A long way this day

A year ago, on this day (April 28, 2013, which fell on a Sunday) I started the journey of writing the second book in The Fable Avenue Saga. I posted an entry highlighting that I was starting the beginning chapter, accompanied by a screen shot. Now I found myself at the end, writing the climax of the story that has a sinister reflection of the first chapter (as if that opening scene wasn't intense enough). It won't be too long now before the writing is complete. From there comes an intense session of editing. Two full rounds of edits will happen, and then we'll submit for a proof. In book form, we'll be able to see what's working, what's not. We'll be able to weed out as many typos (hopefully all of 'em) as possible. Two proof reading rounds will take place, and then book two of this story will see release.

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Purpose 21-37

Right here. Right now. On my birthday, April 21, 2014, I have concluded my fourth and final epic poem. Its story crisscrosses into the narrative of Fable Avenue’s second installment, much the same as my third epic poem (The Son Dial Tone) that ran parallel to the main story in the first book in the series, The Ghost of Gabriel’s Horn. From this point forward, the remaining two books of the Fable Avenue Saga will feature no poetic narratives running parallel with their prose stories. My days of scripting lengthy, epic poems with symbolic heroes and grand, social commentary are over. I was near finishing it yesterday. But I stopped writing, leaving notes on how things should be versed before the end arrives. I wanted to end today on my birthday. Epic poetry writing ends on the day I began. But where did all this epic poem writing begin?

Back in 1997, I came up with the idea of writing an epic poem. I was doing performance poetry, and was starting to get bored with it, from a creative standpoint. It was all the same to me, and I wanted to get back to writing stories, manuscripts. But I didn’t give up on the poetry. It was fun, and was a breath of fresh air to hold cyphers with other inspiring poets (and writers) rather than the lonesome sessions of putting together plots, places, and characters (as fun as those brainstorming sessions can also be). Coming up with concepts, sharing them, and engaging in the occasional battle kept your wits sharpened, and had you constantly thinking creatively on what could be said through a poem, and how it could be expressed (performed or simply written). In a solo brainstorming session, after composing a 7-page poem titled “The Ronin Poet”, I decided to write an epic poem.

To be fair to history, this self-imposed challenge was nothing new to me. As far back as the tenth grade I wanted to write an epic poem, but I needed a concept. The intro chapters to a work I wrote in tenth grade titled “7” were composed of poems. But they sucked really bad. Atrocious is too nice of a word to describe the awful poetry written as that manuscript’s early chapters. When I went to rewrite the work, however, that first chapter (which was a 20-page poem) turned into a 400 page book (prose). Too much was trying to be said in such a short time, and in a terrible, pretentious way (in stanzas).  The other “poetic” chapters were turned into regular prose, and after writing an entire manuscript from the 20-page suck fest of poetry, I resumed rewriting the “7” manuscript. The two pieces would become “books” 5 and 6 in an 8-part series titled The Infinity Cycles.

By 1999, I had four concepts to write from. Again, to be fair to history, all four concepts were a bit of an accident. From the 7-page “Ronin Poet” poem, I knew I could create a story surrounding the character and subject of the piece. I imagined his many adventures, and at the time, there was no social commentary involved. But I would do what I had done for a long time in my life and writing, take from my own life and recreate some situation as a grand, mythological advanture and track the stages of my life. That concept, which had “The Ronin Poet” project without any kind of social commentary, would be saved for…what I’ll call, the hidden “fifth” epic poem. But as I started dealing more with black studies and history, I put mythologizing myself (thank the Lord) aside and went for talking about something worth writing, reading about, and something far more serious.

 

So concepts came, and this is when the happy accident occurred. I always envisioned The Ronin Poetz to be a short chapbook. But the story expanded, what with all the things black people have been through and all. And though the commentary was intense, there wasn’t enough room for all of it. So I split it up. What couldn’t make The Ronin Poetz would then be a concept for another story. And I didn’t want “sequels” or an epic poem “series”. Each concept would have new characters, and a new focus on the social commentary surrounding black people. There were roughly four concepts, however, that hidden “fifth” was still nagging at me, so I kept it in the pile of ideas. This separating of concepts came as I was composing The Ronin Poetz. I saw what worked and what didn’t work for the particular story I was working with. The many paths I wanted to take the story didn’t always fit. Maa Kheru being captured and enslaved was taking too long. It was cut down and saved for the first act of 2 Enlighten the G.O.D.Z. The scenes dealing with enslavement and spirituals really didn’t fit, and thus went to The Sun Dial Tone. Composing The Ronin Poetz had its share of trials and tribulations, but nothing compared to the publishing (Part 1, Part 2). However, the work was released through The Chosen Publishing in 2002, was pushed through black bookstores, and eventually saw a worldwide release in 2005 (Part 3, Part 4).

