Just saw AFTER EARTH…

Greetings, Bearers!

Saw After Earth tonight.  Great movie.  Go see it and ignore anything negative you’ve ever heard about it.

Trust me.

J. Dean

From the Vein Compendium: The Airweaver

Greetings, Bearers!

Yet another entry from the Vein compendium featuring another of the creatures found within the Meridian.  Enjoy!

J. Dean

Airweaver-Perhaps the most beautiful and simultaneously the most dangerous creature found in the Meridian, the airweaver is an unusual sight to behold. 

The airweaver possesses the overall appearance of a jellyfish, composed of two primary components: a large body measuring anywhere from one to three paces (three to nine feet) wide, and a thick curtain of dangling tentacles as thin and fine as hair measuring anywhere from four to seven paces (twelve to twenty-one feet) long, although unverified reports have claimed to see airweavers with tentacles estimated to be ten paces (thirty feet) long or even longer.  Adorning the creature’s body is a set of protrusions that have been given various descriptions, such as ”resembling a flower petal” and “wavy, beautiful rings akin to the celestial equatorial rings which encircle planetary bodies in the heavens.”  The variety of these protrusions suggests diversity within the species; however, regardless of the specific physical shape, these protrusions seem to have the same function, as they “weave” in and out of each other, shifting colors as they move.  Such behavior, therefore, renders it impossible to designate airweavers by particular color, as the creatures seem to prefer no particular primary color.   The protrusions also have the effect of hiding the creature’s center, making it impossible to distinguish any other features about the creature.

Airweavers are generally found near rivers, lakes,  and other large bodies of water, particularly at the bottoms of canyons, where they are often seen trolling for food, although they have been spotted in other locations such as caves and forests on occasion.  Their ability to float through the air allows for them to hover over waters while luring fish and other aquatic creatures toward the tip of their tentacles.  They attract their prey through the use of their bodies, as the rippling motion of their “petals” produces a hypnotic effect, drawing any fish that look upon the swirling, colorful ambience toward them.  Once within reach, the airweavers then snag the fish via its tentacles, which then secrete an enzyme that functions as an acidic adhesive, which has the effect of “gluing” the victim to the tentacles while dissolving flesh and transporting the liquefied nourishment upward and into the main body.  This enzyme immediately bonds to other tentacles upon contact, which means that the more a victim struggles, the more entangled it becomes in the tentacles, and the more quickly the airweavers will consume their prey.

The behavior of an airweaver during its capture and ingestion of prey is largely dependent upon the size of the victim.  Whenever possible, an airweaver will pull its victim up and into the air by inflating its air bladder to maximum expansion, thus hindering the victim in its escape.  If a “snagged” creature is too large for an airweaver to hoist, it will behave in the opposite manner and “sit” upon the victim in an attempt to smother the victim with more tentacles and enzyme, thus speeding up the digestion process.  Although the first course of action is the favored course for airweavers, they have no trouble with resorting to the second, thus giving testament to the patience of these hovering hunters.

An airweaver is generally considered to be a relatively slow creature.  Its movement through the air is likened to the lazy drift of a cloud, and even though they can and do move against air currents (though how this is accomplished is unknown), they retain a slow and measured speed in their general demeanor.  However, if an airweaver feels threatened or is attacked, it can react with unnatural and unexpected speed.  An airweaver can dodge in a manner similar to the duck and bob of a boxer’s head, carrying its body away from any incoming attack in a sudden, reflexive evasion.  Again, the exact manner by which it can perform such an acrobatic aerial move is unknown. 

This previous trait combined with the ability to hypnotize makes airweavers a formidable predator to deal with upon confrontation.  The mesmerizing flow of color in the airweaver body affects not only aquatic life but many forms of land-based life as well, including Beings (although ha-bears are a notable exception to this).  Some survivors of airweaver attacks have reported looking upon the creatures and falling into (as one survivor put it) “a calm, tranquil numbness from which I did not want to emerge.”   Others have reported falling into visions consisting of pleasant memories from moments in their past. Victims of the hypnosis seem to be paralyzed, or even so seduced that they walk forward and into the tentacles with outstretched arms, ignorant of what is happening to them until it is too late.  In addition to this, the reflexive evasion of the airweaver combined with its altitude make it extremely difficult for a Sect member to take out the airborne creature with a scythe surge, and often the only hope is to take the creature out through a surge sent via wall in a narrow passage which would prevent the airweaver from successfully dodging the attack.  Surges which contact  tentacles bring about a nasty shock to the airweavers but do not incapacitate them; only a surge able to connect with the creature’s body will render it unconscious.

