The Urge to Write

Argh! I've done it again!

I just can't seem to resist the urge when it gets to me. The urge to right, that is. And because of that urge, I've put even more on my plate than I already have.

As you all know, I once wrote a novel called The Dandy Monsters: Night of the Eripmav. As the title might have clued you in, I was planning to make it a brand new series. But after publishing it on Amazon, I got to thinking that I might have done wrong with the story. So, after a couple of months, I took the novel down with plans to reboot it. I wasn't planning to do it anytime soon, but suddenly I got the urge to get on it right away and I couldn't resist.

In a nutshell, The Dandy Monsters series is supposed to be a fantasy detective story, which focuses on the adventures of a regular guy named Jay who finds himself mixed up in the affairs of monsters. Jay takes the role of narrator, like Watson does for Sherlock Holmes. But unlike Watson, Jay's main focus will be on a detective, but a phantom thief, one of those fancy-pants gentlemen tricksters you see in comics that like to announce their thefts to challenge authority for a good laugh. Well, former phantom thief. And this phantom thief's a vampire.

Well, now that I've started on it, now I've got one . . . two . . . three . . . that's THREE novels I'm currently writing. And that's not counting my online stories and the continuation of The Paladin Academy Chronicles series that I've left off but still plan to get back to.

That's all I got to share for now. Stay safe out there. Do what you can to protect yourselves from Covid-19. And happy reading!

Writing Style

So, for a while now, my writing style's . . . (how should I say it?) . . . evolved. Since the beginning of it all for me, I've just written however without much of a plan. But now, I've created a sort of structure in my novels, which I like to call the Three Chapter Arcs style. Basically, I divide the overall novel into mini story arcs, which I normally spread out in three chapters per arc. Some of the arcs in some of my later books do stretch out for shorter than two chapters or longer than three chapters, but it's usually around three chapters long.

I might have used something like the Three Chapter Arcs style for some of my earlier books, I only actively started using it on Quest for the Witch, which is about a witch traveling around the country solving problems related to dark magic. I used that style again for its sequel, though one arc stretched out to about three-fourths a section. And I'm using that style again for two of the three books I'm working on right now.

The third book I'm working on's been put on hold since way before I decided to stick more with the Three Chapter Arcs style. For that one, I'm feeling iffy about how it'll turn out, but I'll just have to do my best with what I've got so far.

But so far, I've been doing pretty well with this kind of writing. I feel really good with one of those three books so far.

Anyway, that's all I wanted to share with you for now.

Stay safe out there. Keep social distancing. And happy reading!

The Virtual Experience (Chapter Three)

Chapter Three 

Monsters

Area: Basic Forest

After helping Lotus get new equipment for herself, just some basic of basic armor and staff that could barely improve a player's stats, we made our way into the forest, "Basic Forest", for her first ever quest. It was just a quick trip, leaving the regular shop district back to the center of town before going straight out the giant wood gates at the end of the block stone path. The town was ringed by a giant wall of stone, after all. So the only way out of town was through that gate.

All beginners of the game had to conquer the Basic Forest first before they could really get to exploring the world of the game. It's the place for them to bump up their levels enough to get a more decent fighting chance since, outside of this forest, any player less than level ten would end up croaking instantly.

"Do I really have to do this?" LotusStar said while clutching her new Staff of Noble Hearts close to her face. She had on an expression of whimpering terror while keeping a wary eye on either side of the dirt path that had nothing but dense forest.

I don't know why she'd be so freaked out about this place. The forest wasn't creepy at all, and, in fact, resembled some street parks that she and I strolled through in the real world. If a place that resembled a public park on a bright, cheery autumn day was enough to make her this nervous, I thought that there was no way she would be able to enter the more creepy, dark and dismal forests that we were sure to come across as we continued to play the game. I mean this forest is actually pretty popular for players to take leisurely strolls, for heaven's sake!

"Relax," LOWW said. He was leading the pack, dressed in a tubby grizzly bear mascot costume, while waving a stick around in the air. That stick was his weapon. "There are only Level One Slimes and Goblins in this place. Even the freshest of players can take one down in one normal hit. As long as you don't get swarmed by the dozens, you'll be fine."

"Yeah," said NovaFlash. "And getting swarmed by them is impossible here since the only place that would have a whole bunch of them packed together would be the Clearing of Infinite Slimes. But we'll be steering clear of that place since it's trouble even for veteran players."

"Ah!" I exclaimed softly. I happened to look up as she said that and saw the banner of light floating above our heads that labeled the area of the forest we were in, which read "Clearing of Infinite Slimes".

LOWW, NovaFlash and I stared at the banner in the sky. 

"Well, crud," went NovaFlash.

LotusStar had become unusually quiet, so we slowly turned around. Just as we predicted, we found a whole bunch of blue, bubble blob-like creatures piled atop one another with a shaky human hand poking out of the pile's peak. The health bar that floated above that hand, bearing Lotus's name was rapidly reaching zero.

Those blob-like things with smiley emoji faces were slime monsters.

"Gah! Lotus!"

"Whoa!"

"Hang in there, kid!"

