I wrote myself a Future story!

 ...and then the clock struck 12.

See, I finished the next Tale, "Venomous Constellations", late in the day on Saturday, April 20, 2019. Now normally I would have celebrated this as a "420" story or some silly thing like that, but that was far from my mind as I finished up this Tale because it was written into the future. Yup, that is correct... I had been able to, for the first time, extend these Tales of the Bajazid beyond a historical record and into a predictive document. I was telling the future! I was writing Science Fiction! It was April 20th and I was writing about what happened on Easter Sunday, 2019... which happened to be April 21st that year.

As you can see, my soothsaying was short lived.

Of everything I have written, I am going on record as saying the last image we are given through our intrepid hero's eyes in this Tale are the most cosmically Lovecraftian an image as I have produced... as far from anything cosmic as could be. I'm kinda proud of it, this imagery. It flowed from the Tale and determined the name at the last second. When I first had considered this idea, another of those early original notes, I had ascribed to it the incredibly horrid place-holder title of "Big New Thrill" 'cause that's what these two dudes are up to... getting their next big thrill. When I came upon this moment in the story, when it had reached this horrific conclusion and they way the words worked themselves out onto the page, I knew what now was to be.

As for the Tale itself and those involved, "Venomous Constellations" was finished the night before the story takes place. I was chasing the clock on this 'cause I had the idea sitting and returned to and dropped so many times and then the right stars came together and I realized where to go with it. It was finished nine days after "There is Clearly Something Amiss" making it the 7th story of the year at halfway through April and the 42nd Tale overall.

I always knew who these two guys were, or at least I knew I had met them before... or at least have known enough near enough to fit the bill. I just could never get the right fit to their being there, up in the Bradshaws, that fit a reason not forced. That too had been sitting in front of me this whole time as well and it took this long for them to connect. When they did, there it was. The primary problems the characters face and the resolution all remain pretty much how my notes always said they would. Again, this was a story looking for a reason and a voice. Once I had that reason, the voice followed. What remained was execution.

Now, I know I had a huge burst of ideas flood me on March 23rd of that year as I was working on "There is Clearly Something Amiss" because there is a specific date mention in my notes for this. I had on that day compiled in a single Word document the different needed elements with the names and other information that was developing at the time. This is 4 1/2 pages before I apparently fell asleep with further points to be made and discussed with those point notations already laid out but empty. The information on these pages deal often paragraphs deep on who these folk are and their motivations and that stuff. It is the 6th entry that is curious at second look for the notation added the next morning reads:

"To preserve this, the above sentence was written about 1:30am as I was falling asleep 3-23-19. The last six words I don’t remember typing"

 That which I was referring to was this:

"6:     Brett Flynn is the other and he is as entitled as you would think with wounds delightful at close range"

 There once was a time I slept on a low bed that let me dangle my arm to the floor easily and I kept a pen and pad there. I would sleep with headphones on, something like Roger Water's "Amused to Death" or Jim Morrison's "American Prayer"... some interesting things would appear on that page in the morning... and sometimes I was even able to read them. I have fallen asleep on my keyboard more times than I can count and while most often the result is multiple pages of the letter "v" (most common nose resting location), sometimes interesting things appear. I have no idea where "with wounds delightful at close range" came from.

Oh, and yes, that is an example of the font I write with, MyUnderwood. It's a nice writing font for that old-timey pulp feel.

That which clicked to bring this story from the back of my mind to the fury of my clickety-clacking fingers was Roland Trane and his video blog from "Trane's 'a Rolan". Seriously, why I hadn't connected these before, two adrenaline junkies looking for their next fix with the adrenaline junkie who posted his exploits on-line, I don't know but when they did, there it was. Simple motivational answer... they were inspired to ride Roland's last trail after the video was uploaded without previewing by one of Roland's friends. Thus following that trail, they had a great time. Yup, end of story... good times had by all and now it's back to town for more blow and before work the next day. Got a little time to kill so take this road and find, outside an old abandoned fortress-like compound, the entrance to an old mine or tunnel. Hey, this looks like fun! Time to add spelunking to their list of hobbies right there along with base jumping, mountain biking and white water rafting. After getting really into it, after they've learned all they could...

Now, as the events unfolded in this Tale of 4,911 words, things started taking their own direction. This leads to that leads to this decision leads to... all following the primary plan, just the details really built themselves up here. There are stories beneath the cold waters that flow from the old Baird's Holler/Pitt's Junction tunnel, stories from the week Baird's Holler was damned that I need to tell based on what was found in there. There are other stories as well, one in particular I had no idea was going to show up, but as the horror was growing to absolutely maddening levels in this Tale, when there really is nothing left to do but lose your mind, things get weird and that 4th dimension is crossed.

As for why it is set for that Easter Sunday, I needed the perfect time for two bachelors working in a high end auto dealership to get away and such a time is perfect. I remember one year when my eldest daughter was about 5 and she went to her mother's and so my roommate and I just went out into the desert with some creative targets (for example, an old Pat Robertson sermon on LP pilfered from my grandmother collection she was throwing out) and spent the day blasting away. Was nice 'cause we then went for Chinese while three of our closest friends were at the Thai place down the street. All got together afterwords and was a very nice day all told. When you have nothing else to do, when your responsibilities are shrived (in my case my daughter at her mother's) and work is closed for the day, why not go off on an adventure... or just go blow some stuff up? In such an industry as these two work in, with their familial severances, this is jut the type of day for them. When that date was set, it became a race to get the story finished so that, yes, I would have one future story. This was important for me because a really nice fellow I worked with and who would listen to me work these things out, always begged me to write a science fiction story... so I did. He wasn't amused.

This story also illustrates exactly why I seem to have trouble sticking to a singular theme and working it through such as the "Outside the Circle of Midnight Black" stories. The previous Tale took place in 1980. The Tale which follows "Venomous Constellations", "The Trial and Execution of Leopold Tarkenfeld", takes place in 1874. I am unmoored in Time here. It is not like I'm choosing where I'm going with this. I seem to only have minimal control insofar as getting to add my voice to that which I'm being shown. Oh, also, this might be a good time to remind that I prefer to speak of these as if they are for it helps in my relationship with them... thinking about a dynamic as opposed to a static graveyard.

There is a story of shifting place-holder titles in my List of Tales yet to write. It involves one of the vehicles seen by the unnamed protagonist from way back in "Anger", my 7th Tale. After that beautiful Golden Hawk was discovered up there and knowing that the Free-Men's Collective's truck was up there (you've met some, you'll meet the rest soon), I was still searching for those needed that remained. At some point I noticed a 1970s model pickup with camper-shell up there, CB and other wireless antennae all over it... you know, an enthusiast parked up high for some serious reception. I have yet to write his story, but I know now the signal he was searching for.