Moving.

Right, I've been planning this for a while but not everything's gone quite to plan.

From now on, this blog will live at my new website, the New Installation -01 (or, to keep in with Halo canon, Installation -01[II].) Eventually, my writing will be copied over there as well, allowing me to retire the Google Sites and Blogger hodgepodge used at the moment.

Please update your bookmarks.

New one-shot

I've written another one-shot. It's called Triggers, and is open to interpretation. If you get the clue in the title, you are magnificent. Take my exams for me.

This is also the first of my creations to be published on DeviantArt, as well as FanFiction.net and Installation -01. I've also submitted it to HBO Fan Fiction, but as that only moderates every Friday, you'll need to wait until tomorrow to see it there.

Bonne lecture.

Remember The Legend?

Well, chapter 2 is up. Go and read it, and then go and play the level on Marathon, seeing how my rendition pales into insignificance alongside Bungie's masterwork.

New chapter! OMG!

Firstly, sincere apologies for not posting about the last chapter of The Echoes here. It's here and there and everywhere.

And now, for the next chapter, Chapter 8, inventively dubbed Nuts To Your Conference, It's An Emergency, Part II. Here, and here.

Now, in addition to The Echoes, I have been considering expanding in to other universes. Knowing that hard sci-fi is my favourite type of sci-fi, and Star Trek is the closest really popular franchise to hard sci-fi (most of the science is sound, but the sound effects aren't) I may weasel in that general direction. I don't intend to abandon Halo completely, though, so rest assured about that.

And finally, remember The Legend, the novelisation of Marathon that's been crawling at the speed of a snail? The next chapter may or may not appear in the next month.

That is all. Now go away.

And speak of the devil...

...and it shall appear, in multiple places.

Stuck

This is proving difficult.

In case you've been living on another planet for the last fortnight or so (and yes, you know who you are: hello, Bill!), I haven't updated any of my stories in ages. As the one I'm mostly concentrating on now is The Echoes, this is where the problem is.

The main problem has been how to actually continue the story from where we left off last time. However, I think I now have the solution.

Put simply, it involves bringing the events of the story forward by around a month, which means I can put off the filler chapters to later on. Now we can actually concentrate on the meat of the story.

Expect the next installment soon.

I've written a short, one-shot story called The Stowaway. It's set immediately after the end of Halo 3, and a cookie goes to the first person to spot the numerological joke. (It's also on FanFiction.net here.)

and finally, FFN lets me do it. Make it work in future. kthxbai.

FFN is kaput again, so...

here's chapter 5 of The Echoes. It's a bit of an interesting one, this one–it's spent longer in gestation than any but the first part.

Lisez-vous, s'il vous plaît. Il bientôt va apparaître sur FanFiction.net.

And now for something completely different.

Well, I've published part 4 of The Echoes, entitled Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor, Pianist. It's on FanFiction.net here and my website here. I think it's my favourite chapter so far, as it (a) gives some love to The Ascent of Man (my favourite TV show of all time, ever) and (b) starts to show some evolution in John's character, but still keeps a tab on his inner turmoil.

And now for the completely different thing. The Elitist Bastard hereby orders all ye, the readership of this World Wide Web Site, to read this fan fiction on DeviantArt, for it is as close to perfection as is physically, literally, and anatomically possible.

That is all.

To compensate for the crappiness of the last one...

Here's the next part of The Echoes. It's shorter (exactly 1117 words long, the numerological joke was unintentional) but it's hopefully better than the last one.

Regardez-vous le nouveau texte sur FanFiction.net là, ou sur mon site Web ici. Je parle franglais!

Here's chapter two of The Echoes. It's not as good as the first. Don't remind me.

It's alive! FanFiction.net is back to its old, buggy and loveable self, and The Echoes part one has been cross-published to it. Like so.

Voilà mon histoire nouvelle

And thick and fast they come at last
And more and more and more.

--Lewis Carroll

As FanFiction.net's member area seems well and truly kaput at the moment, I'm taking this in to my own hands and putting The Echoes part one on my personal website. Here. Read. Now. Then flame me.

Well... my latest story, The Echoes, would be up now, but FFN's control panel is currently

...inaccessible due to a technical glitch. We apologize for the brief inconvenience. Please come back in a few minutes.

It'll appear as soon as I can get it to work.

Reverberation

I'm having a bit of a problem.

In the appendix, I promised non-bigoted readers who wouldn't flame me for mentioning two men doing so much as holding hands a sequel to The Silent Watchman, tentatively titled Hello, World, in which I'd explore the Master Chief adjusting to civilian life. That's proving to be difficult.

The idea is/was to create something that's darkly comic, and at the same time sublimely uplifting. The bits I'd written up to now are just... well... cheesy. Euch. Awful.

