Shards and Phractures

So, what do you do when you write yourself into a corner...? One of the characters in my Nano last year was...well...Prometheus.  Or what's left of him, anyway, after all his worshippers died or forgot about him.  Now, his name is Tesla.  And his home base is an incredible museum: Tesla turned from the storm lashing the window, and returned to his workshop. And what a workshop it was.  The building itself was massive, but Tesla's lab covered a full three floors, end to end, of the entire building.  Two of the three floors had been almost completely removed to allow the room for display, flight, testing, or simply space to observe.  In the center of the room stood the bulk of a Cray mainframe, constantly cranking away at variables that only Tesla knew or understood. Centuries of oddities and curiousities inhabited the shelves, from frisbees to Tesla coils, V8 engines to perpetual motion machines, items ranging from the simple and basic but interestin...

Days of Nano Past ...in honor of Nano this year, he’s a clip from last year’s Nano, about an attack by an undead dragon. -=ad=- It took hours to fill them in on where he had been.  He told them about the ball of foil, and the various scenes he had witnessed.  Then, there was the Zen garden where Meroving had died, and after that, the separate garden that supposedly existed inside Trevor's head.  He even told them the deep, dark secret that had so fooled the Necromancer. "So, Meroving sent him on a wild goose chase," Lewis interjected. "Exactly," Trevor agreed.  "Meroving hoped it would keep him so busy hunting for a mythical item that he wouldn't have time for all the world-conquering stuff." "You've learned a few mystical tricks, then?" Kiriana said with half a smile on her face. "Oh, I'm looking forward to showing them to you," Trevor said. "We're not going to have any time for that," Tes...

...if you've never been to a Zombie Walk, you have no idea what you're missing. Well over ONE THOUSAND zombies cruised downtown Lincoln Saturday night.  They started at Pershing Center, wandered past the shops and mystified (and some terrified) onlookers, worked their way down UNL's Sorority Row, past the Broyhill Fountain, and then back to Pershing Center for a block party. Yes, I was there, and yes, I survived the zombie onslaught...though it was close... Many thanks to Randy and Pete, for doing the whole "combat journalism photography pool" thing; I can't claim credit for all of these pictures, there were way too many zombies to stand still and shoot! -=ad=- Hey, didn't you write for the Friday Challenge a couple months back...? ...you know, when a zombie baby is ready to be born, there's just no keeping him down... ...some zombies are as afraid of you as you are of them... Preparing for the upcoming zombie-copalypse.....

This post is an entry into The Friday Challenge . This week's challenge: The Road Trip. I. Your mission, should you choose to accept it... "How would you like to take a photography trip? All by yourself?" This was quite a surprise. I was actually speechless for a moment, and so shocked that I missed a chunk of the description. "...and he's going to sleep on our couch for a few weeks until he gets on his feet. I thought, just maybe, you'd like to take a day to drive out to meet him halfway, and bring me lots of nice pictures along the way." "Are you sure we can do this? I mean, money is tight, and..." "It's a three-day weekend," she said, "immediately followed by payday. We've got enough to get you to the Colorado Springs bus station, and he'll have enough to get you back. We can do this." "I don't know..." "Pack your camera," she said. I packed my camera. II. Choose your route...

A writer's group made the mistake of asking me to write a profile piece... -=ad=- By day, Allan is a meek and mild-mannered database programmer. But...by night...he undergoes a bizarre metamorphosis, and without warning, creates worlds so the other people who live in his mind have somewhere to play. Science fiction, fantasy, and horror all come creeping out of the dark and twisted corners of his brain, with the occasional political essay or offbeat humorous work thrown in, just to keep people guessing at his true identity. Although Allan's work has not been published for pay, he has won several writing contests, including several Friday Challenges (thefridaychallenge.blogspot.com), and the elusive annual Momwriter Halloween contest--not once but three times. When he's not doing unspeakably horrible things to databases or playing in his fantasy worlds, Allan can be found hiding behind his camera, or chasing the kids around with fuzzy dice and air guitars. And never, under an...