Checking out F. Paul Wilson’s workings… and helping out.

Greetings, Bearers!

While taking a break from my writing (Yes, I am writing, and making pretty good progress over all.. No, really! I am! ), I wanted to let you know about a little project I’ve lent some help to: The Hobgen Chronicles which is a project being undertaken by F. Paul Wilson, Neil Gaiman, and other great writers.

No, I’m not one of the writers.  Believe me, I wish I were, but I’m not. However, I am a supporter.  At the website, you can elect to add a contribution to this place in order to help finance the undertaking with a contribution of your choice.  If you like great sci-fi, I encourage you to check it out and lend your support!  These are good writers who deserve the recognition for their work, and you might recognize a few names as well!

So consider the support, and let me know what you think of the project while I get back to writing!

See you in the Vein!

J. Dean

On Writing: The value of a great imagination…

Greetings, Bearers!

I wanted to take this post and talk with you about something that should be obvious to everybody (and especially to writers and artists) but is something that we’re drastically losing in this world, and in our nation in particular, and that’s the gift of imagination.  Let me start with a little story that spurred this particular topic…

The other day I was doing my “cool down” time, which essentially amounts to me lying on my bed and doing nothing: no music, no TV, no internet/phone, nothing at all.  Not even sleeping; just sitting down and letting my mind unwind and contemplate (That’s another issue I want to bring to your attention as well, but we’ll tackle that one later…). So while I’m there, my son comes up to me and asks me where the paper is.  I told him where it was, then asked why.  He told me he was going to draw.  I said “Cool!”

Then he dares to do the unthinkable: he asks me to get up and draw with him.

Well, first of all I wasn’t too keen on giving up my “contemplation” time, as that’s essentially a time for me to unwind my brain and give it a rest.  And second, I’m not particularly great at drawing (Yeah, that’s why I had Sanjana do that great artwork on my blog site; that sure isn’t my work you’re looking at, and you don’t wanna see mine either!).  But, being the good dad that I try to be (note that I said “try to be,” I don’t always succeed; just ask Mrs. J. Dean), I got up and started doodling with him.  We did little things here and there.  He tried his hand at some comic strip characters.  I did one character I had contemplated developing for a comic strip (Don’t worry, that’s well out of my system now), then a couple of other things here and there: some other characters, a pitiful rendition of the Silver Surfer, the Starship Enterprise, and another starship of my own design.  At best, I can manage modest drawings that are recognizable, so long as you squint your eyes and strain really hard.

But then, while doing some more doodling, I came up with something else, something that I might use for one of my future Vein novels.  All of a sudden, I went from playful sketching to attempting to put together something more concrete, something that my imagination had taken hold of and was trying to develop.  By the time I had finished, I had put down the basics for another item that I now plan on inserting into one of the later Vein novels.  And I have my son to thank for egging me into drawing that one particular day

You see, this ties in to my point about the value of a great imagination, and how useful it is.  And while I certainly include writing as one of the reasons for needing imagination, by no means is it the only venue through which imagination is invaluable.  Nor is it something limited to only the arts.  A friend of mine whose wife is employed by the Dow Chemical Corporation noted that the company isn’t too keen on hiring Americans as much.  They’ve been looking to other places and people for hiring, and it’s not because Americans aren’t smart.  It’s because Americans aren’t creative.

This speaks to a problem that is on the rise in our society, and it is that people are losing creativity.  Creativity requires active imaginations and active minds, but the current culture in which we live is geared toward turning us into passive learners and thinkers.  If you want an example of this, look at the amount of television and video games that our youth are involved in rather than reading books.  The visual media presented through TV is a subtle destroyer of imagination, because the viewer doesn’t have to imagine; the TV does it for you.  It supplies the pictures and the people, instead of forcing you to conjure up with your own thoughts images of places and things on your own (a trait of old radio drama shows which, if you are not familiar with, I would encourage you to listen to sometime).  As a result, the mind becomes lazy, lethargic.  It doesn’t take the time to assemble an image, because the image is already constructed for you.

If you’re a parent with kids, and especially with young kids, let me please encourage you to limit the time with the television and balance it with things that require your child to imagine.  Send them outside.  Give them a book.  Find things that require them to think, and think creatively.  Check out the Classic Radio Dramas and introduce yourself and your children to them.  Technology and media are great things and can be wonderful tools, but like anything else they can become harmful if they overdominate a person’s time and attention span.