 

I finished The Ronin Poetz in 2000, and I immediately went to work putting together something called "What the Ego Said and How the Id Replied". Sounds very Dr. Seuss. To plagurize myself from an earlier post, I have the first five [scenes of that epic poem] scripted...The idea was so abstract and so personal I didn’t believe anyone but [myself] 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. And a little ways into it, I realized as much. Fortunately, 2 Enlighten the G.O.D.Z. started taking shape. And the 300+ page poem was completed in a year's time. I believe it was December 2001 where the poem came to an end, but to this day, it's been collecting dust on the shelf. I haven't found the time to put it through pubishing, or considered what would be the proper time to do it. All my works that have been published thus far have become obstacles for getting out 2 Enlighten the G.O.D.Z. But I've put my sights on February 2015 for the publishing date. I do have to go through it an iron out some concepts, as I've grown and either no longer believe in some things, or have come to realize others, and some concepts then need extending. Some January 2008 entries in this blog go into greater detail of the story and subject matter for 2 Enlighten the G.O.D.Z (Epic Poetry. Epic Too, Racist Commentary, 2 Enlighten the G.O.D.Z.). After finishing 2 Enlighten the G.O.D.Z., I thought about going back to What the Ego Said and How the Id Replied. But inspiration didn't hit me to do so. I moved on.

 

From 2002 to 2004 I started composing the third epic poem, and at this point, there was no intentions to pair it with The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn (which was being written as a simple, short screenplay, and its story was not attached to the Fable Avenue Saga, which was being scripted as a graphic novel called The Nu Ancients). Before writing the poem, I emersed myself in music, its origins, and in the period of African enslavement in America. I stuided close Negro Spirituals, and all the music that blossomed from the hardships of African-Americans. Jazz, blues, gospel, rock, funk, hip hop. I started expanding the small notes I had written while putting together the final touches on The Ronin Poetz story. For this third epic poem, what was composed first was not the opening scene. This mirrored how 2 Enlighten the G.O.D.Z. was composed. The first scene in the third act for 2 Enlighten the G.O.D.Z. was composed first, but, I wouldn't know that at the time. I realized I needed some background story for the main character, Kham Noize. It was supposed to be a simple two or three page sum up on where he'd come from. That turned into the first two acts of the story, which by page count, dominates the third act where I began composing. The Son Dial Tone was not that intense, but I realized I wanted some explanation to the hero's lineage. It was here that I experimented with past lives, and Mother Harmony and Father Voice showcased that there love's spanned lifetimes. And as he was growing in the womb, and reading the hieroglyphs etched on the inside of his mother's belly, Mojuba Kimoyo would understand what love and freedom was. This would be the source of his strength when rebelling against his enslavement in America. In 2006, I lost the notebook that had composed within its wire-bound pages, the first two scenes. Luckily, the more complex poetry written within those scenes was taken from a notebook still in my possession, so all was not lost...even if I was pissed as hell.

 

Up to this time, there was still no plan for my third epic poem to coexist with The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn, which was now being eyed as a novella project. I'd also just released my book of short stories, 12 Stories High. The book is put together from old and new ideas. In that intense writing session spanning from October 2005 to May 2006, I was bombarded with idea after idea. It was a creative growth spurt that was all smiles and no growing pains...yet. In that creative spurt came the idea for The Son Dial Tone to act as the pastlife for the main characters of The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn. I was like Ma Otter at the end of Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas. I saw that the two stories fit together, their common thread being music and freedom, expression. I was excited, but I wasn't ready to start writing. I knew that my novel Code-47 and my historical fiction novel, A Company of Moors, were my next projects up. And they needed to be. 12 Stories High was very metaphysical, symbolic, even in its more straight forward stories. Code-47 and A Company of Moors were more grounded in reality. Fable Avenue was nowhere on my sights, but I did always keep checking on the notes and couple pages I had scripted for the graphic novel. But between this idea of combining prose and epic poem, and my next projects was three years of preparation. In that time, The Fable Avenue Saga took shape, and The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn was outlined to be its first installment (or, to some degree, a prologue to the larger story...like The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings series). The story of enslavement on a 18th century plantation, African culture and African spiritual systems, and rebellion was tied together through the notes played on a magical horn by a young jazz player in 1957.