Here's a bit from the first draft of Chapter One:

The sign outside the restaurant was simple and used magnetic letters to spell out, 'LIVE MUSIC TONITE: JULIAN NEDERLANDER & TOPAZ CARTER PERFORM A SELECTION OF CLASSIC AND MODERN POP.' John stared at the sign as they entered Mr. Wong's Emporium.
'They've misspelled the word "tonight,"' he noted.
'It's deliberate,' Jason said, 'it's an old alternate spelling that's still used sometimes.' John opened his mouth to say something, but then remembered that he couldn't exactly argue with a man holding a PhD in etymology.
Mr. Wong's Emporium was a medium-sized restaurant, around the size of a UNSC medical tent, with the walls a pleasing shade of burgundy and massive windows at the front. There was a small wooden stage, and on-stage was a man at a grand piano, dextrously striking the keys as a plump woman at the front warbled into a microphone. Behind them, a big band backed the two performers with a jazzy arrangement.
There was a marble counter in front of a door, and behind the counter stood the projected hologram of a lady of oriental descent, dressed in a Japanese kimono but with a thick Chinese accent. Karmen always claimed the geographical discrepancy was deliberate, but Jason had his doubts. The AI recognised him, and broke into a broad smile.
'Jason! Hello again, welcome back!'
'Good evening, Karmen.'
'I heard about your exploits on the BBC. Congratulations on getting out in one piece.'
'Thank you. I suppose I'd better get used to being recognised...'
'Well, as long as you keep a low profile, try to stay out of the tabloids, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Although I expect the swarms will want an interview...'
'I'll try and fend them off 'till tomorrow.'
'...especially with him.' John felt slightly embarrassed as the purple hologram looked towards him, smiling. 'I never expected we'd have the War's most famous hero in our little restaurant... welcome, welcome. What can I get you?'
John was at a loss as to what to order, but Jason mercifully cut in with his own order.
'I'll have a cod and chips, please, with a small Coke. And you, John?'
'Whatever you're having,' he said, quickly.

Yes, that is the Master Chief, with his partner, in a fish and chip shop-come-restaurant-come-bar, ordering a cod and chips, while a rip-off of Jools Holland and Ruby Turner play music in the background. In the end, this was turning out to be The Drew Carey Show as opposed to The Office.

The title's also a bit naff. It's too... optimistic. There's some depressing bits in the story I've got planned out, and there are some bits in The Silent Watchman that if I were to re-do now (which I won't) I'd do differently. (I'd keep the romantic sub-plot in, though.) Hello, World just reminds me of the crap parts of Apollo 13.

However, I have now heavily reworked things based around what was originally the second chapter. The story's now called The Echoes, which has a nice pensive feel to it without being pretentious.

As for the meat of the story itself, it's nearly ready. The first chapter will be appearing on FanFiction.net shortly. It's darker and less comic than it was originally, but a few things have remained. I'm sparing you the graphic details of the relationship (problems with that? keep your warped fantasies to yourself) so no lemons for you. I find apples a brilliant substitute.

FanFiction.net reviewers in 'non-homophobic' shocker!

I'm pleasantly surprised. The latest reviews for The Silent Watchman are rave, one even claiming he/she liked the homosexuality, and another praising how well I humanised the Master Chief.

There are nice people out there. This pleases me.

Cream of the Reviews

Fan fiction authors like me have a hard time. I mean, you can polarise your audience with a single post. Normally people will leave a review if they don't like it, but remain silent if they do.

Take my forte, which is fan fiction set in the Halo franchise. Dare to make any slightly daring suggestion (Cortana's breasts are real, the Arbiter secretly fancies Keyes, etc.) which doesn't conform with their interpretation of the various materials available, and they will either adore you for it or hate you for it.

I recently wrote a story entitled The Silent Watchman, set after Halo 3, which, as a plot twist at the end, reveals that the Master Chief was secretly infatuated with another man. Now, it's not official canon. After the first flame, I even put an explicit warning in the description explaining that there was a gay relationship involving MC. However, not even that's abated the mob with the pitchforks and flaming torches–they just can't stay away, resulting in a death/GBH threat after only eight days (a personal record for me). The first flame (from an IP in Slovenia, incidentally) somehow linked it to HIV.

Now, a lot of Halo fans are from deep Republican territory, and therefore don't understand that the core message of the game is that 'war is shitty–this is how shitty it is'. They just like the Clint Eastwood-style characterisation of the Master Chief and the fact that they can emulate murdering thousands of sentient beings with merely a deft movement of the thumb. Suggesting to these people that the Master Chief might be gay is akin to blasphemy to them.

One must remember that in these parts of the world, there are three religions:

1. Pick-up trucks
2. Hunting
3. War against anyone who isn't a heterosexual Christian from the USA

That's in reverse order. Therefore painting Master Chief as gay is like driving into the centre of Glasgow with 'HAGGIS SUCKS' emblazoned on one's car. It's provocative.

Nevertheless, the odd person gave a positive review. It's heartwarming to know somebody does like the stuff you put hours of effort in to.

Incidentally, you can read TSW here, and read the reviews (all of them) here.

Welcome to my blog. I write fan fiction, which is non-canon fiction set in an existing fictional universe. My forte is Halo fan fiction at the moment. You can see my web site here, or my FanFiction.net account here.