The Limbo Chronologies

  Hello, dear Reader, To start off, no new chapter today. Most of my off-duty time aboard I’ve spent working on the fifth draft of my novel. So I hope chapters 5-1 to 5-4 have kept you entertained. And I’m sorry I’ve left you on a cliffhanger. By my estimation, I give it ten to twelve days until the fifth draft is done. How that short of a time? You ask. Well. The novel is separated into three parts, sandwiched between a prologue or prelude, and an epilogue. Part one and three have eight chapters in total, while part two has ten. I’ve finished part 1, after meticulously going through each chapter, a chapter a day. But now I’m looking to crank it up to two chapters a day, because from part 2 onwards things begin ramping up and I need a wider bird’s eye if you catch what I mean. I was honestly expecting myself to cringe at my own writing, having had the thing tucked away for a year, but DAMN! Reading it after twelve months of hibernation, (though I’ve ironed out many flaws and ...

Hello, Dear Reader, I come to thee with 5-4, titled: Midnight Murder . Ooh, spooky! If we go by the title, you might be guessing that someone’s going to die. And that means someone is doing the killing. But who shall be the victim, who the culprit? Did the Atlanteans have enough of the Purists, or vice-versa? Did someone mysteriously fall off the outpost walls? Was someone found torn to shreds by what seems like fangs, or crushed by a massive paw? Spontaneous combustion? An induced seizure from overdosing on malware? Or maybe just a good old (boring) blunt instrument bashed a skull in. Find out in this week’s chapter!  Explanations: Also, I've decided that I'm moving Book V into part 1. For me it seems the logical choice, and as you will see when the book ends, (now looking as though it'll have 7, maybe even 8 chapters), it's more fitting that the first "arc", if you can call part 1 in its entirety an arc, ends at the edges of known civilization. As a ...

  Hello, dear Reader, Back at it again! Just about an hour ago I stepped aboard the trusty-old-boat and I’m about to commence another six weeks. But what’s different? WELL! GLAD YOU ASKED!   Storytime: I left yesterday around 17:30. My flight from Oulu to Helsinki was delayed by an hour, so I was likewise an hour late to my hotel. Otherwise, no issue. Got all my luggage and carry on and didn’t lose anything on the way. ( subtle foreshadowing ). This morning our first flight left at 6:35, BUT it was delayed by a scant 15 minutes due to issues they didn’t specify. We had a connecting flight to our destination with a layover of 55 minutes, and the airport where it left from was… COPENHAGEN … If any of you readers have been to Copenhagen airport YOU KNOW how horrible that place is. It is so… so, big… Anyway! We touch down; we wait in the cramped airplane aisle for around ten minutes, as one does when waiting to be let off; we finally get off and after a 5 minute bu...

    Hello, dear Reader, Hope your collective summers have gone well and I hope you enjoyed last week’s chapter. Over here the weather is once again sunny after over a week of overcast, rain, and some thunder and a little lighting. (I play favorites for the latter). We’re coming up on the ending of my six week holiday, and any day now I’ll get a WhatsApp message detailing crew change. But that day is not yet! Today I bring to you 5-3, titled: At The Sphinx’s Request . In it you’ll see why I had an image of a sphinx in my post two weeks ago. ;) I shan’t go into details, for they are best experienced in the chapter itself.   What’ve I been doing?  Besides writing, I have, of course, been reading. I picked up and finished a Wordsworth classics version of Sir. Gawain and the Green Knight, (very good read), and Milton’s Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, which is currently underway. I am also re-listening to The Divine Comedy, and also for the first time Ov...

Hello, dear Reader, I won’t take up too much of your time today! I bring you 5-2, titled: Omen . I teased a little about what will happen in book five in last week’s post, but you ain’t seeing any of that yet. 5-2 is a downtime chapter, and 5-3, the title of which I shan’t spoil, will properly kickstart this next adventure in a series of unexpected encounters. I kinda wanna release the unfinished 5-3 because in its ending I introduce someone who’ve you’ve heard mentioned before, though only by number, and who you’ve seen only at a glance. (Hint, see 4-5, Fury Gorge.) But that’s for next week! The chapters themselves I’ve been writing at a furious, and at times languid, pace, and the story just melds together in my mind so I am constantly jumping back and forth between chapters cutting and editing to make the story  good . Hence why 5-2 is out and I’m sitting on 5-3, while working on 5-4 and 5-3 simultaneously. Also, I hoped you liked 5-1. I know it came out of left field. ...

