Author: pond

A New Section

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The first long form story I ever wrote was called Human Blood.  It was about a group of friends who got recruited by angelic forces to go up against an evil force that was about to reach great powers on earth. It had a cliffhanger type ending I was proud of.

The original idea was to be in three parts.

The Beginning and First Encounters
The rise of the full evil form, followed by chaos.
The final destruction of the evil form.

The problem I always had though, was how the second and third would be split.  And actually, a much bigger problem, I wanted a huge amount of backstory on a few of the characters on the good side of things.  I had a lot of it in my head, but none on text.

The first draft was 46 pages. It wasn’t much, but it was just a scribbled down idea of what was in my head. When I went to rewrite it, the first 4 words turned into 64. A describing what was in my head at the time I wrote it. This was such an expansion, it scared me. There were sentences I knew would turn into various paragraphs because of how thin I ran through things that first pass. This was before I added multiple layers of character development and whole chapters of new scenes fleshing things out.

So, after the 4 words turned into 64, I set it down and never picked it up again. In fact, I don’t have the actual first draft anymore in any form. I loaned it to somebody after a very embarrassing day. Summer doesn’t even remember the day, much less any notebook or anything that was written in it. Probably for the better.

Off and on since that period in the late 90s, it’s been running around my brain from time to time. The other night I was thinking about it so much, I had to jot down possible plot structure for 3 books. I shifted the 2nd and 3rd from before into just the 3rd, put the 1st as the 2nd, and have a lot of back history and buildup in the first. now it makes sense, where before it was almost entirely questions.

So, since work is shifted that way, I’m adding it to the framework here.
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A Letter

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Dearest Sister,

I want you to know that I am responsible for your bills and credit cards being credited to a zero balance from time to time over the last 10 years. I haven’t been a good brother. After dad died and I left, I had an interesting life. I never stopped caring about you.

I did the job on your first husband’s car. I’ve been keeping an eye out and found out he had been striking you more often as weeks and months passed. Once I learned you went into the hospital, I came out and did it. I found the point on his path to work and set his brakes to fail going down that hill by the curve. I gambled the life of oncoming traffic, but got lucky with only him taking the hit.

I’m sorry how bad that hit you, even though he was being a terrible human. I thought you would be happy to finally be free. Your son seemed to begin developing normally after that, so I can only assume he was being abused as well.

I also am the cause for your boss at the insurance company being found in the alley downtown. I monitored communications in your building and could see how stressful he made life for everyone at his own benefit. The people above him hated him and loved you. I knew if he died, they would instantly throw the whole building at you and give you what he was making. I also knew you would be a far better leader than he was.  I just wish they paid you more. I know times get tough, even with a better salary.

Things are going to get bad in this country, and I have arranged for you to be able to live somewhere safe.  Only if you choose to. And if you choose to, it will all be taken care of. Don’t worry about it.  I know it sounds strange, but it will make sense soon enough.

Sorry I couldn’t see you again.

Love always,
Jarrod

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About James

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I was asked recently how old James is. He’s 25. Here’s some timeline for him, involving the book.

From 16-17 he worked fast food. He had a second job as a stock boy at a grocery store. At 17, he met someone who worked in a distribution center. He went there from 17-23. He butted heads with somebody and quit.

23-25, he worked at Toys R Us. Then, the story starts. I suppose he has to have turned 26 in the story at some point but I did not find it important enough to comment on.  In my opinion, it’s quite meaningless in the story.

The reason he lived with his grandpa is because he got in a huge fight with his mom, and left at 18. Other living arrangements didn’t work out and he ended up at his grandpa’s because he helps them with errands from time to time and isn’t home enough to be much of a bother, anyway.

I couldn’t write Grandpa or Grandma’s reaction about the truck because the rage was off the scale and it hurt my heart writing the grandparents in that light.

Part of why some things, like the grandparents’ reaction, didn’t get written, is because the book moved so fast from the time that happened, through the partying, the transition and the training before returning to the surface. I wanted it to reflect how life is. Things happen and before you know it, looking back, a lot of stuff just didn’t get said or done because everything happened too fast.

Sometimes you only see or remember things in retrospect, which I also didn’t give the character time to do. Once he started his job in Arizona his life was so completely packed with taking care of business at work, trying not to be a failure, that nothing else could really be added or thought about. That includes his time with Isobel, overall. And just as he started getting a lot more time with her, either everything would pick back up, or the ending happened. That’s life, sometimes.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me.

