As usual, I've been neglecting this blog. I've been doing tik toc vids, and the main topic is my books, I just put out a talk about Watching Yute.

Other vids have been my old art, or a talk about my disabilities. There might be more about those going forward, we'll see...

 Here, have a slightly spoilerey map for the Rubberman series! The books tell of the biggest events to happen to this post-apocalypse multi-generational bomb shelter. A hope-from-the-dark scifi series on kindle paperback or hardcover

https://amazon.com/dp/B079VR3MY5?binding=kindle_edition

Book 1: Rubberman's Cage

Subject Lenth discovers there's more than 4 people in the world when he escapes his Unit, explores the facility, meets other sub-cultures in the facility, meets a SECOND GENDER (fascinating!) encounters a room with a wall that opens and put him in another area, (elevator?? what??) doorknobs, papaya. and faces a Subject with a very different outlook, who discovers how to murder.

Book 2: Rubberman's Citizens

Leena is a Citizen, and KNOWS her quarantined section is better than any other. All the Citizens agree. Given the regimented abuse Citizns suffer under whoever the current leader of Citizenry is, those other areas must be horrifying, right? What? Citizens are locker in for the safety of everyone else?? Looks like Leena and her friends will have to take some initiative... 

Book 3: Rubberman's Exodus

Tara and Sasha and the 2 chiefs in Engineering, and maintain the generator. Routine stuff until the uranium unexpectedly runs out. The lives of everyone in the facility are turned upside down, when a call for a little extra help from outside the facility brings devastating truths.

RUBBERMAN'S EXODUS IS OUT!!!

At the time of this writing, just the paperback, but hardcover and kindle are being processed by team Bezos at we speak. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0981396054/

This is readable on its own, but nicely caps off the Rubberman Series. It's a biggie, at nearly 300 pages.

I recently was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, (yeah, on top of my 20-years-plus of paraplegia, yaaay!) so my concentration is kind of a mess these days. Thankfully, Exodus was in late editing when the MS hit hard. It's nice to finish off the series the way I wanted, but it does likely mean it's my last novel. I have plans to eventually redesign all my covers, and maybe do new editions of my older stuff with a bit of re-writing. But that's later.

133 years. Time is up.

Lead Engineer Tara and her partner Sasha face the coming end of the facility generator. For generations It has served thousands of people who have been hiding underground from the ravages of the war, and the lingering Enemy above.

Up and down the Grand Elevator, though the entire facility, every resident's life will be shaken when the generator sparks its last amp. The Great Actual, the anarchistic Citizens, and all of the regressed sub-societies in between will have to face the unknowns of the surface.

Old fears will pale against new circumstances beyond their imagination, and new attention brings judgment upon all.

So the initial intent was for Tara and Sasha (sweeties 4 ever!) to be the main focus of the book for most of it, but the events were so big that other parties had to have focus for notable chunks, most notably Messenger, who's the fella in charge of running the Grand Elevator that connects the different sections of the 40-story deep bomb shelter.

Other characters get their moment in the sun, from Lenth of Rubberman's Cage, and Leena of Rubberman's Citizens. This story affects every resident of the facility. Other per-established characters play important roles too, many of which (and some new ones) are named after real-life (and/or FB) friends. I gave them every chance to object to how I was having them behave!

It's launch day, and many things are nuts... but I'll get some nice excerpts posted here soon...

Eeeeheeheee... so many new things brought up that I think will surprise my long-time readers...

Rubberman that hill

I was listening to "Master of Puppets" in the background (not my typical kind of editing music) as I was editing Rubberman's Exodus, but by the end of the following section, I was required by law to switch to "Running up that hill". Sasha recently discovered that she was very agoraphobic.... and yet...
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Tara had little time to absorb the idea before Sasha's grip on her hand tightened. “Us?” Sasha asked meekly, “going into that? And going out into all that to get there?” Her eyes were locked on the outside, wide, and darting around all that 'empty' out there.

Messenger cast a sympathetic eye on Sasha. “I suppose just Tara would be - ”

Sasha made a sharp whimpering noise. “N-no...” A mix of not having Tara with her, or worrying about Tara out there alone was terrible enough. But there was one final factor that she could address with less embarrassment. “I can do it. I'm going to do what needs to be done. I can do it.”

Tara took Sasha's hands in hers. “Are you sure?”

Sasha blinked with a nod, and did her best to reset herself. “I can. It's just right over there. I can see it, I'll be back inside in no time.”

“That's right,” Tara said, looking closely into Sasha's eyes.

“If you're ready...” Messenger said quietly. He turned to one of the nearby Providers. “I don't know how long this will take. Maybe an hour? I'll call if it looks like it will go longer.”

“We can do this together.” Tara said, holding Sasha as if it were a dance. They began slowly towards the void, but Sasha's breathing wasn't calming down.

They got ever closer to that looming void, and Sasha's confidence crumbled. “I appreciate what you're trying to do hon, but it's not.. it's not...” Sasha's steps broke any rhythm of dance, becoming smaller and less frequent.