  Hello, dear Reader, Just a quick update today! Doubt some of you remember to come seeing as Steam summer sales are here. I got myself Civ V with all the DLC, been wanting to play that for some time. June goes well, and we’re soon at the end of it. I’ve actually finished 5-2 but I still need to comb through it and pick out any inconsistencies and major grammatical flaws, so expect it next week. I hope the jump from Bee back to the Verdancy group won’t be too jarring. I’m exploding with excitement writing Book V. Brace yourselves for world building, because you’re gonna get it.   could this image be teasing something?   Brace yourself also for squabbling and high tension situations as Buddy and the rest try to put out flames within the cold Alpine outpost. Why is that? Well, a gaggle of Purists, (only mentioned before (Buddy hates them)), and an Atlantean delegation led by a, let’s just say impressive individual, lock horns. Why? You ask. If you recall, Puris...

Hello, dear Reader, I’m coming at you a little fuzzy today. I just woke up and my right hand’s wrist is very much in pain. I slept on it weird, I guess. The fuzziness and wrist pain, and the little headache that is being presently managed by paracetamol, hydration and caffeine, are all caused either directly or indirectly by last night: It is Juhannus, dear reader, or Midsummer for you purely anglo folk over in the Northern Americas and the British isles, the festival of light! (And no, the depiction of this long tradition by the movie Midsommar is not accurate.) Midsummer is and has been celebrated for a long time during the summer solstice which in the Nordic countries is called the ‘nightless night,’ or the ‘longest day of the year.’ In Finland it received the name Juhannus through John the Baptist, whom the day was given as a birthday by the church. (Other Nordics and some Baltics have Midsummer too, but I am not up for going into detail about them. Go read about it here )....

  Hello dear Reader, I’ve been enjoying my holiday for the past week and boy oh boy how the time flies. Already the first week is over and done with. Five left and then I’m back to making the bread that allows me to write on these blessed six weeks. Here in the north it’s a mix of rainy with a chance of sun. As I write I’m once again looking out the window where gray skies and a light drizzle greet me. I don’t mind the rain, especially during the summer. But! But, but but! The Chronologies The longer opinion piece, a badly constructed essay, that I’ve been promising you is on hold for the time being because… I’M BACK TO WRITING TLC! An overwhelming spirit took hold of me two days ago on the tenth, and the first chapter of Book V began spewing out of me in a torrent of new and colorful words! I don’t want to spoil anything yet, but the first chapter will not be starring the cast you’ve come to know. Hell, the entire milieu is different (but similar). Think ...

Hello again, Reader, I am home! Forty-six days later I’m back in the north, where summer has come humid and rainy. As I look out the window of my lovely girlfriend’s rental apartment window, the sky is a mix of brilliant white and dark gray. Trees are fat with emerald leaves, and a fleet of summer birds hop from canopy to canopy, competing in their personal song competitions, creating a wonderful choir that is the tune of summer. The air is sweet with pollen and the calming scent of wet everything. I’m the type of guy that sweats on humid days by just sitting and taking it easy, but I’m not complaining. I can’t express how wonderful the sound of rustling leaves, (one of my favorite sounds in the world), and birdsong is after six and a half weeks aboard a hulk of iron and electricity; constat vibration and, at times, rocking and rolling to the waves. I do believe in grounding in some measure, for the feeling of plopping my bare feet into a patch of dirt and/or grass just does wo...

Hello again, Reader, May is ending! I turned 27 on the 27 th and had an amazing birthday all things considered. The cook made a delicious Biscoff cheesecake and I had my guilty-pleasure food for dinner. (Mac and Cheese!) Also, an officer and the 8-12 watch, (both my age), made me a horrendous AI slop image using an old army photo of mine for a birthday card. It was hilarious and my heart was warmed from the thought they put into it. Even though I don’t condone use of AI in creative endeavors, I do give a pass for gag-gifts such as this. Also, by next week’s post I’ll (hopefully) be home. Original crew change day was second of June, but due to delays and scheduling issues we’ll have change on either the 5 th or 6 th , which means, if the former and not the latter, come next Saturday I’ll be posting from the comfort of home. And MAN am I in need of a holiday, a very long holiday, as a certain Hobbit once said. And to paraphrase him another time, after six weeks, (and a few days w...

Hello again, Reader, As promised, this week’s post will have nothing to do with the Chronologies as such but rather it will be a different piece of me that I’m going to share with you. Now, I shall get a little vulnerable here, so be nice. The topic at hand is imagination, and the fear of its loss. There are times as a writer when you sit down and you stare an empty page, be it paper or digital, and nothing comes out. The mind is in a state that monks from sects all around the world train their whole lives to achieve, that state being entirely blank… I cannot express to you how vacuous my thoughts sometimes are, and on those days, if the phenomenon were to stretch by, say, a day, and at worst into a week, a sense of loss comes over me. It is a curious loss; one I’ve struggled to bring into words. If you’ve ever broken an arm or a leg and subsequently had had to live for weeks with the unfortunate limb entombed in a cast, you’ll know, in some measure, what that loss feels like. ...