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Descent . Signed

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For those of you who want a signed copy of descent, that option is available here.

How this will work, is I have 5 books arriving tomorrow. As I sell them, when I get down to one left, I will order five more. I will repeat this until nobody buys them anymore.

The price for each book goes up 2 dollars, mainly because of the time I will personally have to spend on this. The shipping will be $11.63. I’m sorry I can’t work the numbers lower right now until I get a different rate from UPS. I don’t trust USPS, and with the proper insurance through UPS vs. what it would cost with USPS for the same insurance, UPS is cheaper. I’ve worked shipping too many years in my life to ever send anything through the shipping gauntlet to not have insurance applied.

When ordered, make sure to fill out what you want written to personalize it. On top of that, I will sign the book under the personalization. I noted on the website that anybody who orders a signed one without noting what they want personalized, I will just write whatever I decide to write above the signature.

If you would like to email me about an order, or otherwise have questions about a previous order, feel free to pop me an email. I will try to get back to you within a few hours, as long as I’m awake.

A Note on Sales

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I was amazed. I posted the four track EP, self titled HATE ALL LISTENERS. I did it summer 2015. That’s when I posted it. On July 4th to the website, and only to the website. Then on my birthday on September 6th, it hit everything. Spotify, Google Play Store, iBlows err iTunes, everything. I essentially did nothing else. I did some light facebook promotion and paid 20 bucks to get the page some visibility, thus some views. And I walked away. I didn’t promote anywhere. yet, by mid march in 2016, that little four track throw-away project made more money on spotify than Symphony of Noise did from 2010-2016 combined.

A smart man would immediately put out a full album. I am not a smart man. Nor do I have any plans for a full album. The only plan I have, is Symphony of Noise songs that evolve into something too painful to fit into the SoN catalog, will be altered to appear on the first HATE ALL LISTENERS album.

I’m sure the first full LP will be done by the end of 2017. Though maybe not. I just know there’s no way I see it happening this year.

Categories: HaL

What The Future Holds

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Here are the upcoming projects for Symphony of Noise.  However, there is no time table. It could be this year. It could be in 2020.

FOUR NEOPLATONIST HIEROGLYPHS
This will be a four disc album. It will have vocals on almost every track, and will have four topics.
1 . HUMANITY
2 . POLITICS
3 . RELIGION
4 . NATURE

The disc about Religion will effectively replace what was once going to be God Is Void. This will be a Rock, Guitar driven, album.

The disc about Humanity will effectively replace the disc which I was previously working on that I restarted and re-envisioned called The River of Piss. This will be a Hip Hop / Rap / Gangsta Rap feeling album.

Nature will be a disc created with an idea I’ve had for years regarding how to do a concept album. This will be a sort of hybrid between Industrial, Atmospheric, Electronic, Techno, type… album. I’m sure you follow.

Politics is essentially written already and half of the tracks are fundamentally completed. This will be an album that is a mix of Soul / Jazz / Funk with some Dubstep aspects.  Though so far none of it, in my opinion, is on par with the inspiration for the sound – Watch The Duck. But I’m trying.

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An album that is separate from the above that is and will continue to be in the works, and will come before 4nh, is Infinite Machine. Vent 8.  I am drawing from my own life and self destructive aspects to put this together.  It is already written lyrically and slowly being pieced together.

I hope to have more to post before the end of summer.

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Dear Isobel

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I am writing this to you in case I am unable to bring you with me. The last month has been too busy for me to see you very often and I worry that it will remain this busy until the end. What is the end? I imagine if you are reading this, and I am gone, the end has already come through. I don’t even know if you will survive. And I don’t know what I am allowed to say regarding how I knew the end was coming.

I do want to say I love you. It has been a crazy year since we met. I don’t know how much of the Phoenix metro I would have been able to see without you showing me around. I also don’t know how I would have handled myself through work without your company on my fleeting days off.

When we first met in person I expected that we would immediately hit it off as friends. We have so much in common that I thought there wasn’t a chance you would be attracted to me. And when I first saw your smile, I was devastated. I was devastated that there being no chance for you to be attracted to me meant I would be haunted for the rest of my life by your beauty mixed with the fact you would never love me.

