Freedom Convoy 2022 and… vacation update/goals

Of course I support the convoy. I shouldn’t have to be working my shift, picking up an extra shift or two (at 12 hrs a pop) to keep ambulances running, and rallying to defend the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and protesting the Nuremberg Code.

This is actually the second one; a group left from Alberta in the fall and was there for weeks. It’s non-violent protests, and while I don’t doubt some people who are violently inclined will try to attach themselves, I suspect more spin and bull from our Coward Prime Minister’s bought and paid for news spin cycle.

This is not about what you think about the vaccine. This is about Canada as a society, if we respect our own laws and if we’re going to start treating people as inferior because they don’t do as they’re told by so-called ‘leaders’ who cannot mail envelopes to their members to vote, can’t keep ICU’s open, keep making decisions that make good people leave, etc.

I’m not saying that unvaccinated people have the right to go into countries that demand vaccination, or that maybe people should stop using caution. You pick your risk level, and stop penalizing businesses. I have spent the last ten years having it drilled in my head the importance of medical privacy. I know we’re all tired and want this to end. Demonizing people who don’t think like you is wrong.

How I did Goal Wise

What can I say; I picked up shifts. One of my education ‘goals’ was to take down time and do the things I enjoy. I refuse to partake in Trudeau’s Segregation, so no going to the pool or meeting people at a coffee shop, and most people I know V’d or Un-V’d are getting sick so it was a lot of hang around the house. I usually take two tours off in January and for whatever reason, my year-approved vacation got messed up. Refused a day in July, didn’t tell me about the week in August, and I normally get two tours off in January yet they gave me one tour and I still got a phone call concerning my first day off. I tried to request another tour off as I have stat days, and of course none of which was approved.

Work’s burned me out before, and I came back. I’m not letting them do it to me again. I’m giving myself grace.

Finish that Room

Work owes me money. I am sick and tired of dealing with payroll, but I am not holding my breath it’ll be taken care of any time soon. My house is like thirty and no one has finished that room; the insulation can wait and I’ll try to finish it later.

Publish Underman

It wasn’t as polished as I thought it was, so I went through a round of edits. So the plan is to give it another round of polish, but it won’t take long. It’ll take longer to find all the sites to upload it to, so I’ll do the same thing with Straw Man.

Design a Wrap for Garnet and Silver

This I did. I have a little bit of design choice to do for the spine, but given I’m not in a rush to publish it. Right now, the goal is to finish Underman/TA and then look at G&S for March.

Edit Titan’s Ascent

Yeah I went through it. See Underman: Needs more polish. I really like the story and I want to go deeper, if that makes any sense.

Oil Paint at least one picture

Never got around to it. To be fair, I didn’t do as much drawing because of my shoulder, either. I went for massage and I did a hard massage on my shoulder too. I am back to lifting weights, just trying to avoid the overarm exercises. Never stopped spinning, so there’s that too.

Finish Rough Drafts on those Novellas

NOPE. My plan right now is to do them at work. I need to fix my printer and can print out what I have written; I did do this then I chucked out the papers because I was in a mood in the fall. I’m still in a mood; but I’m also at a place where I know my creating stuff is necessary for my mental health.

Basically I don’t consider it as having a vacation so much as just having alternative days off. I have a few days off and I think I’m going to just enjoy them.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Mermaid and the Unicorns

by L.T. Getty

Giveaway ends February 05, 2022.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter Giveaway

Fall From Grace (Trope)

So I haven’t blogged much about Witchslayer’s Scion, so I thought I’d do something different: Talking about tropes. Although it’s the latest of my titles through Champagne Books, it’s an earlier novel that I had sitting on my hard drive. It’s a spin-off of a series I developed waaay back in high school, and now that I’m a better writer I hope to fix the main series. In Witchslayer’s Scion, there’s only a handful of hints we’re in future north America, most of it reads like a sword and sorcery. The idea was that something happened that plunged the majority of the population into not quite into the dark ages, but they lost electricity and communication, and over centuries most common folk lost the ability to replicate what they had. Since this was a spin-off, I didn’t think it would be realistic for Koth or too many of the characters to be aware of their lost history.

The trope of civilization falling from a technological standpoint is far from new.

There’s plenty of stories about Atlantis, seen here is Disney’s 2001 Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Studio Ghibli did a take on this trope too, with the 1986 film Castle in thy Sky:

Studio Ghibli did a take on this trope too, with the 1986 film Castle in thy Sky

It’s often seen in an active dystopia or apocalypse, or in my case we’re well after a fall. It can be from a cataclysmic event, or perhaps the slow eek of a fading empire that collapsed under its own weight. There’s speculation about our own history, but we know that there was a relative lull around the time the roman empire fell. Between that and the burning of the Library of Alexandra, that period of time is called ‘the dark ages’ throughout most of Europe for a reason, and the Renaissance literally meanings a new revival of the old.

As a trope, I love it. I’ve done something similar with Dreams of Mariposa, only they’re a little more steampunk. And yes, in theory I could see Dreams of Mariposa and Witchslayer’s Scion taking place within the same approximate timeline, with DoM taking place in Europe while WS taking place in North America, only don’t expect me to work vampires into the current projects. I worked in a Skinwalker in Magus’ Gambit; and the title Titan’s Ascent has a titular… suggestion. There’s plenty of room for expansion of the world I built but I’m going to focus on a few tasks at hand as opposed to chasing off after other ideas.

    

In The Warlord comics, it’s explicit that while magic does exist, a select group of people are generally exploiting technology from a people who lost the ability to utilize it.  

Tolkien’s Middle Earth more famous stories also utilize this trope. I’m not as hardcore as many Tolkien fans, but it’s quite explicit about the civilizations and great kings that came before. It almost feels like with the leaving of the Elves, that such an era is over and can never be as it was.

It’s also made explicit in the Wheel of Time Amazon adaptation that Lews Therin lived in a very technologically sophisticated time compared to his rebirth some thousands of years later. In the books while it’s never outright stated that it’s our world, the lore characters hint around suggest that Rand and company descended from a space-faring civilization around the time of the Breaking of the World.

I could go on, as I think science fiction and fantasy is rife with this trope. Is it a difference in technology level, or a story about remembering what their ancestors could do that you’d like to share?

As for me, I’m on night shift and supposed to be on vacation in the morning. We’re terribly short staffed, so I’m going into a rounder a little closer to home in the morning. I’m going to work on some blog entries and work on Underaman and Titan’s Ascent. Hopefully I’ll get some sense after a 72 hour work week and take the remainder of the time off.

Let’s set some Modest Goals:

Finish that Room in the basement (Insulation, dry wall. I just grow hydroponics down there and its probably the coldest room int he house)

Publish Underman Novella

Go through Titan’s Ascent. Polish and attempt sending it to Champagne for the end of the Month

Oil Paint at least one decent picture

Work out almost every day. Yes, shoulder still sore but I will baby it

Arrange for a Book Tour for Witchslayer’s Scion and The Mermaid and the Unicorns

Figure out what I’m going to do for the Wrap for Garnet and Silver. Might self publish, might wait a few weeks.

Sounds like a lot but a lot of this isn’t going to take that long. Underman has a cover and just needs some formatting, and assuming I don’t pick up after the next two days I’ll have 10 days off. Titan’s Ascent will need the most time, and that is polish so I can’t commit to how long it’ll be.