So make your kids become creative.  Believe me, you’ll be thankful that they are.   And later on in life so will they

See you in the Vein!

J. Dean

 

And now for something completely different…

Greetings, Bearers,

I’m going to take a little detour from my typical fiction-writing musings and thoughts and share with you the theological paper I wrote late last month detailing the teachings of a particular self-proclaimed evangelist who’s making waves in many churches. If theology is not your thing, don’t feel obliged to read it. However, if you are especially a Christian, and if you are curious about movements and people in parts of evangelicalism that seem to raise questions, then I encourage you to check out this paper I’ve written:  A Return to Azusa Street

By my own admission I don’t “enjoy” writing nonfiction nearly as much as I do fiction, but this was something that needed to be put out there, and I’m hoping that others will read it and find its insights valuable.  Feel free to read it, to copy and print it, and to distribute it, so long as you do so fairly and keep what I’ve written in proper context of the entire body of the article.  Let me know what you think as well.  I realize that this isn’t my typical field of writing, but hopefully it’s written well enough to pass for diligent research

See you in the Vein!

J. Dean

From the Vein Compendium: The Bounders (and yes, you may try to create one)

Greetings, Bearers!

And yet another one of my creatures makes its way into the Compendium.  Meet the Bounder!  This one is one of my favorites, and one that I might be introducing a little more of in later books.  And as for the question about drawing my creatures… I would WELCOME anybody interested in trying their hand at artwork for these creatures.  If you have one you’d like me to see, please let me know!  Heaven knows my artistic ability regarding pictures is…. well… let’s just say that I’ll leave it up to the experts

So here it is, and send me in your ideas of what the Bounder looks like!

See you in the Vein!

J. Dean

Bounders-Bounders are a race of bipedal creatures that inhabit the Meridian, and are found primarily in areas near mountains, canyons, and other areas with extreme discrepancies in landmass altitudes, where they can be seen commonly at night.  Possessing a muscular, hunched over physical appearance that has both humanoid and simian traits, They can measure anywhere from two to two-and-a-half paces (6 to 8 feet) tall.  Their exterior is described as that of a smooth and shiny black skin, but beyond this little is known about their appearance as they are nocturnal creatures and have not been observed during the daytime, either living or dead, which has caused some to speculate that Bounders do not leave their dead outside.  The only other feature immediately noticeable concerning Bounders is that of their solid white eyes which are devoid of pupils and are said to glow, giving the beast an unsettling and disturbing appearance.

 

The most notorious trait concerning Bounders is that of their ability to leap great distances due to their extremely powerful legs.  Fully mature Bounders have been observed leaping distances of at least forty paces while rising at least half that distance in the process.  While this is the primary method used by the creatures to move, Bounders have also been observed moving on hands and legs together while upright, similar to a gorilla in motion, and although this alternate mode does not afford the Bounder the same speed in covering distances, the creatures nevertheless can quickly cover ground in this secondary manner, able to outrun even a sprinting long-legged Talusibat.  In addition, Bounders have a natural stealth ability with regard to noise, as they make little sound, if any, while moving through the Meridian with either method.

 

This last trait of stealth combined with an aggressive disposition and a voracious appetite makes Bounders one of the most dangerous creatures to encounter in the Meridian.  At sunset, Bounders emerge and begin to leap across the immediate area in search of food, which may include anything from a herd of ha-bears to any hapless traveling Being who has the misfortune of finding himself in the territory of the vicious predators at night.  A Bounder’s preferred method of attack is to leap upon its victim from as far a distance as possible and crash down upon their prey.  Once the victim is knocked down, the Bounder then extends its mouth, which is attached to a thick appendage protruding from its chest, bites into the victim, and immediately leaps off toward its burrow, taking its prey with it.  So strong and quick are the Bounders that witnesses have claimed the creatures pounce upon and carry off half a dozen Beings before the survivors realize what has happened.

 

Should a Bounder land upon a creature too large for it to carry off, it will pin the victim down with its body and begin to ravenously rip flesh from the prey, its mouth snapping out and back with chunks of meat.  Because of this, Bounders are not afraid to attack creatures even as large as a rested maw eel (though such attacks are rare and only occur if Bounders have been deprived of food for an extended period of time). During such feedings, it is not unusual to see other Bounders join the first in its meal, and although cannibalism is not a common trait, it is not unheard of for Bounders to fight over food with one killing and eating another in the process.

