I don't read a lot of fiction these days. Neither do I always think things through. The Masks series was originally written in response to the first Incredibles movie. They were intended for the entertainment of myself and other members of the Transformation Stories Archives. If I had realized it would become a commercial product I'd have called it something besides Masks, which is too generic.
Likewise, I didn't realize there was already a series titled "Angel" on BCTS or I would have lumped together my "Angel of..." stories under another title.
"I was lying in a burned-out basement, with the full Moon in my eyes," said Aaron, quietly. "I was hoping my relief would arrive soon, so I could go get something to eat. Suddenly, a parachute flare lit up the entire scene."
An excerpt from The Modern Age, an unfinished novel set in the Thirties of the Masks universe:
"Wow," whispered Dutch, looking over the edge of the roof at the street far below. He glanced back at the Night Master, who was preparing to throw a grapple wrapped in rags across the gap between the buildings. "You've done this before?"
"Many times," the Night Master replied, as he sent the padded hook whistling through the air. It caught on a vent pipe projecting from the roof of the penthouse of the lower, neighboring building.
I am still only about a third of the way through writing the next Masks story, so I am posting an unconnected short story. This is set in the same world as "The Master of Cuts" and "In the Hollow of the Devil's Hand."
Another reason I like characters with bird wings is one of my favorite childhood books: The juvenile novel Black and Blue Magic by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Wikipedia says it came out in 1967 and I must have first read it within a couple of years at most. I now have an ex-school library hardback book of the 1972 edition.
About forty minutes after I went to bed last night, the power went off again. This time just the once. I wasn't sound asleep, and the emergency light in the hall coming on woke me. I checked everything, then went back to bed. My calico was a bit upset, presumably due to the UPSes beeping, but was easily calmed. I managed to doze some, but didn't get soundly to sleep. About three hours later the power came back on. This time it was off long enough that the UPS keeping the video recorder alive ran down. I was wide awake, so I set the clock and reprogrammed it.
So much for sleeping in this morning. I was awakened about a quarter after 7 (yes, AM) by a series of muffled bangs, and the Shark AI repeatedly telling me it was charging (there's a distinctive set of chimes). I looked at the alarm clock, and it was dead. Power was off, and after several attempts to come back on was staying off. For a large part of Frankfort. After waiting a while with no restoration, I walked to the end of my street and could see that the traffic signal at the intersection of US 60/US 421 was not only out, there was a city police van parked there with its blue lights on.
I upgraded my iMac to Sonora about two weeks ago. I immediately had several problems, some of which turned out to not be fixable. I had to wipe the hard drive and reinstall the previous OS (Ventura) then restore my Apps and data from backup. First thing the iMac does after successfully booting is tell me I need to upgrade to Sonoma. Yeah, not gonna happen for a while.
The story is over halfway completed, now, but still coming along slowly. It covers one of the adventures of Aaron/Malak during WWII. Yes, there are extradimensional monsters. :-) They are a relatively minor problem, though.
Life is currently proceeding slowly here. Silly me, I forgot to wear a mask when mowing my back yard last week. The dust and pollen I stirred up gave me a persistent case of bronchitis. The Canadian smoke isn't bad in this area, but is adding to the ozone and continuing pollen attack. I feel for the two crews putting on roofs in my neighborhood.
Fortunately, the lack of rain means the grass isn't very high yet, except in a couple of places. Hopefully, I won't have to mow again for a while.
I'm a few thousand words into this story, which is about an adventure Aaron (Malak) LaBelle had in northern Germany in WWII. I know the plot; it's just a matter of filling things in.
I left a bunch of flyers for Masks 18 (the latest one out through Doppler) at the Frankfort AnimeCon yesterday. There may or may not be an increase in sales following this. We'll see. The con was literally just on the other side of the river from my home.
Posting the first chapter of the new Masks book has driven home that I have not done this in a while. I'm having to re-learn stuff I should already know. I hope folks - including those who manage this site - bear with me.
Checks can be made out & sent to:
Joyce Melton
1001 Third St.
Space 80
Calimesa, CA 92320
USA
Note: $6000 is the operating, maintenance and upgrade budget. Amounts received in excess of the $6000 will be applied to long term debt accrued over the last 19 years.