LOWW and I worked together to peel the slime monsters off of Lotus. We pulled them off one by one and tossed them to NovaFlash who took care of them and others with swishes from her katana sword. Beneath her blade, the slime monsters disappeared as particles of gold light. Once we freed her from the slime pile, I tucked her beneath my arm and we ran out of the Clearing of Infinite Slimes before we could get overwhelmed ourselves. Since this was still part of Basic Forest, the slimes were extremely weak for veteran players like me, NovaFlash, and LOWW. But like NovaFlash had said, the area of was trouble even for veteran players, since dealing with a whole bunch of them at once would still be a big pain for us, especially when they could dog pile us.

Finally, after putting a satisfactory amount of distance between us and the clearing, we stopped and dropped to our hands and knees, tired.

"I thought I was going to suffocate to death!" blue-faced LotusStar said while rapidly taking in deep breaths.

"We're technically just zeroes and ones here, so that's impossible," I said.

"Yeah, but the feeling can still be simulated, sort of like ghost feelings," said LOWW. "Mind over matter and all that. Anyway, how's the quest progress? Any change?"

After calming down, Lotus brought out her menu and took a look at the quest sheet with details of the task that was given to her by the town's gate guard.

There was no getting out of that quest. For any player hoping to get out of town, they had to take the guard's quest before he'd open the doors and lift the barrier that would prevent the players from getting out. There was also another barrier that ringed around the forest so until LotusStar completed the quest, she won't be able to get pas the forest's borders. 

Those details, of course, were pretty much spelled out in the quest's details and the guard's verbal explanation, so Lotus knew about them just as well as us senior players did.

"It looks like I got enough slimes," Lotus said.

"Then that just leaves the Derp Goblins," said LOWW.

"Yeah," said Lotus. "I do know about goblins. But what the hay is a Derp Goblin?"

"They're this world's weakest goblin species," I explained. "The way this world's set up, the strength of a goblin depends on the species. And you can usually easily tell what species a goblin is just by their looks."

"So what does a Derp Goblin look like?" Lotus asked.

"Better to see for yourself," said NovaFlash. She nodded towards the west. 'There's one right there."

We all turned and Lotus exclaimed, "That's a Derp Goblin!?"

The creature she was gaping at was a blocky sort of cartoon character that was short and stubby. It's lower jaw seemed to be biting over its upper lip and it's eyes were literally googly and unfocused, with one pupil pointed one way and another pointed the other way.

"It looks . . . so stupid," LotusStar said. "Yeah, it definitely looks like something even I can take on my own."

"That's the spirit," I said to my cousin. "Then go right ahead."

"Huh? Wait, what!?"

I pressed my hand against her back and shoved her forward right into the goblin's sensory range. You say that was mean of me? Maybe. But while these games are supposed to encourage working together and getting along with others, there's no way that a player can get anywhere in this world if they can't do things on their own. As the saying goes: you can't help others if you can't help yourself. 

Once LotusStar crossed that invisible boundary, the monster's attack program was triggered and it lashed out with a loogie attack. LotusStar's shoulders shook from the shock and disgust for the attack. While going "Eek!", she dove into some bushes. The phlegm struck the grass she was standing on and disappeared.

"Come on, Lotus!" I called out. "Didn't you say that you could take this monster down on your own? Hey! If you don't hurry, the battle will time out and the goblin will go away."

It's one of the mechanics of the game to give players a chance to escape if they encounter monsters they couldn't handle. If a player gets too far, or takes too long to hit back, the monsters lose interest and go away.

"Hey, Lotus?" I called out. 

There was no answer. 

"You don't think she logged out, do you?" LOWW asked. 

"Hey, hey," NovaFlash said, glowering at me. "You went too far there, Dragon. What are you going to do if she comes out of this traumatized?"

"No way that happened!" I argued back. 

But I was worried that she hadn't said anything in a while. Without a word, I hurried towards the bushes she fell into and that was where I saw what looked like a giant worm wriggling on the ground. 

"Ah!" I cried out. "Bug monster!"

I backed away slowly and was about to leave. Normally, I'd waste a monster like that. But I needed to find my cousin, so I decided to let it be.

But then the worm flipped around to reveal Lotus' face. She was bound head to toe in white thread, except for her eyes. With her mouth covered and her screams muffled, I couldn't make out what she could be possibly saying. 

"Lotus!" I cried out her name and ran to her side and tried to tear the thread apart with my hands to set my cousin free. "What happened here?"

Lotus' screaming grew louder and she thrashed about. 

"Hey, calm down!" I said. "I can't get you free if you jump around like that!"

But she just screamed louder and louder. I really didn't understand what the fuss was about. But then I realized something. She was covered in spider thread. I had seen players caught in those kinds of traps before, so there was no mistaking what had encased my cousin. 

"Wait a minute," I said as it all donned to me. "This is a spider thread trap. This can only be from a spider monster. So, where is it?"

The answer to that was obvious. 

Looking my cousin in the eye, I said to her: "It's right behind me,  isn't it?"

Lotus nodded.

I slowly turned my head around. Right behind me was a huge arachnid, literally the size of a family car. It was black all over with yellow stripes. The label banner glowing above it revealed its name: "Arachno Lord".

"What the hay is that doing here!?" I screamed. "It's not supposed to be here!"

The name was familiar to me. I had faced that monster before. It was an inevitable encounter in the course of my journey as an adventurer in this world. It was a difficult battle that took me, LOWW and NovaFlash almost half an hour to beat when we were equal level to it. 

That giant spider, the Arachno Lord, was a boss monster.

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