I was wrong. And I am beside myself about being wrong. You smiled at me so much I was worried I was developing false hope. And when you started holding my hand and demanded I kiss you, I started realizing I was wrong. I’ve never been so filled with joy about being wrong.

My dread now is sourced from worrying you won’t make it through the end. I try not to worry about it, but there’s nothing I can do. I’ve planted some seeds which I hope will blossom into you being saved from everything. I don’t even know if I believe what I think I know about what is coming. I just know I am smitten with you.

It occurs to me that you may not even receive this. I programmed multiple sources to email you this a couple months after the end is supposed to have come. I realize there may be no technology left, but if there is, and if any networks exist, I am hoping one of them will connect to you, and that at least one will deliver.  If all exist, and you are bombed with the same email a hundred times, I apologize.

I also apologize for this letter feeling so dark. I am doing everything I can to appear upbeat as I run this building and spend time with you. But when I am opening up in moments like this, it is hard. I also wanted you to know why I would become so morose with you when opening up face to face. This is why. I knew horrible things were coming for humanity and was powerless to stop it. My choices were get run over by it, or help dump fuel in. I don’t regret helping dump fuel in if it means I might be able to save a couple people I love.

I hope this reaches you in good health, regardless of the craziness in the world.

Sincerely,
James Freeman

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Domestic Terrorism

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I’m not too clear on who I was traveling with. But we arrived to the property in the early morning hours.  The
property consisted of a central area for gathering and feasting, and several two to three story houses.

After getting our things settled into the room we were staying in, I talked to some of the residents and visitors who were there before heading outside to look around. I was aware we were on the border of town and across the street was a large field they were recording a native american movie in. There were sections made to look like a battle had taken place, some that looked like a battle was going to take place, and various camp scenes spread around.

I looked up and saw a light grey helicopter fly over with four other aircraft flying around it.  The helicopter was in the center and it looked like a predator drone was in front of it to the right. Another similar drone in front to the left, an F35 behind and to the right and an armed aircraft that looked like a mix of an A10 and a predator drone behind and to the left.  The group flew by then out of sight around buildings to the northeast. I could hear them, or so I thought, and reached in my pocket for my phone.  They flew over again, or maybe it was a different set as one of the two aircraft in back was clearly an F-111 ardvark.  All aircraft I saw were painted the same light grey / dirty white. The ardvark broke off from the rest and flew off to the left so I focused on that while recording.

I watched as the plane, with a gas tank under each wing and a bomb affixed under the plane at center rear, banked harder and harder. It started losing altitude fast and, while my phone was zoomed in as far as it could, watched on my screen as it was diving diagonally at a 45 degree angle.  I saw it disappear behind some large, distant, concrete bunker looking structures.  I lowered my phone wondering if i just saw a crash about a split second before I saw what looked like pyroclastic flow and explosive blast rising and flowing up and away from the crash site.

I threw my phone back in my pocket and hurried back inside.  Nobody seemed to take notice to anything strange going on.  I went upstairs to a small living room type area off of the room we were staying in. Nothing was going on at first until a guy called a couple others over to the TV he was watching.  I walked over to watch a news report about a tank that had been blown up in a seeming terrorist attack on a military base.  They showed video of a huge crater that looks like should be the location of one building, with multiple buildings around it heavily damaged and burning.  A bunch of vehicles and stacks of crates were sitting around on fire, also.

I asked where it was and one of the guys raised his arm up to point in the direction I saw the plane crash and said the name of the base which I now forget. I explained I saw a plane crash there, and what else I had seen. The guys blinked at me in disbelief.  One asked if he thought I could be mistaken and I explained I had watched for a few seconds before I actually walked away, more than enough for a plane that size to rise back up into view.  And with the angle of descent, it was probably impossible for it to pull up without crashing anyway.

I went to show the video but my phone was about dead so I went to find a place to plug it in. After ten minutes or so of walking around and eavesdropping on other people’s conversations, which were filled with people talking about the tank turned bomb terrorist attack across town, I went back to grab my phone.  I have a turbo charger that came with my phone that gives a few hour charge after just ten minutes.  As I was going through my photos and videos to find the recording to show the guy who tagged on behind me, knowing I was going to get my phone, my kid woke me up.

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