 

During this time, I thought about my fourth and final epic poem. Everytime I tried to release a work, I also attempted to release 2 Enlighten the G.O.D.Z. later in the same year. It never worked. And ideas for the fourth epic poem had been bombarding me even before I started penning The Son Dial Tone within The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn. The flow and rhythm of poetry started coming back to me, but I wondered if my final epic poem would suffer the same fate as 2 Enlighten the G.O.D.Z. So, I started thinking if it would fit within the story of the second installment of The Fable Avenue Saga. Would it make sense? The Son Dial Tone and The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn had a common musical thread, the first common aspects that anyone could readily identify. But I wondered if this would work. And I didn't want to seem as if I was trying to recreate the samething. If they were going to go together, it couldn't be for the purpose of "This might not get a release any other way". It had to serve the story. When I thought about my two main characters, and a couple opportunities missed in The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn, I realized that quite possibly it made more sense for these two to fall in love while composing their own mythology, and for them to use it as a guide to help defend their culture on Fable Avenue.

 

Between the release of The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn and January 2014, old notes were looked over and combined with new ideas. Composition began early February 2014. And as of today, April 21, my birthday, the epic poem concludes. Now all that's ahead is the rest of the prose narrative...and two more books in the series.

 

Writing epic poetry has been a long, epic ride. It's had twist and turns no different than the turn of a phrase. And it's not over. The fourth, along with the second installment of The Fable Avenue Saga will be published later this year. 2 Enlighten the G.O.D.Z. still has to see the light of day. But it is finished, though some editing will take place. And that hidden fifth? There are plans, but not as a written out work. Stay tuned.

 

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Nowhere to go but forward

I'm down to the last three or four chapters as of March 28. Last Tuesday, on March 25, I finished the final story that arcs back in time and deals with the greater history of Fable Avenue.

The last leap back is set in the year 1899, far past the glory days of the Old West. The tale expounds on the story of Joseph Pepper IV and his adventure with the Fable Avenue Saga's universe's legendary African-American outlaw Thunder John and his crew called the Brother Dogs. This exploit was mentioned by Joseph Pepper IV in The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn as he recounts to his lover, Theresa Amat, the means by which he acquired the mysterious veil he presents to her as a gift.

Before jumping into the writing of this grand adventure, I took time out to write a chapter dedicated to the origin of Thunder John and The Brother Dogs, which takes place in 1878. Like I mentioned in the last post, the story was gritty and bloody, and I listened to nothing but Wu Tang while scripting it. A short chapter after this narrative puts the reader back in the Old West, nineteen years later. Thunder John and the Brother Dogs are a little war torn. And here's a young Joseph Pepper IV dragging them into a hunt. It felt good to present the story in its entirety. One thing that was added to the mix was an antithesis to Joseph Pepper IV, a rival to his scholarly teachings. This character is in addition to Joseph Pepper's Belloq-esque arch-nemesis Ethan Cassidy (also featured in the story). Joseph describes this new character, added to his rogue gallery, as doing more damage to his own people (black people) than the slave master. A man obsessed with traveling to areas where Joseph has spoken and holding lectures attempting to negating his words. Humorously, Joseph says the man is a shame mostly because he has such an interesting name for a black man. It sounds strong, but Joseph considers him weak minded despite his name. Completing the story put a great deal of references made in The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn, concerning the larger story, to rest. The story took longer to write than I expected, putting me about four or five days behind my writing schedule.

As it stands now, for the second book of this saga, there's nowhere to go but forward. So what's ahead? Well, we're sticking to the contemporary setting of the story for the remainder of the book. Chapter 30, which is the chapter following the final leap back in time, was a blessing to write. Though I've talked a great deal on Joseph Pepper IV and his adventures, he and his exploits are not the main focus of the story (as important as they are). It was easy to slip back into the main characters and their drama, as it now winds up to a grand climax (for this installment of Fable Avenue). The main female character pays homage and gains inspiration from Thunder John's wife (the true leader of his crew, and Governor-Queen of the town Copper Lyall mentioned in The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn). With danger looming over Fable Avenue, this young woman looks to the past to help her keep her home and culture safe.

Chapter 31 is what I'm looking at now. This chapter is a bit of a sandwich. After some narrative I'll be flowing into the second-to-last stanza of my fourth and final epic poem. Coming out of that, we flow into an action sequence that starts off with a bunch of stealth moves. Once the sequence meets its climax, and when things are settled, we flow into the conclusion of my fourth (AND FINAL) epic poem. This will be great, and of course worthy of an entry into this online journal (and perhaps, a little more). My quest for writing four independent epic poems will come to an end. And this will setup the concluding chapters to this installment of The Fable Avenue Saga™.

