Monday, March 24, 2025

Upcoming Updates...

Sometimes in order to know how far you've come, you have to take a look back at where you've been...




This image was put together back in 2015, and when I look at it, I cringe...

Notice the url? That was just after Poetry and Fiction was closed, and I branched out into separate sites for Butterfly Dragon (yep, those are pics of me on there, back when I was a foung yeller  er... young feller...), Tales Of The Sanctum, and an experiment I was running called Shhhh! Digital Media... I wonder what happened to that one?


Hi again. Brian Joseph Johns here.


You might be wondering where are all of the updates? There's three, maybe four major storylines in progress and we haven't received a new update or even a paragraph for almost a week and a half!


You're right. I haven't been writing recently, as I've been up to my slowly receding hairline with other projects that are all connected to what I envision eventually encompassing Shhhh! Digital Media. These projects take a fair bit of time and effort, not to mention I'm trying to catch up on the technology that I've been neglecting over the years that I've spent focusing on writing. Its a big undertaking, and so it requires a lot of attention and a lot of focus on detail.


It has been a nice break from writing, which by comparison is a relatively quick form of immediate gratification in terms of the sense of accomplishment and the readership being a big part of the reward that keeps me motivated. However, I know that the other projects are going to have a much more tangible future. Like the difference between publishing online in the format I currently do so, and publishing in another medium, such as ebook or even audio books. All of these projects require a fair bit of time and effort and so that is what I've been doing, while Yirfir, Lady Naemi Soon, Athandra, Sir Manfred, Kensai, Jeong Soon, Morton Keyser and his best friend Benjamin gather intelligence about Boudicca's plans, and while Mila, Nelony, Shaela, Xenshi, Barris, Sato and Xushu attempt to make contact with and question a certain bee keeper, who's been breeding hyper intelligent bees whose sting grants the stingee one wish.


But some artwork might be questionably so...

This old image was from 2013, shortly after I realized that Prerogative wasn't spelled Perogative.

A Lady's Perogies anyone?


Meanwhile, Heylyn has been spending more time with Warai, as they prepare to protect Heylyn's claim of motherhood over Warai. Monique and Aikiko have been bonding, and taking up the slack with the Butterfly Dragon now engaged in keeping her family (by way of Warai) protected. Katsura seems to be involving herself ever the more in the lives of original four superheroes: Butterfly Dragon, Night Style, Eclipse and Kyra, while the two dragons appear to have taken on a universal presence, as the two sides of time prepare to battle one another for the the fate of all of reality.


Stanton in the meantime is camouflaged in desert pattern, camo, half-buried in a pile of sun dried grain as he peers through a FLIR (forward looking infrared) scope, eyeing the five men assembling an ad-hoc cruise missile installation a hundred and fifty kilometers from Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel, as he, Dina, Linda and Donahue come to realize that the technology of high yield weapons has come home to roost into the hands of those who understand the power of tool and parts printing and modular design. Complicating a situation which draws ever the closer to the edge of a precipice from which it has no hope of return to its former innocence.


Steadman grows weary and nervous as his last ditch plan to recover command over the Many Faced Maiden gets closer to its deadline as the Gearing Class Destroyer Refit approaches the island facility of Cora Hau.


Alomera Constanza Zekestes has become aware of his own mortality, especially so with the loss of his right hand thanks to Steadman, who taught the industrialist that at one time ran the world, that even a god has an expiry date. With his realization of this fact, he reflects upon his life and story, writing it all down in his journal, as if expecting that his time may soon be up...


Somewhere back in time, around the end of August around the year 1759, Heylyn and Alicia face the daughter of Nelony Theearin, as they seek to unravel the tyranny of a cruel justice found at the end of a thornbrush maze in the Haven of the True.


At the same time, Monique and Aikiko, a French translator and her body guard, travel with the remnants of a British Platoon, who are about to link up with General James Wolfe on the Plains Of Abraham, just outside of the fortress that Quebec City has become in the country of New France, but not before passing the similarly fortified Montreal...


Yes. All of these stories are fresh on my mind, and have occupied a protected space within since my having began this journey. Hence, they will be continued and eventually finished. A day I look forward to as much so as I look to it with the dread of not knowing what to do with the rest of my own time. 


When one's purpose in life has run out, so often do they shortly thereafter.


We're looking at about two months before I get back to Night Boat, as it is one of the most exhausting to write, given the fanfare and audience it attracts. I enjoy writing it, but not enough people realize that it is a story, and that as the writer, I don't always share a lot in common with all of my characters, but I do have to step into their shoes enough so to give a convincing portrayal, and yet I always remain myself regardless.


Mila and Stanton will be the first two who are getting a sizeable update, followed by Tricia Camden and William Halmand, after which the next Butterfly Dragon story will continue, focusing on the lives of the supporting cast, primarily the intellects (Zheng Ni Wong, Doctor Briggs, Bryce Maxwell), and the support staff of West Meet East (Sienna, Fay, Ebtissam, Lisa, Trey and Dylan). Heylyn and her besties will pop in for a short cameo. Then I'll be delving into the Pleroma.


So, there you have it. I'm off to continue my work in Visual Studio, having written a quick prototype in  an Object Pascal IDE taken from an old magazine cover disk (legal) copy of actual Borland Delphi 5.

Yikes, the last time I was working professionally in D5, was 2002/2003, creating a storyboard management system that could be used to power productions remotely, via satellite offices around the globe. Made good money building that, but alas not everything lasts forever.


See you soon with some more Shhhh! Digital Media fantasy and adventure!


Artwork: Amy Wong, Wendy Pusey, Ghastly, Birdman, Brian Joseph Johns, Daz3D, Unreal Engine...

Tools: Daz3D, Corel Painter, Adobe Photoshop, Lightwave 3D, Blender, Stable Diffusion (Easy Diffusion distribution), InstantID, Sadtalker, Google Colaboratory, Microsoft Copilot (Windows 11), Hitfilm, Borderline Obsession...



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