I wrote a whole page on how I hate myself, though. Too bad grunge is dead.

As long as one true believer clutches a "Nevermind" CD in their unclensed hands, grunge will live forever...

As long as one true believer clutches a "Nevermind" CD in their unclensed hands, grunge will live forever...

oooooooooooh, Nirvana!

I could've been a big star at that.

Dani's drabble is amazing.

Dani's drabble left me speechless all day. I read it this morning, and couldn't comment for all the stuff it brought up. I'm still not articulate about it.

Thank you.

I'm Not Scared

I am not scared I am not scared not not not.

It's just more words. I've heard them, or different flavours of them, so many damned times before: polio pneumonia scarlet fever diptheria polyps osteoporosis dysplasia abnormality HPV stage one and I'm not scared I made it to the half-century and they're just more words.

I'm not scared. It's just another test. It's just another doctor, another invasion, another poke another prod another doctor making a mistake which doesn't scare me doesn't scare me or another doctor not making a mistake, in which case this is terminal.

I'm not scared.

It's not a big deal. He's done it before, and it wasn't a big deal then. Nothing's changed now, not really. He's a little more practiced now, but that's to be expected. He's done it more often. Practiced isn't the right word. Acclimatized is a better way to put it. It's not because he's trying, not because he's really thinking about it. Because that would mean it's worth thinking about.

And it's not. It's not a big deal at all.

He wipes his clammy hands against his jeans and inhales deeply. He should be hearing the footsteps any time now.

ita, whoa. Rapist? Hitman? Bodyguard?

OK, can I get opinions, from those who have kindly beta'd The Burden of Memory for me?

I started the book with a prologue that introduced the main neutral, and/or sympathetic, human protagonist: Darrin Bergman, in present-day LA. It begins the book with his date-rape experience with the vampire couple, who are at the moment introduced to the reader officially at the beginning of chapter one.

Thing is, I have a series of in-the-past segments that will need to happen as the book goes along. Vide the book's title, the fact that these are memories, accurate or fractured or full or whatever, is important. What has to be shown are: Dory (Dorotta) and how she died, as a favoured handmaid to Elisabeth Bathory. Gilles (her chewtoy and partner) and how she found, killed and turned him during the Terror, the night the Bastille came down. Plus, memory vignettes showing the predators, the second generation post-White Sands testing kids, who are born with this odd, environmentally mutated cross between myelodysplasia and paroxysmal nocturnal haemglobinuria. This shows up as their hormones trigger at puberty, giving them the craving for filtered human blood. I need vignettes for this, as well.

So, can I ask opinion input on the biggie question: should I make the prologue one of the memories above - probably the White Sands exposure that triggered this in the first place - and move Darrin's introduction to be the beginning of chapter one?

should I make the prologue one of the memories above - probably the White Sands exposure that triggered this in the first place - and move Darrin's introduction to be the beginning of chapter one?

Whoa, crap. I've read that introduction, which is a nice hook, but the White Sands vignette sounds like it would be an even more phenomenal hook, because it highlights your awesome premise. While Darrin's introduction scene says, "This is a pretty cool story about vampires," I feel like the White Sands scene would say, "Dude. This is something different."