October - New Story, Background, Ideas

Slowly this week I've been working on a character information sheet / questionaire for Black Dahlia.  Most of it is filled out -- I'm not sure I've really captured her voice or given her a distinctive voice though.  I know she speaks with a more measured voice, she's very intelligent, but when I first created her she was closer to a stereotypical sarcastic goth girl, and I'm not sure if I've really developed her that much or I've simply failed to keep writing her in the same manner.

Last night and today I wrote a new story.  This was an idea based on who comes in to clean the super base at night, but in the end I couldn't come up with a clever ending so the very idea of the story became the big surprise.  I had to give it a new title and rewrite it in a manner that disguises where I'm going.  It's almost impossible for me to know if it really works, but I took my best shot.  This gives me 1 story for October, with a goal of 4 Grandpa Anarchy stories for the month.  I'm still working on the first part of Return to Amethyst, it's nearly done if I can figure out how to make it all work and have a satisfying ending.

Anyway that's most of what I've been working on... the other thing that I did Friday was go through every story I've completed so far and updated my Anarchy World Background files to reference every character mentioned in every story (I do not note when Grandpa Anarchy is in a story, he's in most of them or at least mentioned).  Sadly I screwed up when transferring this updated version of the file and overwrote it with an older version, so I spent a lot of time on Monday doing it all over again.  But for now it's completely up to date for all of the stories I've written since June until today.

I'm also working on a story idea that involves new members being added to the Black Moon Maidens, perhaps a full second team.  This sprang from the idea that they want a computer programmer/hacker/tech type on the team.  I'm not exactly sure why I think this is important when Grandpa's League of Two-Fisted Justice has nobody of the sort on their team -- but then, Grandpa frequently consults with his former sidekick Electric Bluejay, and he often has sidekicks who are tech savvy (most of whom later became villains of course).  But I do like bringing back useful sidekicks, giving them more to do or more of a permanent place in the world.

There's also the fact that Electric Bluejay has a weather controller he's training who he would probably like to add to the Maidens, even though Black Dahlia has already said no once.  She might agree to add Tsunami Lass if she were bundled with a tech expert of some sort.  Looking through my recent files, the most likely prospects seemed to be Spirit Summoner Shaman Sally (a powerful magical girl but not tech savvy); The Ritzy Cracker (a computer hacker, may not be tech savvy beyond programming though); and possibly Retro Girl, who seemed quite smart but her tech abilities have not been established.

There's also Microbot, who is a  robotic boy.  The Maidens would only accept a girl, but maybe he could be redesigned?  Certainly he could fill the role as a tech expert.

The last of my dangling plot thread ideas is that Nina Ballerina is now about sixteen years old again, and might decide to leave the League of Two-Fisted Justice.  This is where I thought a second Maiden team would work, with Nina in charge and two or three of the above characters added.  If I went with that idea... then I have a rather involved story to write.