Resonant Dissonance: An Anti-Hero Story
June Lake pic. My AI statement. Publishing on itch.io. Peleos update. Ghost upgrade coming. New blog post on roleplaying and writing. Short story fragment: Resonant Dissonance.
Spent another week in June Lake with my brother and our cousin, who we haven't seen in far too long. The weather couldn't have been better! I'm home now, which is great, but my wife took off the very next day to visit my mom. She might be trying to tell me something. 😉
I've stayed quiet on the AI topic because, frankly, I didn't have much to say, but I realize that isn't fair to my readers, who deserve to know what they're getting. I'm a tech guy, which almost by definition means I need to interface with AI just to keep up with the Joneses. However, people who follow me don't want to hear ChatGPT tell a story. If they did, they could just ask it themselves. No, they want to hear my ideas through my words. Presenting anything less would be utterly disrespectful.
And so that's my stance on AI when it comes to writing. You have my promise that every character, idea, and word is my own (except sometimes for names, because I'm utterly terrible at naming).
Speaking of tech, I've put a few of my self-published titles up on itch.io. I honestly have no idea how to use the platform yet, so if my pages look terrible, have mercy on an itch newb. Feedback is also welcome.
I stepped back from Peleos (Timeless Keeper Saga Book3 ) yet again because it felt like the plot was meandering. I re-outlined the last ~2/3 of the book, and it now feels much better. We'll see how it turns out.
I also listened to Zima: Origins a few weeks ago. I love the story, but my gosh it needs another edit pass. It's so wordy! I've added that to my to-do list right after the first draft of Peleos. Fingers crossed I can convince the publisher to release a new edition.
My newsletter platform, Ghost, just released the next major version containing a host of interesting new features. First is the ability to hook into the Fediverse, so my newsletters and blogs can be published on Mastodon and (I hope) Bluesky seamlessly. Second is native Docker support. This is exciting because it makes maintenance much easier. So easy, in fact, that I'll probably bring it in-house and host it from a local server. Got a little prep to do first, but I'll give fair warning before I move in case there are any issues. The transition should be seamless, but... 🤷
Are you a roleplayer, or interested in learning more about it? I just posted a blog on roleplaying and how those skills prepared me to write my first book. If you're a gamer who's never written, penning your first novel might be easier than you think. Check it out here:
Ryan Southwick
Lastly, this month's feature is a fiction snippet titled Resonant Dissonance. Hope you enjoy!
In this newsletter
- Resonant Dissonance — An Anti-Hero Story Snippet
- Currently Reading
Resonant Dissonance
An Anti-Hero Story Snippet
An author friend used to regularly ping me over chat: "Writing sprint! 20 minutes. Go!"
I would, of course, stop whatever I was doing and let my ideas flow until she called "Stop!" and we would compare word count. Usually, I would sprint on whatever book I was writing at the time, but sometimes I would create a story from scratch.
Resonant Dissonance came from such a sprint. Normally, if I write something new, it's based on an idea I've had floating in my head. This story was different because I decided to completely wing it, making absolutely everything up as I went. I don't know if I'll ever finish it, but I like where it was going. Who knows?
Warning: The following passage is only lightly edited and not a complete story. It ends exactly where the timer did. So, if you're wondering what I can do in 20 minutes, here it is.
Garvin rolled up his sleeves and channeled his energy, letting his body feel the rhythm. Waves and vibrations flowed through him, through his shoes, up from the concrete below. Cars, footsteps, motorcycles, refrigerators, he felt them all, felt their energy, and through it, could picture where they were, how fast they were going…
And, most importantly, where they were going to be.
Like a pianist dancing across the keys in time to the music, Garvin found his target—an old man with a heart rhythm as odd as his gait. He followed the sound across the street: step ba-dump, step ba-dump. The next step would carry him right where Garvin needed him to be.
He let the echoes of the man’s footsteps flow into him, carrying vibrations from everything around. Above the man, a window-washing platform motor whirred, carrying it up to the sixth-story window. Garvin harnessed the vibrations, amplified them until the motor began to shake. The vibrations carried into the platform itself. The water bucket rattled the squeegee inside. Garvin took all of that energy. Smoothed it. Timed it so the waves in the water played off each other, amplifying everything around. The boards began to shake. Nails came loose from their moors.
Like a nuclear chain reaction, the vibrations soon became exponentially more. Boards splintered; water sploshed over the side. The cables themselves shook, rattling the pulleys above with dangerous squeals of metal.
All at once, the platform flew apart. The metal frame plummeted down on top of the man, unaware that catastrophe was headed his way until a pole bashed his skull like a ripe melon.
Garvin hadn’t even known his name.
But he didn’t need to. Garvin stood from the park bench and gawked with everyone else for a few minutes before heading down the city street to the local grocery store. He was out of eggs and cheese, and, for some reason, an omelet sounded really good.
* * *
The bolt to his apartment slid back with a stubborn squeal. No amount of grease would fix poor workmanship, which pretty much defined his entire building. Being a hitman wasn’t nearly as glorious—or lucrative—as the movies had led him to believe. One thing they hadn’t said was how once you were in, you didn’t come out.
The answering machine showed zero messages, for which he was grateful. A day without killing anyone would be nice. He picked the mail up off the floor and put it on the table with the pile of others, then put the eggs and cheese in the fridge, lined up precisely next to the…
—END—
(I did mention it was a timed sprint!)
Currently Reading
Old Man's War
Finished! I now see why this is Scalzi's best-known series. This sweet tale of a man who misses his wife, wrapped in the guise of a space opera military story, is a gem of a novel. I've already started Book 2.
Click below for my full review.
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