Sunday, July 1, 2018

Battle for Lurandor - (chasm of time series)



7/1/2018 - Battle for Lurandor

This post is in preparation for removing the rest of the posts dealing with 'The Chasm of Time Series' except for Little Ann, Discovery, and The 5th Agent. The complete series takes place in two different times, the ancient 'long ago and far away' and the present day in and around Durango, CO. These three stories are what comprises the modern day part.

As for the ancient part there are several pieces to consider. First is Landfall which was the ancient portion of 'Landfall & Discovery'. The next piece, Colony, had remained unfinished for nearly three years while I searched for a suitable ending. Then I wrote 'Under the Double Suns" to be the prequel to Landfall which would then be followed by 'Colony'.;  The project seemed incomplete even though 'BTDS' was complete by itself. But, I knew I could do more; so I did.

So, I came up with a plan and wrote a prequel to the prequel and then a sequel to it all. Here is what it looks like now even though it is in pieces.

Part 1: Argon Specador
Part:2 Beneath the Double Suns
Part 3: Landfall
Part 4: Colony
Part 5: Aftermath

But the parts were unbalanced, some pieces way bigger than others. If you're going to break it into pieces it's best to have them roughly equivalent in size. With this in mind I went from 5 parts to 7. It's not cast in solid steel yet, but part 7 is just a maybe.


Part 1: Argon Specador     This is written and is the prequel to 'Beneath the Double Suns'. This part is all about the main character and how he became who he is in the second part.

Part 2: Agent Pylie Ruilidor     This is about the first two thirds of BTDS starting with the introduction of Agent Pylie Ruilidor. This is a change of POV as we've changed main characters.

Part 3: Commandant Karmador     I haven't settled on the main character at this point as this part is still in developement.

Part 4: The For Lorne     This contains all of Landfall, a whole cast of new characters alluded to in the previous part.

Part 5: Colony     This was, and still is the shortest piece and still under developement; it may end up annexed to Part 4.

Part 6: Death of an empire     This part happens many years after Part 3. As with anything dealing with history what you learn depends on who is telling the story and their reasons for doing so.

Part 7: The Evergreen Movement     Not even sure if I remember why I put this one here.

I haven't checked word counts lately but the total is coming close to 80K.


previous comments


5/27/2018
I have spent some time on this project including an attempt at the fractured approach. If you're not familiar with this process it works like the name of the process says, essentially divide and conquer. First you take and divide the body of the project into relevant sections.

Next test each section for size, content and completeness. Sections, by nature, should be of similar size and content. Once you've fleshed out each of the sections to the authors (me in this case) satisfaction they can be recombined into one homogeneous whole once again.

At this point I usually reconsider the title, size, and if I'm satisfied that the story is complete. It should also be noted here that I'm not a strict follower of certain rules such as POV and length of story. I've seen many authors change POV on the fly as it allows a more fuller understanding of the plot as seen from more that one set of eyes. When I write a story, it will simply be as long as I deem necessary to tell the story.

 1/31/2018
Not much has been happening with this project as I have had more important things on my mind. I now have a file on my desktop that helps me keep on top of the several projects in the works. I have integrated all the parts, new beginning, existing parts from "Beneath the Double Suns", "Colony", and the associated parts from the original "For Lorne" (which became Landfall). I have listed out the projected path for the Chasm of Time stories (not the books) in a previous post and those plans haven't changed.


28 Dec 2017

Unfortunately this unfinished project has been gathering dust. However, that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about it. By George I think it may be cursed! After all, parts of it formed a project that I never seemed able to finish (Colony). That project was a natural extension from the short pieces from my first story (For Lorne). They were included as a back story to explain why that found what they did in the mine and how they got there to begin with. I eventually wrote (Under the Double Suns) as a prequel to (For Lorne). At this point I've completed the consolidation of all three separate pieces along with several new parts to glue it all together. The first half begins with a young Carson Karmador and chronicles his adventures up to his sudden death leaving his young aid Pylie Ruilidor in command. As commandant Ruilidor begins to sort out the various parties involved he finds a very tangled web of intrigue and deceit. The book ends many years later as Professor Ruilidor discovers another resurgence of the empire. This is the part I haven't, as yet, finished. The part I have yet to create.


