Stories in the Chamber

I have about three million things to do before Codex Kalachnikova is ready for submission but I have at least one hurdle done-I have settled on a final list of names. The manuscript is done, just needs to be transcribed, but honestly looking at it, I'm kinda depressed that it took me this long just to settle on names. I had used placeholder names to make my progress faster, but I was regretting it later when I read some of the passages and was like "Sweet Zombie Jesus What A Stupid Name" and ditched it. I tried to come up with a good, consistent scheme for religious names-while keeping in mind that Watership Down is the post apocalypse equivalent to the Bible.

While I was angsting over names for this project, I diddled a couple of other projects on the side.

For one, I did an epic chunk (30,000 words) on a story about my nephandi. This is the biggest, stupidest waste of genuinely good writing I've ever done. I'm archiving it deep where no one can find out what a disturbed, self absorbed fuck up I am. Still, if I have a magnum opus in my life, somehow I think this story (not this segment, but his whole story) will be it-and really, that just makes it sadder, that my magnum opus is the ultimate form of Self Insertion Fan Fiction, with a dash of Multiverse theory.

I also completed another chapter to Last Call, Last Stand and worked out the rest of the outline. Jon Mackey, bless his godless heart, is still in limbo but I have some vague idea of where he will end up. I'm not sure if I want to publish it on ZS yet, though I should-I owe it to the folks who were reading my shit. Honestly i'm not wild about it. But Mackey does deserve an ending, doesn't he?

Finally, I also started two new projects, one based off this post (Crystal Menage) that dovetails into Lovecraftian Horror and one, my first actual zombie story, about an unusual and obscene Post Apocalyptic Romance. I'm debating whether to publish either on ZS (Well, the Crystal Menage is probably never going to be ZS appropriate) and waffling on the issue. I need another project like I need a hole in the taint, but I have really been enjoying doing both.

Really, I think it has all been creative stalling on finishing up Codex, but you know...it feels good to write again, anyway.