Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Monday, January 29, 2007

...sleep...need...sleep...

Oy. Let me tell you, dorm life is not all it's cracked up to be. I haven't gotten more than 5 hours of sleep total any night for the last two weeks. Honestly, I have no idea how I've stayed awake long enough to write this, much less make it through class. I'm gonna go now, too tired to think of anything else to write.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

On The Mend

Sheesh! I have not had good luck moving into Grove City! Last time it was extreme food poisoning, now it was the stomach flu! Fortunately, as the post title states, I'm on the mend and getting better by the hour.

Anyway, according to my schedule, Monday's really crazy, Wednesday slightly less so, Friday's not too bad, and Tuesday + Thursday are pretty easy. So look for new updates Tues, Thurs, over the weekend, Friday, and occasionally Wednesday and Monday (rarely). This next week's going to be kinda nuts 'cause I've got a ton of make-up work to do, but after that I should be back to semi-normal.

Thanks to all for thinking of me during this time of transition.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Farewell for Now

Well, this is it. My last day before shipping off to college. This is probably going to be my last blog post for a while too. I know pretty much for a fact that I'm not going to have ready access to a computer with Internet access until Tuesday. I've got a lot of classes scheduled Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, so Tuesdays and Thursdays will probably be the days I do all of my homework. Basically, what this means is that future updates, both to *Insert Title Here* and Codename: White Knight, will be few and far-between, most likely only on weekends.

So, for what it's worth, it's been a good run and I appreciate all those who've read and commented on my blog for the last few months. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to posting in a few months.

Your Host and Blogmaster,

Jedi_Raptor07

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Fin

Chapter 16 and the Epilogue are finished and posted, and with that final note, More Than a Job is finally complete. As luck would have it, this comes exactly four months to the day after the first chapter was published on *Insert Title Here*. No, I didn't plan it that way, it just happened. (If my schedule had gone to plan, the story would have been finished in mid-November.)

Now that More Than a Job is finished, I've begun writing its sequel, Codename: White Night. Look for the first chapter sometime tomorrow.

That's really all I have for now. I think I'm going to have to start putting a little bit of my creativity back into the blog rather than spending it all on my stories...

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
---Benjamin Franklin

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

A New Chapter and a New Story Too!

We're in the home stretch now, folkies. Chapter 15 is up and ready to go. All that's left to write is Chapter 16 and the Epilogue, and then More Than a Job will at last be complete! Everything will definitely finished by Friday, but since 16 and the Epilogue go hand-in-hand, I might write both of them tomorrow. Or, since it's still kinda early, I might write 16 tonight, maybe the Epilogue too, so keep checking back.

In addition, I've posted the introduction the More Than a Job's sequel, Codename: White Knight. The intro's basically a teaser for the rest of the story, but I still encourage you to check it out and let me know what you think. Unlike last time, White Knight's been pretty much planned out to the letter, so it should go up rather quickly, especially when compared to MTaJ. On the other hand, most of White Knight's going to be written when I'm at college, so we'll just have to see how long it takes me to write.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Another Day, Another Chapter

As you probably guessed from reading the title, Chapter 14 is finished and posted. Check it out here. And no, before anyone says anything, the story isn't over yet. Also, if anyone's wondering about the equine references, they're talking about PALE HORSE.


Somehow, I get the feeling that I'm going to get a lot of flak for the ending of this chapter, probably criticism that I'm taking a few pages out of Sam's book. Just to clarify on that last point, I had the ending planned out long before Anonymous came to be.


Chapter 14 actually came out to be longer than I had originally planned, so what would have been the second half of 14 had turned into Chapter 15, which will be up tomorrow. I've set the goal for at least one chapter per day, so the story will be complete by Friday (hopefully sooner), and I can start Codename: White Knight on Saturday.


On another note, for those of you interested in international politics, take a look at this article from the Houston Chronicle. Looks like Fidel Castro might be setting up a move to transition the power of the Cuban government to someone else. Personally, I think he's been dead for months and his brother Raul's been secretly running things. But that's just me. Still, it's worth a read whether or not you think ol' Fidel's croaked.


And last but not least, for your viewing (dis)pleasure:



The Lincoln MKR Concept Car. Lincoln calls it darn-sexy. I call it butt-ugly.

Monday, January 15, 2007

The End is Nigh!

Chapter 13 is finished and posted! Only 3 more chapters, and More Than a Job will be complete! And since I have the last three chapters planned out almost completely, the story will be wrapped up by the end of the week!

Also, the Legacy of the Swan blog has been canned, partly to make room for More Than a Job's sequel, Codename: White Knight, but mainly because no one reads or cares about it, so it's just a big waste of cyberspace. Maybe, maybe, when I'm finished with MTaJ and it's sequels I'll come back to Legacy, but for now it's history.

So, one week from today I'll be starting classes at college. This will most likely prevent me from posting every day (not like I do that anyway) but I'll still try to put a new one up whenever I can.

Well, that's all I've got for now. Chapter 14 will be up tomorrow, possibly even later tonight (though that's doubtful). Stay tuned.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

It's Here (Finally!)

Chapter 12 is finally finished. *whew!* That took entirely too long, thanks mainly as I said to a serious case of writer's block. Fortunately, again as I've said, the rest of the story is pretty much planned out and should be finished within the next week. If it's not, then I really have no idea when it will be completed, as I'm leaving for college this coming Sunday, and needless to say my life will become much busier after that. But don't worry; More Than a Job and it's sequals will eventually be completed, on this you have my word of honor.

Maybe eventually, once the sequals are finished, I'll come back and add a bit more to MTaJ. I really wanted to get the story finished before college, and to do that I had to really cut down on building the relationship between David and Elizabeth. Oh well. Maybe someday...

