Word.

I forgot to update on the short story competition (I may have forgotten to even have mentioned that I was leading one).

Was interviewed for the News Letter back in March regarding a UK wide short story competition being run by the National Literacy Trust in cooperation with Johnson Press. I had one entry (Echoes of the Golden Spike) sitting in first place at that time and another (Flickering Neon Signs) sitting in seventh.

Well after several months of waiting because they kept deferring the closing date of the competition (it really was getting to be a joke, it was supposed to have closed at the end of March) I finally clocked in at 2nd for Echoes and 10th for Signs.

So, I won an unbranded pen set... something of an anti-climax really. I wasn't expecting Mont Blanc but even Bic would have been nice.

I sound ungrateful, but I'm not really. Echoes is going to be published in a compendium (even though I personally thought that Signs was a better story) that is due for publication in the next couple of weeks, so I can boast about being a published author now (if I want to look like a pillock).

For those of you who have not had the opportunity to read my fine and sparkly works I'll give a quick synopsis...

-Echoes of the Golden Spike is a brief story about the experiences of an Irish immigrant living in Fall City, Nebraska, who leaves his family to help build the First Transcontinental Railway across the US.

-Flickering Neon Signs is a story about a woman who has packed up her kids in the middle of the night and fled her abusive husband, it is a story about the emotions she feels as she tries to decide what to do.

Not really a lot else happening in my world at the moment apart from the usual silly Saturday nights of consumption.

(This has been a very quick entry as I am waiting for a game to load... I really should grow up)

What's up?

This evening a chav shouted at me, "You're gay!"
Presumably this was accompanied by a har-de-har-har.
I shouted back, "So?"

I won. Gotta love pointless arguments.

Sporadic updates... check

Well, it seems that I'm about as useful as ever when it comes to keeping this thing up to date (not that anyone really cares anyway).

So the main reason that I am updating is to express my own personal satisfaction for having outdone what I have always considered to be my best story-

http://thebridgeburnerstories.blogspot.com/search/label/S%202.4%20Through%20the%20Looking%20Glass

At least from a personal perspective I have always considered it to be my best work, even when accounting for all the non TBB stories. The new story isn't yet finished, it being part of the After The Legacy series (or the TBB Novel for short), but two days ago I decided that I was leaving the main antagonist to appear far too late (which made the earlier chapters look like filler) so I have written an entirely new opening for section 1.2. This new opening is my source of pride for several reasons, the characters, the struggle in the face of inevitability, the last taste of humanity, plus it's about Mashed who to this point was never properly developed as a character. I might post it up at some point, and will at least certainly be sending it to Aven in order to get his opinion, if I'm writing about TBB I can't think of anyone whom I would rather reading it.

So, any other news in the world of your humble narrator? Not really, have been to the States again, and am still of the opinion that if the right opportunity opened up I would be away like a flash.

The only other thing is that I found out today that I young lady who used to work for me, and whom I will admit to having had a crush on, went to the US and got married in Vegas last week (yeah, the married in Vegas thing certainly sounds tacky but the wedding pics looked very tasteful). I've found myself bothered quite a deal since discovering this, not about the wedding you understand (that's in the past), but the fact that this girl younger than I, whom I once was attracted to, is now married. I can't help but feel that I've once again let life pass me by, again I'm not talking about the girl here, I feel that I've drifted a lot between the relatively easy options and have never really done anything to define myself, to have given my existence meaning. I don't know, perhaps I'm rambling and just feeling melancholy because another girl has been taken off the market, but at present it feels that I just lack accomplishment.

So, what's new?

Got moved into my new house at last on 21st December, haven't thrown the housewarming yet so don't worry if you think that you missed the invite (I'm talking to my fan-base of 1 here). Things are looking good in the world of Vastian.

Doing a bit of buying and selling on the sly to keep myself in a bit of extra cash (no, nothing illegal or even remotely interesting, just mostly internet stuff) and still working away at the book.

Ok, the book thing is technically a lie. Whilst still occasionally trying to push the story forward I've realized that with 3 of 7 big chapters completed the characters are still far too two dimensional. Upon discovery that this was my main problem I did the thing that I would have done instead of what anyone sensible would have tried (ie, insert a few tidbits of backstory), I started writing about characters whom I do have an established backstory for. Long story short, I now have two new TBB stories completed in the space of a month. I've decided that rather than flog a dead donkey and continue with The Planetside Legacy (I've just been out of that world for too long to pick up where I left off) I've started with a Prologue that picks up with the planned ending for Series 7 part 4 and then jumps forward to nearly 3 years after the Legacy. Click the link below for the storyline of the Legacy:

The Planetside Legacy: Complete Storyline

The basic opening premise is that with the defeat of the Ancients on Earth and Caer'Durath by the combined factions of man the Terran Republic collapsed under the weight of the New Order struggling to assert itself. Earth and a large chunk of the galactic west is controlled by the United Terran Commonwealth formed by the VS and the Alliance; The Orion Tract is still held by the TR fleet; the Frontier is under the control of the Colonial Marshal Service; and the Corporate District is now totally independent since they no longer have to fear the TR fleet, among the ruling corporations are several remnants of the New Conglomerate. There are several other factions of note, including a hard-line VS separatist group who believe that the Regent and the Triumvirate have sold out by forming the UTC with the less technologically orientated factions. This group still maintains an ideology of the Vanu Sovereignty regardless of the fact that the Vanu almost succeeded in their attempt to exterminate mankind (see- Series 7: The Coming of the Ancients).

The beauty about this storyline is that since it is set after the Legacy I can get through without directly referencing any copyrighted material other than my own (see, writing about what I know). Plus with established characters with their own individual personalities and plenty of unused backstory I already have enough to push on (though I should point out that I have in no way abandoned my other novel, this story is just working for me at the moment).

Nothing else really new at the moment, come on BT with fitting my phone line.