And as I write, the editors are tearing through the manuscript like a caterpillar eating up a leaf. Chew. Chew. Chew. Red mark. Red mark. Red mark. But it's all for the good of the story.

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February Forever and the 150 page Race

February, hands down, was one of the most bizarre months ever in recorded history. Ever. And for some reason it would never end. For the shortest month of the year, it sure as hell did drag. To be fair to the month of February, the bizarness of things began in January. Bee-zar. But we in the middle of 'here' so we ain't gon' mind the past. Thankfully, a lot of writing was accomplished in that time regarding Book II of the Fable Avenue Saga™. The good thing was that a teaser trailer for the book was created, and there was a boost in digital and hardcopy sales for The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn, as many people (who I am grateful to) scrambled to get their hands on the first book of the series to prepare themselves for the second. The teaser debuted late, as I was distracted from finishing the simple video. It was intended for an early February release, but it was late February that saw the teaser trailer posted to social networking sites. But, it's out. People's curiosity and interest are up, and a renwal in book purchases has occurred.

So I got that going for me, which is nice.

No entry was done for February to this blog, but I was able to keep people up-to-date with social network outlets. Originally, I planned for this entry to be a character study. The Fable Avenue story has once again arced back to the past, and we're covering ground that was first touched on in The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn. That ground covered is the story of the legendary, mystical outlaw Thunder John and his crew called The Brother Dogs. He was first mentioned in passing by Jackson Fable, who managed to have possession of one of his LeMat revolvers. He was next mentioned by Joseph Pepper IV, who insists he shared an adventure with him. This adventure is purported to be Thunder John's last, but Joseph Pepper's cryptic dialogue within The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn suggests otherwise. I am currently composing that adventure, and writing a 26-year-old Joseph Pepper's interaction with these rough, mystical outlaws is a thrill. I looked back at notes written long ago outlining this tale and just smiled. I began writing those notes in early 2010. Each time I made changes to the story, I marked the month and date. The last note is dated early 2012.

But that's the second story concerning Thunder John and The Brother Dogs. The first story recounts a young conjure woman hiring Thunder John, his brother Donovan, and their mentor (also mentioned in passing by Jackson Fable, and named as Top Hat by the crossroads guardian). She sanctions a rescue that turns into a violent bloodbath (as opposed to those poignant and endearing bloodbaths). I wrote the story while listening to particular Wu Tang songs (from Clan albums to solo joints). Tough and rough is this story. I had a lot of fun getting to know The Brother Dogs, and as I write their second tale with Thunder John, it feels less like a story expounded on (from Joseph Pepper IV's rendition in The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn) and more like a crossover of comic book heroes. My heroes. A teaser video focusing on Thunder John and The Brother Dogs is due in the coming months. The story was written over February and was a lot longer than I intended. But I'm still on track for the overall length of the book.

And so, I continue writing, and I'm within 150 pages from finishing the second book in the Fable Avenue Saga™, but the celebration is far from close. There's a lot to cover in these final pages, and as it looks from here, Books 2 and 3 (the middle acts of this 4 act saga), will most likely be the most dense in their page count. Heavy editing has started on Book 2, and I stand nervous. In this month of March there will be a great deal of business being worked out. This passed weekend saw a letter composed that concerns the release video for Book 2, debuting later this year (fall). This weekend coming up, I will continue to hammer out the update and new look for Twin Griffin Books. The weekend of the 22nd has me grinning, and that's about all I can say. Big, all-day business meeting. We're also working on the cover.

After the book's 2nd run through with edits, there will be a proof made and reviewed. Copyright will be made, attached to The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn as part of the Fable Avenue Saga™. Then we'll reveal a title. A lot happening.

And then there's a wedding coming this summer.

But, my fiancee and her friend are doing most of the planning. I'm just showing up and standing where told. I am. I do.

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Curtain fall. Curtain rise.

Let’s go back a little. It was December 24, Christmas Eve, close to midnight. I was hammering away at the final pages of Act Two for the second book in The Fable Avenue Saga, stopping every once and a while to stand, catch a breath, pace, and think about its close. Shortly after midnight, Act Two came to a gut-wrenching finish with the villains displaying how they earned the right to be called villains. It's brutal. And no hero is spared.