Well, it's getting pretty late, so I'm going to shut down for the night. Later, all.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Beginning of the End

MY WRITER'S BLOCK IS FINALLY GONE!

Chapter 12 should be up tomorrow, if not later tonight. I'll keep you posted (no pun intended).

Like I said before, Chapter 12 is the last chapter I haven't really thought out all the way, so 13-16 (I think there'll only be 4 more) will come fairly quickly. Definitely by the end of next week.

So, yeah, I'll definitely be writing a sequal. I've gotten some complaints that More Than a Job didn't/doesn't have enough action in it. But, as I've said before, Codename: White Knight, which is the sequal's tenative (though probably ultimate) title, will be pretty much non-stop action. By that, I mean that there will be a good action scene roughly once per chapter. For lack of a better description, think of a cross between The Transporter and either The Terminatior or maybe more appropriately The Gauntlet.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Yep, You Guessed It...

...I have writer's block. Again. I don't think I've ever had a case quite this bad before. My problem is that I know pretty much what I want to happen in Chapter 12, I'm just at a loss on how to start the chapter. What's even worse is that I had a great idea earlier, but I had to take care of something else first and by the time I'd finished, I'd forgotten my idea! Talk about bad luck. And before anyone says anything, I know it was a great idea (all my ideas are great).

I'm still going to try and get the story finished before I head off to college (a week from Monday). Every effort will be made to get Chapter 12 finished by tomorrow. Since I know pretty much exactly what I'm going to have happen in the last three chapters, it shouldn't take too long to get that all finished.

Gotta go; idea just popped up. Don't want to loose it!

UPDATE 8:17 PM: Good news, I've broken the ice and figured out how to start Chapter 12. It'll definitely be up by tomorrow. So you can basically forget about the rest of this post.

Friday, January 5, 2007

Finally Finished

Chapter 11 is, as the post title said, finally finished. It took a while 'cause it's one of the longest chapters I've written yet. (these babies keep getting longer and longer!)

From now on, the time between each chapter is going to expand chronologically. In other words, instead of taking place a day or two apart, each chapter is going to take place a few weeks, or even months, after the previous one. Two reasons for this:

  1. If I wrote a chapter for each day, it would be incredibly long and most of the chapters would be incredibly boring.
  2. I want to finish the story before I leave for college. Once there, I doubt I'll have much time to write more chapters and I really hate to leave readers hanging like that.

Also, I can pretty much guarantee that there won't be a new chapter over the weekend, seeing as how I'm going to be out of town Sunday and Monday. I'll try to get Chapter 12 done tomorrow, but judging by my past history that won't be very likely.

I just heard that the weatherman on the news says it's going to be 71 degrees tomorrow. 71 degrees! In January! I can't believe I'm saying this, but maybe Al Gore is onto something. Though I personally value having a warm house and a car that goes from 0-60 in less than a minute than the knowledge that I'm saving penguins...

*UPDATE* I've made a few minor revisions to Chapter 11. Unfortunately, this apparently un-formatted the last 1/2 to 1/3 of the chapter. While I think I fixed it, let me know if it crops up again.

Thursday, January 4, 2007

Delays and Setbacks

Unfortunately, it looks like I will not get Chapter 11 finished tonight. For unknown reasons, my creativity has abandoned me today. I'm definitely going to get it finished before Sunday, though. Hopefully the entire story will be completed before I go back to college, but don't hold your breath.

Also, I'm temporarily abandoning my efforts to get an airsoft gun. This time, it's not a question of getting permission (I'm old enough to get one myself) or finances (I got a ton of money for Christmas), but rather about timing. I'm going to be leaving for college in just over two weeks. It'll take about a week to get the gun shipped, so that leaves me with one brief week to enjoy my long-sought prize before I have to leave (I can't take it with me as per the school's rules), and somehow I get the feeling that between the end of January and the beginning of May (when the semester ends) my airsoft gun will have, how can I put this, "gone to that big shooting range in the sky." So I'm gonna hold of on getting one until the semester ends.

I'm gonna try and work more on Chapter 11 now. Stay tuned, 'cause I might, might, actually get it completed and up tonight. I'll keep you posted on that.

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

HAPPY 2007, EVERYONE!

Well, I think the title says it all. Can't be any more direct than that.

Please disregard my last post; I can get a better airsoft gun with battery + charger for cheaper than the MP7 package mentioned below. Now my only question; MP5 or M16? I'm kinda leaning towards the M16VN (see here), but the MP5 is a mite bit cheaper... but enough about that. I know you really don't care about my airsoft obsession. And no, I am not going to shoot squirrels with it. That's not what you use airsoft for. Let me repeat this for the uninitiated, airsoft is like paintball only we use replicas of real guns that shoot little plastic pellets instead of plumbing nightmares that shoot big paint-filled gel packets.

Chapter 11 is well underway, maybe halfway completed. It's more than likely going to be finished tomorrow, but definitely by Saturday (I'm going to be out of town Sunday + Monday and want it done before then). I haven't gotten all of the fine details worked out quite yet, but I think the story should be wrapped up within about five more chapters, not including Chapter 11. I'm definitely going to be writing the sequel, Codename: White Knight. That one will be shorter than More Than a Job, 10-12 chapters or so. It'll also be a lot more action-packed than More Than a Job; kinda along the lines of The Bourne Identity or an Alistair MacLean novel. If you haven't read More Than a Job don't worry; it can be a stand-alone, though parts of it will make marginally more sense if you have read MTaJ. I think I might post a sneak peek in a week or so to see if anyone's interested.

That's all for this post. Again, Happy New Year to all.