Tara leaned in with a kiss, and turned the dance more intimate. She held Tara and did most of the work of moving into the light. “We can.” she whispered into Tara's ear, “We're together.”

Tears came from Sasha with a gasp that turned into a gentle sob. “And you're in just as much danger out here as I am. We have to go back.” Sasha gently, but forcibly moved against Tara's body, to try to push them back inside.

Surprised at the strength Sasha was using, Tara couldn't bring herself to fight with enough force to correct their course. Instead, she simply stopped, and grabbed Sasha tight. “It... it's okay. I... you win.” Holding her so close, Sasha's trembling breath seemed to overtake them both.

Messenger quietly stepped closer, and held out the comm device Tavish had given him. “Hang onto this,” he said softly to Tara, “I can probably get the Colonel to call you on it if we need to talk.” After Tara took it, Messenger began walking back to the AirLimb.

“Neil,” Tara called to him, with apologetic eyes.

“I understand.” Messenger replied before continuing on, leaving Tara holding Sasha.

Sasha began to buckle, but caught herself. “I'm failing at my duty.”

“Hush.”

“And I'm causing you to fail because you need to take care of my weak ass.”

“Hush.”

“No hush, Tara,” Sasha said, pulling away. Before Tara could react, Sasha bolted out into the void towards the AirLimb, head low, as fast as she could. 

Big update, big changes...!

 Want the good news first or the bad news?

Good: 

-My 10-year-old son and I put out a silly little 24-page book. He ran the show, made all the final decisions and general plot. He also did about half the work of the cover.

-The third and final book in the Rubberman Series, Rubberman's Cage, is about 2 months from release. It rocks.

Bad:

-I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis after going into the hospital with what I thought was a mild stroke. The diagnosis is only about a month old, but looking back, I have a feeling it had been affecting me for a long time. As most of you know, I'm already a paraplegic, and I've recently passed 10 years of that, so... yay... double disabled now. SO FUN.

-I can't justify paying for my old webhost... frankly, it had a lot of capability I was paying for that I would never be using. SO, I'm in the middle of moving everything here. Including the ozero.ca domain.

Your writing voice, and BEING CORRECT.

In a writing group on FB, someone posted a snip of their WIP. People gave a lot of feedback, myself included, but several points made, (often with a great deal of conviction!) could easily have a counter-point that I felt would have been just as valid.

For example, someone pointed out 'head hopping' going on. I'm kind of blind to light head hopping, and am fairly guilty it that myself...

I tend to think of it as "the narrator takes the side of whoever did something last." ie:

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"Give me your lunch money!" Dave commanded. Usually, this was enough to score a buck or two from Timmy. He complained less than he used to. Good Timmy.

"You know I have to eat, don't you?" Timmy knew Dave didn't care. Frankly, Timmy didn't care a lot either. He'd given up, and kept extra money in another pocket just for this kind of situation. That didn't make handing over a buck and a half any more fun, but it prevented getting beaten up later.

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Is that head hopping? I guess so. Does it bother me? Nahhh.. does it bother readers? IT BETTER NOT, OR I'LL SEE THEM AFTER CLASS!!!!!

I guess my overall point is that you have good flow, and aren't making MASSIVE ERRORS, a lot of aspects come down to taste. NOTE- Don't make excuses for crap calling it your style. It is a skill to determine the difference at times. If it kinda bugs you a bit at the moment, but "It's okay like that.." there's a good chance it isn't okay like that, and will bug you when you read it years later.

There comes a point where you're just fine-tuning your voice. One person will tell you not to use the word 'said' to tag dialogue, the next will tell you that said is an 'invisible word' that gets in the way less, and everything in between. I've gotten a lot of mileage out of just leaving a quoted chunk of dialogue in close proximity to an action, and leaving it up to context to help tell the reader to understand who's talking.

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Tired of Dave's bullying, Timmy fled. "Bite me!"

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That said, I am a heavy user of "said" unless something else expresses the mood notably better.

Tuning ao many aspects like that are going to depend on your voice, and the scene.

and 2 months after publishing, you'll decide you made all the wrong decisions. And you'll be right. And wrong.

CongratulaI'msosorry.

Poggers.

 English, like any language, is subject to change and evolution over time. This is fine, and fascinating. From nouns being used as verbs, and slang becoming entrenched in the zeitgeist, I'm all for yeeting obsolete dogma. While still being able to recognize and utilize the old rules as appropriate and when needed.

Now and then this unbridled evolution can give us a bear with razor-encrusted tentacles flowing from the sides of its neck. Should it be observed? Certainly. Should it be accepted? How does it behave? Does it steal pick-a-nic baskets and shred campers? Observe, maybe run. Maybe dust off and nuke it from orbit.

Where do we draw the line between "suck it up, language changes and also sometimes facets of our culture have their own entire vernacular" and "This is horse-apples"?

Can you gronk it? Should you gronk it? Will not gronking it harsh someone's vibe? Would inadequate gronkage rob you of something fly or poggers?