Your eyes open to find Gray hovering near the window, moonlight shining through his translucent body.
“No peeking,” Gray orders sternly.
You shut your eyes again, placing a hand over them for good measure. Were this being filmed (which it’s not, because you and Gray aren’t that adventurous yet), it would appear as if you were alone in your bedroom, lying on top your bedspread while wearing nothing but your underwear. Not sexy underwear, either (your sexy underwear...
2022-09-30 06:49:34 +0000 UTC
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Explanatory Note:
When rewriting Chapter 9, I completely overhauled Kenzie's date to provide a more insight into their backstory and character. When I replayed for my final edit, however, the new version simply didn't work! It was too honest given that Kenzie and Button were undercover, and the length of the conversation made the chapter feel draggy and reduced the overall tension. Basically, I lost the plot and had to reluctantly admit that less is sometimes more.
...
2022-09-21 22:08:44 +0000 UTC
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Explanatory Note:
When rewriting Chapter 9, I completely overhauled Kenzie's date to provide a more insight into their backstory and character. When I replayed for my final edit, however, the new version simply didn't work! It was too honest given that Kenzie and Button were undercover, and the length of the conversation made the chapter feel draggy and reduced the overall tension. Basically, I lost the plot and had to reluctantly admit that less is sometimes more.
...
2022-09-21 21:58:27 +0000 UTC
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Ever since I moved back home, it's been increasingly difficult to drift into that trancelike, illusive “Creative Zone” where time becomes an abstract concept and I can no longer feel my body. This has made life hard(er), since I’m pretty much dependent on those sweet out-of-body experiences to do most my writing. Yes, I realize that this sounds like the description of an alien abduction or a hallucinogenic high, but it’s genuinely how I feel when writing: as if I physically disappear,...
2022-09-10 01:53:24 +0000 UTC
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Kenna’s backyard is enclosed by high trees that block off the view from other houses. Still, kissing her outside feels exposed. Especially since neither of you are wearing clothes.
Neither of you had intended to sunbathe nude. Both you and Kenna had been very decently dressed in swimsuits at first, Kenna holding a bottle of hypoallergenic oatmeal shampoo and a brush, and you carrying pile of clean towels. Giving Annie and Cass baths in the blow-up pool was always easier than ...
2022-08-30 03:02:55 +0000 UTC
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Kent’s backyard is enclosed by high trees that block off the view from other houses. Still, kissing him outside feels exposed. Especially since neither of you are wearing clothes.
Neither of you had intended to sunbathe nude. Both you and Kent had been very decently dressed in swimsuits at first, Kent holding a bottle of hypoallergenic oatmeal shampoo and a brush, and you carrying pile of clean towels. Giving Annie and Cass baths in the blow-up pool was always easier than doi...
2022-08-30 02:52:38 +0000 UTC
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For someone who writes about mental health, it’s kinda funny how much shame I have over discussing my own. “Hypocritical” might be the more accurate word than "funny," if we're being honest, but for the sake of my own ego, I choose to view my inner reluctance over being emotionally honest as contrarily amusing since I otherwise have zero issues with telling people how I feel.
Back in elementary school, my predilection for the truth got me suspended, because apparent...
2022-08-29 03:00:41 +0000 UTC
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I FINISHED WRITING ANOTHER ENDING! That’s 11/15 now fully written; I’m trying to remain positive and not contemplate how much coding awaits me once I’m done with all the fun creation bits 😅
The most recently completed ending sees the completion of Sally’s vision about Gray (from Chapter 5). While some of the details changed from my initial draft (most notably, location), the overall impact is exactly as I’d hoped: Gray being stupidly sacrificial to protect someone else, and...
2022-08-13 21:35:37 +0000 UTC
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“You’ll rendezvous with the contractor leader in Jelgava.” Adsila pierced Hope with a stern look over the edge of her paperwork. “Play nice.”
Hope’s upper lip twitched with an instinctive sneer of disgust, but she managed to keep her expression impassive as she nodded. She despised working with PMCs, but a Ment supremacy group called Six Above was causing problems in Eastern Europe due to their escalating conflicts with Vengeance. Hope was flying out to apprehend Au...
2022-08-06 04:42:20 +0000 UTC
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I've come to realize that editing interactive fiction chronologically is almost impossible (for me, at least), as it's easier to code related scenes. Scene A in Chapter 9 will influence Scene B in Chapter 13, so it's easier to go straight from rewriting Scene A to Scene B and skip over everything in between so that I don't forget the coding variables and what they alter. As a result, I've been jumping around, and a lot of Chapters 10-13 have already been changed.
However, I'm s...
2022-07-30 04:24:06 +0000 UTC
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I admit, updates have become a little difficult to write simply because I want to show you all what I’m working on. But, alas, the coding continues to change more frequently than the color of that mood ring I wore at age thirteen (puberty was rough). I’ll have a more extensive list of everything changed during the upcoming update notes, but I can at least share some of the biggest alterations.
For Chapters 10 and 11, I’ve completely reworked both the undercover m...
