Z. has a lesson on seven ancient words of power. And Mojuba Kimoyo had the proper 26 keys of music. Our forth hero will definitely have some learning to do, but his main focus are a set of tasks that must be completed, like Hercules and his labors. There’s also a group of parents in each epic poem. There’s been Father Aquarius and Mother Pisces, Mother Harmony and Father Voice from The Ronin Poetz and The Son Dial Tone, respectively. The fourth epic poem is no different from the other three (2 Enlighten the G.O.D.Z.’s parents will be revealed soon enough). This is one of the areas where the fourth epic poem adopts the abandoned cynical tone and some plot points that were created for The Son Dial Tone.

Because the fourth epic poem only has notes and an outline, overlaying its story onto this new project will be easier, considering nothing has been set in stone for it. The first scene of the epic poem will make its debut in the book’s first act, as has been outlined. This scene has been written. The first scene for the fourth epic poem has been finished, with some fine tuning going on here and there. It’s intense. A disappointed ‘goddess’ or ‘queen’ resigns her ‘firstborn children’ to a terrible fate, written first in stone as a warning, and then within the cosmos as something to be fulfilled. Three armies, consisting of the goddess’ first born children, walking away from a war that is only on an uneasy pause, must face the verbal punishment of this goddess who is named ‘motherland.’ The scene was taken from a manuscript I’d written in the tenth grade, and rewritten in college. In its first form, written in high school, it was a clunky, awkward two pages. When I went to re-write it, it became this grand seven page battle between armies. But it was the beginning of the scene, as it was re-written, that made me go back and look at it. The marching armies are referred to as ‘the last of a failed generation’. The visuals of the marching armies, I liked that. I also liked that after this grand description of three armies, as great as they were, led by demi-gods, with frames extending tall to the sky, they were called ‘The Last of a Failed Generation’. It was like Yoda’s line from The Empire Strikes Back, “Wars don’t make one great” was made visual. As great as these armies were, in number and accomplishment, they were the result of failure. Politics in the world had gone terribly wrong.

I wanted to use this scene somewhere, since the manuscript would never be published, and I always look back at my unpublished works to steal from and sort of cheat my way through a project if I need a scene, character, or dialogue.

The main character to the poem is, for now, outlined to be introduced in the next part. Here, the poem will take on a very fairytale-like quality. As I outline this new project, I’m also looking for the right beats as to where the fourth epic poem comes in. This will be easier once I work out the details of the protagonist’s ability to ‘dive’ into this epic poem and see the story. Horatio had his horn, the musical notes, and his father’s compositions. The first scene, already composed, is given to this new protagonist. But I’m asking myself how does he continue it? I’m still ironing it all out, playing around with ideas. One thing that’s for certain is this time, the protagonist isn’t alone in composing.

The female protagonist plays a key role in the writing of this epic poem, and how it plays out. She too has a character composed within the fourth epic poem that reflects her. I like that. Horatio was alone in completing The Son Dial Tone. Delia waited for his cue to sing the compositions to life, or listen to the story’s music. She was far from playing second fiddle, especially when it comes to her role within their past lives, but I like how this new female protagonist gets in on the composition. It’s hinted that Virginia Tara-Peters helped her husband, Pete Peters, compose his parts of The Son Dial Tone, but we don’t ever get to see that. I like that we’ll witness the love between the male and female protagonist bloom with their equal share in composing this story.

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Reviewing 18+

Going through the eighteen-plus pages of notes I have for the first act of this next project. Everything for the first act is within these notes except the first chapter. I only have a simple line dedicated in my notes for the first chapter. Everything else is in my head. Much like The Ghost of Gabriel’s Horn, this first chapter is going to be a little intimidating to go through. I won’t be rewriting the opening to a screenplay this time, as I did with the first chapter for The Ghost of Gabriel’s Horn. The first chapter for this next project will be about guiding the reader through a neighborhood, its contrast to what surrounds it, and a grim peek inside the to know that despite the magic of the block, all is not well.

Like I’ve said before, it’s a punch in the gut for the reader, and you can’t really plan for that.
The rest of the eighteen-plus pages outlines what I have budgeted as the first 150 pages of the book. I’m setting a budget of 450 for the entire project. We’ll see how that goes. I’ve just started to make a heavy outline for the second act, enough to get a forward motion on that. The longest of the acts will most likely be the second. But it all begins with the first chapter, getting the right words to set the scene. I’ve known how this project was supposed to begin since before The Ghost of Gabriel’s Horn, and started to get more and more excited about this project when The Ghost of Gabriel’s Horn was in full swing with writing. There is still some bigger news to come. Most likely the bigger news will be moved to Monday. I have to make a video for that.

Until then, eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow, I shall write.