Pen of the Gryphon

I forgot the title and they made me come back and enter one

You know, sometimes it is nice to have a quota. Or a goal. Or whatever...

Last year I started to take the 100 fic challenge, where they give you 100 single word prompts (actually I think two have two words, but whatever) and you have to write a story/draw a comic/write a poem about each of those, so that you end up with 100 pieces of writing.

Anyway, they can be anything you want: seperate stories that have nothing to do with one another; all chapters of one huge story; all about the same characters, possibly in different reincarnations; all in the same world, but about different people; whatever... Personally, I opted to write all of mine in the same world.

I had a dream once, where I had been kidnapped and my captor and I were trying to get into a city in the middle of the desert. The city was locked against intruders, but he knew a secret way in. We got shot at, lots of running, etc., but somehow that threw the idea of genetic experimenting into my head.

Now the running "threat" in my stories, even though they range over a period of about 200 years, all not so far away in the future, where genetic experiments have produced a human with enough animal DNA to be faster, stronger and otherwise superior to other humans. These superhumans are referred to as "Mutts" because of their mixed genes. They are used as soldiers in the military. But then, one of them goes AWOL and brutally murders his handler. Suddenly the scientists realize how animalistic these things really are and how little they can do to control them. But by now, the Mutts have been integrated into so many aspects of life that to call them all back is nearly impossible. Squads of human soldiers are sent out to find them, and the labs are destroyed.

The Mutts escape and some begin their own hidden communities, hiding out in the middle of nowhere. But there are so few of them and they are smart enough to worry about inbreeding, so they begin to kidnap a few humans here and there to freshen their stock. The Mutt is the dominant gene, so it takes a few generations for it to be watered down noticably, but even after that, they remain superior to regular humans. Plus there is actual pure blood around and there is enough intermingling that it remains pretty strong. (kind of a stretch, I suppose, but I'm going for the small suspension of belief)

Anyway, so my 100 fics are set in this world, told from the viewpoints of Mutts and humans alike. I haven't actually written any of them, since I just rediscovered my notes, but I have outlined over 70 of them. I wasn't going to start writing until I'm finished outlining all of my outlines, because of the same old same old thing of me not wanting to write until I am outlined, because otherwise I will never finish my outlines.

Yup, so that's my side project. I finished chapter 22 the other day, but now I am stuck in the middle of 23 and frustrated as heck...

OOH! and I just read "Mortal Engines" by Philip Reeve. That is an inspirational book if I ever read one. With moving cities, a rebellious group and a hideous love interest, it's all good. I loved it and recommend it.I've been reading a lot this summer and some more of my recommended gems are:
"Abarat" by Clive Barker (if you haven't read this, you should, though as a warning, if you don't like the Alice in Wonderland type feel, you won't like this too much. It's a mishmosh of crazy characters in a world that hardly makes sense. But I loved it.)
"Ender's Game" by Scott Orson Card (this is a heavy book in terms of moral growth and so one, but I was greatly inspired.)
"Dr. Frankin's Island" (can't think of the author's name) (the genetic transformations in this book were a bit of a stretch, considering I don't think this sort of thing can take only six months. For crying out loud, the girl loses all her teeth about two months through, then grows them back by the end... the genetics were hardly believeable, though when you a reading them, you panic along with the characters. But the human aspects, of panic, claustrophobia, fear, hurt and so on are very well protrayed. I liked it just for that, if the rest of it wasn't so much the believeable...)
"Singing the Dogstar Blues" by Alice Goodman (this was really good. I especially loved the alien, how foreign he was and dependant on the other characters for support.)

I'm also rereading the Maximum Ride books by James Patterson. They're kind of fast paced and some of it defies belief a bit, but they're a fun book to read when you are down.

And last but not least are the Jurassic Park novels by Michael Crichton. You've all seen the movies, now go read the books! They're a bit better in terms of explaining some of the science, and they killed some of the characters that should have been killed in the movies if you ask me. Not to mention the kids are not quite as annoying. (I wanted them to get eaten so badly in the movie) JP was done pretty well as a movie, but JP II was not done nearly as well. They changed the story all around and put the two kid characters into one that was also annoying and whom I
also wanted to get eaten, but life is tough, yes?

Yeah, those are the ones that stand out from the crowd. The rest are not so good. And while these aren't the best literature, I suppose, that has ever been written, I like them... So there...

Anyhoo, gotta run now. I'm going to my cousin's wedding on Saturday, so don't expect anything from me Friday or Saturday, though I might just surprise you...

~SilverGryphon


Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and do taste well with ketchup.


Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and do taste well with ketchup.


Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and do taste well with ketchup.