The next phase of the book can be described as either act three or two small acts that finish the story. Either way, it all adds up to the fact that I’m writing the third act for the book. Act three has begun, and already has a chapter wrapped up for it. I’ve also outlined the remaining plot points for my fourth and final epic poem that runs parallel to the main story. I haven’t done a page count yet for my final epic poem, but I’m sure it’s the shortest. Even with four more parts to compose for it, I don’t think it will run over sixty pages. The second epic poem, the yet-to-be published To Enlighten the G.O.D.Z., is the longest of my epic poems, running close to four-hundred pages. That story will see the light of day…one of these days.

With the rest of the manuscript laid out with outlines for each act and parts of the epic poem, it’s just about getting to the finish line now. I would hope to hit that mark come late March or early April. If I stay at the pace I’m writing now, that shouldn’t be a problem.

After finishing the first chapter for the third act, I went back and made some additions to the previous acts, putting in a character that’s talked about but won’t be seen until the end of the book. I had to work the character in and make it seamless with the rest of the story, and I think I’ve done that. There were only four moments where I had to do that, and the character was appropriately addressed. The character was always supposed to be there, but I was having a hard time finding her place. Now her importance has been figured out (besides just fleshing out a family tree), and I can move forward with bringing her to the forefront when we finally get to see her.

This weekend I will give a pause in writing to go back through the first act and prepare it for print to give to the editors. It’s coming to around that time where all the confidence I have in what I’m writing will be smashed and cut to pieces by the close scrutiny of evil, editors’ keen eyesight. Good times.

The weekend after next, act two will get its first run through by my eyes. I’ll be tightening the text as best I can, catching whatever typos are there, and prep it to move along to the editors once they finish hacking at act one and scarring my confidence for life. And as all that is happening, parallel to writing/finishing the manuscript, the first of three commercials will be scripted.

The end is not too far off. I just have to stay on track and keep pushing forward with the writing. Having an outline saves a lot of time. There have been things added, subtracted, or put into different points in the story. But for the most part, I have a plan to follow. Reworking something is a lot less stressful when you have the ground rules properly laid out.

Once this book is finished and out, I can really call The Fable Avenue Saga a series. One book doesn’t cut it, but you gotta start somewhere.

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Year ends, but not the writing...

Things to do in Fable Avenue. And all is getting done. Will have an in-depth writeup by Monday.  Let's end the year with a chat. This link to my interview on the Artist First Radio Network was posted on the Twin Griffin Books Facebook fan page, and I'm throwing it up here as the year ends.

There is great news for the next book in the Fable Avenue project, but as said above, that will be given a proper writeup come Monday. See you then. In the meantime, listen...

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Follow the Script

I expressed a while back that I wanted to end Act II of this next book sometime in December. Well, December is almost upon us, and although there are only three chapters left in the second act, they are plotted as being dense.

I’m now on chapter twenty-two. Started it over the weekend. Chapter twenty-one was short, very fun; and just as much a palate cleanser—time off rather—for all that’s going on in the larger arc of the Fable Avenue Saga. It could be considered a short story, following a minor character into a task. It took time to write, even though it was short. I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t too cliché or silly. I ran through many scenarios on how the chapter would take place, settled on one, and then went about presenting it in as much of a non-cliché way as I could. The ending is what makes it, and it was something I re-wrote after taking a look at the whole chapter. I added a few more lines, and then it came together.

Now, chapter twenty-two. Our main characters are back on stage, front and center. There’s a lot of action in this chapter, and it builds on the relationship between the main male and female character, and the magic they share and use. There’s also a good deal of the epic poem that runs parallel to the story. I have a page count budgeted for this chapter, but I’d like to run under that count. The great thing now is that all introductions have been made. All characters, heroes and villains, have been strategically placed on the board to make the proper moves toward conflict. Some characters have just been mentioned and not seen, but the setup for their entrance is there. This all plays out within the last chapters of act II, culminating in a rough and gritty showdown.

Finishing act II sometime in December might be wishful thinking at the moment. Early January, definitely. But this all depends on how much I can buckle down and do the writing. One reason I’d like to knock out act II over the coming weeks, is because I can then send them to the editors and start on that (which will happen in January, regardless).

But there is good news. In fact, I’d like to think there’s great news. The rest of the book has been outlined. I now have something to follow besides handwritten notes scattered through different notebooks, and my memory. I’m very excited about that. It almost feels like the project has been completed…but I’m not getting delusional. There’s a lot of work to be done in terms of writing. The outline now has to be fleshed out into proper, narrative prose.

The remaining acts, including act II, are not as heavy in their outline. The beginning squares away a lot of business. Now, it’s time to get down and gritty into the magic.

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