February 13 Update

On Sunday I completed my Banana Split story.  I retitled this Banavatar.  I am also considering Bananavatar and Avabanana (suggested by Chuck).

Tuesday I completed my Android Head of Philip K. Dick story.  I retitled this the Emancipation of Philip Dos.

At this point I was feeling several things.  I had introduced a new sidekick named Glory Ashes, but had revealed none of her backstory -- it didn't really fit into what I was writing.  I really wanted to write one or two more stories with her in it so I could get the chance to explore her backstory which is far more elaborate than my typical sidekick.

I was also feeling a little burned out on the gender bender tropes that were a part of both stories, because I know I've written too many stories like that and I kind of feel like that's not meant to be the focus of my Grandpa Anarchy stories and I've been overdoing it.  So I felt a little depressed, like I was writing stories that most people wouldn't want to read, and I should try something different.  I began work on an old story called Fox Con, which I had decided to transform into one of my stories with Glory Ashes in it.

But then Tuesday I went back to Book 1 and finished a "fill in" story that I had "plotted" quite a while ago.  I say "plotted" in quotes because my entire plot consisted of "John Haggard shows up for some reason".  2-3 years ago I'd planned out these stories involving Circuit Girl -- who I'd built up as one of Grandpa Anarchy's best sidekicks ever, but she had never actually appeared in any story.  So I created three stories to slip into my first book that would give her some background.  Two of these I wrote right away, but the third one, called Jack really was only the idea of a story.

However I managed to come up with an idea and flesh out the full story.  I retitled it The Seeker.

So at this point (yesterday) I was feeling much better.  I'd written an old story I'd planned to write a couple of years ago; it was meant to be for Book 1 and was the only incomplete story in that book, and now I began to think I should concentrate on finishing up other unfinished stories.  I have a few which are numbered and placed in books as if they're complete stories, but they aren't.  Usually I know what major event is supposed to happen in that story, and so it needs to be there, for reasons.

So naturally Wednesday night I came up with two completely unrelated story ideas -- although both involve Glory Ashes, and one sort of takes the place of what I was trying to do with Fox Con.  I was watching some music videos before bed and in the back of my mind was this bit of dialog about heavy metal bands that are strongly visual, and because of this I had to watch some Babymetal, some Band-Maid, and then some Ghost.  And while watching Ghost videos I realized that I really needed to write another story involving the Holy Terror, a villain who kind of looks like Papa Emeritus in his evil pope getup.  I really like this villain a lot, and I've only used him twice.  Before I knew it, I'd plotted half of the story in my head.  I titled it Them Rats.

I've also had another song stuck in my head recently -- Let Me In by MC Chris, the nerd rapper known best for his Star Wars rap Fett's Vette, but I like Let Me In better.  It's the story of they Ghostbusters character Louis Tully (Rick Moranis) and opens with his prophecy about Gozer the Traveler:

Gozer the Traveler. He will come in one of the pre-chosen forms. During the rectification of the Vuldrini, the traveler came as a large and moving Torg! Then, during the third reconciliation of the last of the McKetrick supplicants, they chose a new form for him: that of a giant Slor! Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you!

So that's been stuck in my head for a couple of days, and this led me to create another story file initially titled Gozer the Traveler, but this morning I renamed it The Strangulator.  My idea is to have a Ghostbusters-like invasion, because I'm not sure I've done that yet.  This story also includes Glory Ashes of course.

So -- naturally after deciding to work on old stories, and then creating two brand new story files... I completed a different story today.  I've been working on a story called Manineko or Lucky Neko, and this is one of those stories that I'd been very down on Tuesday evening.  I came up with a very complicated backstory for how the regeneration vats that Grandpa and Dark Dr. Dark and the New League of Two-Fisted Justice use work, and it was far too complex to fit into a story, and I was trying to build a joke based on something that could not be quickly explained or understood.  So I wrote down all of my ideas and set them aside, and in the morning I realized that I didn't need to explain things much at all and I also came up with an entirely different ending that made more sense for where the story had been going originally.  So I finished it today and retitled it The Luckiest Human.

But I numbered Them Rats and The Strangulator first, because I want stories involving Glory Ashes to come before my next story involving a different sidekick.  So once again I've numbered two stories that aren't finished yet.  But I think I can finish these two fairly quickly.


Stories for February:


2/2 A Clown in a Clown Store
2/2 Death By Clown
2/7 The Tutu of Lully
2/9 Banavatar
2/11 The Emancipation of Philip Dos
2/12 The Seeker
2/13 The Luckiest Human

Working on:  Them Rats and The Strangulator.