 

During the day, Bounders conceal themselves by hiding in sand burrows, buried and out of sight.  Even then, caution must be taken by any who pass by these burrows, as the Bounders are extremely sensitive to any vibrations caused by pedestrians, and will attack and pull into their burrow anyone or anything foolish enough to tread directly upon a sand burrow.  It is unknown whether Bounders find and use these natural pockets of sand or whether they somehow create the burrow themselves through digging, but the general belief is the latter.

What happened in Boston…

Greetings, Bearers (and others),

In light of what happened yesterday at the Boston Marathon, I want to say two things:

1.) All of our thoughts and especially our prayers go out to the victims and their families.  Three people died, and a great many more were injured.  May Almighty God have mercy on all involved.

2.) I don’t rant often, and I don’t want to make this blog a place to rant about all things social and political, but in this case I do have a bone to pick and it needs to be said now: to those who are speculating as to who is responsible for this, could we please allow for some facts to come out before we begin speculating?  I’ve already heard every sort of speculation from Muslims to “right-wing” extremists (how come “left-wing” extremists like the Weather Underground are never considered?).  People need to let law enforcement officials do their jobs and learn the facts before pointing fingers at guilty culprits.  If there’s anything I find disgusting about our media-driven soundbyte culture (of which I, regrettably, am a part and must also claim guilt on this point), it’s that people both in the media and abroad jump to conclusions based upon their own personal biases without any real information being presented.  So please… stop guessing as to who did it.  Let those being paid to investigate conduct their investigation and put forth the gathered evidence.

 

Back to the grind and semi-good news!

Greetings, Bearers!

Contrary to assumed belief, no I have not been in a sugar-induced coma for the past week and a half  Although I have enjoyed my fair share of real licorice, thanks to my mother-in-law.  The truth is, it’s been a bit harder to find the time to write the fiction for two reasons.  The first is that, oddly enough, vacation can be the most difficult time to write.  All these people living in my house want my attention (Did you know that children have to be fed on a regular basis?).  While I have more time in one sense, I have less in another.  Mind you, it’s not necessarily a complaint; just an observation.  Usually in the summer, when I’m not teaching, I reorganize my time a bit better and get consistent time put into writing.   But one week off with a planned itinerary (yes, I get the “honey-do” lists as well, and I also fall asleep on the couch too  ) doesn’t permit for good adjustment.

The second reason is that I actually did get a chance to write… but not to write fiction.  I was tackling a theological topic, one that hits home for me as I was personally involved in the particular matter.  Believe it or not, it’s actually easier (although not more enjoyable) for me to write non-fiction.  I can put out four pages in an hour when I’m writing about the concrete, compared with the much slower pace of two an hour with fiction.  What I ended up putting together was a twenty-page thesis that I might link up in the near future for your consideration (Right now somebody else is reading through it.  If he likes it and decides to put it up for public consumption, I’ll link to it).  It’s something important to me as a Christian, and I had to take the time to put it out there.  As I said, perhaps I’ll put it up for reading in the near future.

Anyway, I’m back to writing.  One of my double-feature short stories is nearly edited, and I’m trying to finish up the second short story, as well as continue editing The Summoning of Kran, shopping around for cover art on this third Vein novel, and writing The Summoning of Bherta as well (Who says writers don’t work?).  I plan to get another entry in the Vein Compendium done in the next week or two and will put it up for your enjoyment, so be looking for that as well.

And once again, a shout out to the new Bearers who have decided to check out the Vein series!  Thank you again for purchasing my books, and feel free to let us know what you think of them!

Okay…. back to my sugar coma.

See you in the Vein!
J. Dean

A happy Easter to all…

Greetings, Bearers!

A little R&R for me and the family this week, although I’ll still be writing through it (believe me, writing for me is R&R ).  I hope that all of you, my dearest readers, will enjoy your blessed Easter holiday.  Go to church (I recommend a good sunrise service, like I’ll be doing tomorrow!).  Visit your family.  Enjoy March Madness, whether or not your brackets are in shambles (like my wife’s are ). Eat lots of chocolate bunnies.

Happy Easter and see y’all in the Vein!

J. Dean

Happy Easter!

Just thought I’d share this with all of you….

…in case you haven’t seen this.

I’m not a Zombiephile by any stretch, but I am looking forward to seeing World War Z, even if it’s nothing like the Max Brooks book.

Here’s the Trailer.  Enjoy!: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/paramount/worldwarz/

 

See you in the Vein!

J. Dean