18 Oct 2017
You may not have noticed that I've changed this to Book One. That would also mean that "Discovery" without "Landfall" would become Book Two and "Eagls's Flight" (formerly "The Fifth Agent") would become Book Three. Or maybe something like this...
Across the Chasm of Time: Battle for Lurandor
Across the Chasm of Time: Out of the Depths of Time
Across the Chasm of Time: The Fifth Agent

At this point I have split the manuscript into several smaller files to see if that will make it easier to work on.

Part One: The early life of Carson Karmador. His real and assumed names and how he ended up as Major Karmador of the Lurandor Security Service.
Part Two: All of the first part of "Beneath the Duble Suns" up to the point where Commander Ruilidor takes over and just before the death of Commandant Karmador.
Part Three: All about the For Lorne up to the point where the ships leave the planet.
Part Four: All of "Colony" with a lot of additions to finish out the sequence.
Part Five: Picks up where Part two leaves off leading up to the death of Commandant Karmador and the supsequent events.
Part Six: is sort of an epilogue and it is titled "The Death of an Empire" It sorts through all of the various plots before showing Pylie Ruilidor now as professor Emeritus of the Academy. He is being interviewed by a rash young man who wants to write a book about the forgotten heroes of Lurandor; the ones from Harembeau! It is the professors solemn duty to reveal to him what really happened back then as the walls of the empire were shattered by the events during his time as Commandant of the LSS. This I think will be better than what I originally wrote (see 9/18/2017) below.

Several parts are fully completed but there are still some threads that need to be smoothed out. The hardest part has been keeping everything in a logical and chronological order; not always an easy task. I was hoping by breaking it into these parts I would be able to keep things straight.

I was once told that "If you want to switch people's point of view, the story needs to be told from an omniscent narrator." I believe he was trying to tell me I kept changing viewpoints. Real life has many viewpoints all around us. I'm writing a large story arc which covers more than just one person's viewpoint. Reason is simple, many things in this story happen long after one person's death. also, the story line itself is being told from several viewpoints to give it more life and reality. Old Blue Eyes said it best ...I did it my way...


9/18/2017
Work progresses but slowly. I've just scrapped most of the last section and took a change of course and hope to reach the same ending by a different means. It wasn't the story of it, but the believability of it that made me change my mind. It was getting to complicated when I wanted simple. I wanted an impact similar to the ending of 'Planet of the Apes'.

The beginning section is complete and most of the next two sections are fully edited and leads up to the For Lorne section. I'm trying something new with this project, breaking it into several sections to get a better handle on size and keeping the relevant parts together. I hope this helps find any duplicate parts as well. I made this comment several months ago.

          "It will feel like an epic when its finished although not quite that in length. I'm also forming it into four or five parts which will also take some time; it is like a Frankenstein's monster at present and needs to be cultivated into a Mona Lisa."


6/27/2017
The writing is nearly completed and the project is in the final stages of editing. I didn't quite reach my goal of over 70K words but I came close. There are two main characters that comprise the main portion of the storyline.

4/2/2017
I've written quite a bit about the early life of Carson Karmador, one of the main characters, and its been an interesting write discovering how he came to be where he is. Pylie Ruilidor, the other main character, will get added to at the other end of the book. There are some other twists and unexpected turns coming for the rest of the story as well; and hopefully to finish of the Colony thread as well. I have some interesting thoughts on what is going to happen to them as well. You'll have to read the book to find out the biggest twist of all and how it ties back with the rest of the Chasm of Time books.

3/24/2017
This is a new title for the merged contents of "Beneath the Double Suns", "Landfall", and "Colony"; all part of my master plan for the Chasm of Time Series.

The merger is complete but left several threads open. First is a logical conclusion to the Colony part which in turn wraps back around into the end of Double Suns. Plans are to flesh out the younger life of Carson Karmador before he became part of the Lurandor Security Service along with closing the whole shebang out with a closing segment featuring Commandant Ruilidor as he pieces all of the threads together and faces, head on, the last vestiges of the Harembeau on Lurandor. It will feel like an epic when its finished although not quite that in length. I'm also forming it into four or five parts which will also take some time; it is like a Frankenstein's monster at present and needs to be cultivated into a Mona Lisa.