2022-07-27 04:18:13 +0000 UTC
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The paintbrush strokes down the length of your arm, and you shiver at the streak of blue left in its wake. With a teasing smile at your reaction, Sally swirls the brush upon your open palm.
“That tickles!” you protest, but nonetheless resist the urge to instinctively clench your fist. Sally’s been using your skin as a canvas for over half an hour, practicing for the booth she’ll be running at Aeon’s “Give Back” Fair, aka the “Aeon-Students-Hand-Out-Free-Cotton-Cand...
2022-07-25 03:06:16 +0000 UTC
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I try to view personal hardship as emotional research for my writing. Which may sound odd, but it helps me power through if I logic myself into a silver lining philosophy. For example: someday, I will do a fantastic dead-parent-who-actually-isn't-dead-but-really-king-of-the-fae subplot (aka my reoccurring childhood fantasy). Life informs art.
Sometimes, though, life just . . . really sucks.
Chemo is so much more awful than primetime television makes it out to be. My mom i...
2022-07-17 23:16:10 +0000 UTC
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You had been raised under strict parental oversight and the constant reminder that you were not an individual, but rather a Wiseman, and thus must act accordingly. A family was only as good as their reputation, and your family’s reputation was worth more than your actual future inheritance.
A young lord of noble breeding didn’t frequent gambling halls. He chose his friends wisely from families of comparable pedigree, and if he needed to gamble at a house party to get in the graces o...
2022-07-01 03:52:34 +0000 UTC
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Your entire life, you were raised under strict parental oversight and with the constant reminder that you were not an individual but a Wiseman, and thus must act accordingly. A family was only as good as their reputation, and your family’s reputation was worth more than your dowry.
A young lady of noble breeding did not introduce herself to strangers; she waited to be introduced. She did not chew with her mouth open but rather, if she must eat in the company of others, took dainty, bi...
2022-07-01 03:41:28 +0000 UTC
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You had been raised under strict parental oversight and the constant reminder that you were not an individual, but rather a Wiseman, and thus must act accordingly. A family was only as good as their reputation, and your family’s reputation was worth more than your actual future inheritance.
A young lord of noble breeding didn’t frequent gambling halls. He chose his friends wisely from families of comparable pedigree, and if he needed to gamble at a house party to get in the graces o...
2022-07-01 03:25:05 +0000 UTC
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Your entire life, you were raised under strict parental oversight and with the constant reminder that you were not an individual but a Wiseman, and thus must act accordingly. A family was only as good as their reputation, and your family’s reputation was worth more than your dowry.
A young lady of noble breeding did not introduce herself to strangers; she waited to be introduced. She did not chew with her mouth open but rather, if she must eat in the company of others, took dainty, bi...
2022-07-01 00:51:03 +0000 UTC
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Edit: The bug that prevented people from finishing the chapter is now fixed. Looks like the "return" command got left out when I updated the code (this took me way to long to figure out). Long story short--it works now!
I am bone weary (we ran out of caffeine in the house) and thus will attempt to be somewhat succinct, but the good news is that I finally managed to take my constantly tweaking hands off of Chapter 8! The bad news (which could be good, d...
2022-06-27 05:42:43 +0000 UTC
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I'm code-running Chapters 8 & 9 right now (and adding a million more edits as I do so, because I CAN'T STOP), but fingers crossed that I can get it all fixed today! It's taken longer than anticipated to comb through the new edits for bugs, as I added a lot of additional reactivity within various dialogues--many of which ended up being coded incorrectly due to Microsoft Word's Autoformat function (I have since learned to turn off the automatic tabbing).
I know not everyone code dives...
2022-06-23 21:54:18 +0000 UTC
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“To be immortal is to be inhuman.”
Despite being a werewolf, the Roman philosopher Plaubius succinctly summarized the dilemma faced by all vampires. The human psyche simply isn’t resilient enough to exist eternally, and most vampires reach their breaking point around their eighth century of unlife. Early texts on the supernatural recount the horrific mental breakdowns of elderly vampires, claiming that their sanity abandoned them and they became violent. No longer possess...
2022-06-23 06:08:36 +0000 UTC
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Life has finally settled down enough that I was able to figure out a roadmap for the rest of the month! I’ve been in a bit of a writing rut (stuff’s hard right now, as most my creative energy is currently dedicated to cracking morbidly inappropriate cancer jokes that make my mom laugh and the nurses wince). I’ve still been productive, but it’s focused mainly on recoding things for Mind Blind. Hope’s Chapter 9 conversation in particular was a doozy to rewrite. I think it wen...
2022-06-14 02:55:38 +0000 UTC
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I spent most of today struggling with a wonky keyboard—apparently, there was a reason that the fancy ergonomic one I’d gotten was on clearance (the guy at OfficeMax said that they no longer carry the model, even). There was some confusion given that I had no receipt, but shout out to Todd (the OfficeMax guy) for being cool and issuing me a refund anyway (which was promptly spent on another keyboard).
Anyhow, I need to go back through my edits for Chapter 8 since half the variables n...
2022-06-06 02:16:00 +0000 UTC
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