At The Bright Empire....

From A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT (2004). This is the inspiration for an upcoming scene in PASSION PLAY where Alisa Liddell will be reunited with Andre Kalik, who, like the amnesiac WWI soldier in the movie, is destined to fall in love all over again with the woman who spent years searching for him after being told he was dead.

--Brantley

PASSION PLAY continues to unfold in today's update, which takes Alisa Kim'Vallara to Sanctuary to be reunited with Andre Kalik. It incorporates some ideas Tarot Barnes proposed ten years ago about an alternate history that lies on the opposite end of the Dimensional Transporter in the Lost City of Cygnias 275 – and the secret of the Old Galactics. The reunion scene itself was inspired by one in A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT (2004), a French movie that is one of my personal favorites.

www.brightempire.com/Passion.htm

Related to PASSION PLAY is "Moment of Truth." It began as a long scene Shadar wrote, also about ten years ago, in which Captain Peter Durgin catches up with Alisa's mother Naomi on Bering's World, and is trying to put the make on her. That scenario could no longer work, given what has happened with Durgin in the years since. But it occurred to me that it could be reimagined from Naomi's point of view, with her setting out to do a number on the now-discredited and desperate Durgin. Only she ends up taking pity on him, and the "out" she offers him ties in with "Blind Justice," a story by Shadar in which she played a role... I've also done some edits to PASSION PLAY itself to play down Durgin's excesses – there have been complaints that he was too idiotic to believe.

www.brightempire.com/Moment.htm

--Brantley Thompson Elkins

www.brightempire.com/Passion.htm

www.brightempire.com/Moment.htm

PASSION PLAY once again continues today, with advice from Tarot Barnes on tweaking some details – but also taking unpleasant liberties with his alternate universe on the other side of the Lost City in Cygnias 275. It all has to do with what really traumatized Andre Kalik there. Chances are that Tarot will never write his own version of the story of Riantra and the Lost City, and certainly not in the context I imagine. It just popped into my head since the last update what would have driven Andre over the edge (now hinted at in tweaks to what has gone before), and why Jason would have to edit his memory in order to give him any hope of recovery. But I couldn't make the entire new chapter grim, which is why Andre's body memory comes into play – as an excuse for a sex scene, of course. Also today, a minor tweak to "Moment of Truth," but I'm sticking to the basic scenario there. Sorry about that, Tarot... and Shadar.

--Brantley Thompson Elkins

Made a small but significant tweak to PASSION PLAY last night, Has to do with something NOT found in the alternate universe...

www.brightempire.com/Passion.htm

--Brantley

Come on, guys, let's have some feedback!

--Brantley

Well, here is the basic background page,which includes links to (among other things) a Wiki:

www.brightempire.com/au_history.htm

--Brantley

Have to do this in stages, because the server won't allow all the links in one post. But here are the first two stories in the life of Alisa-zar Kim'Vallara (aka Alisa Liddell), in the order she actually lived them as opposed to the order they were originally posted:

Ordinary Velorians:
www.brightempire.com/ov_overview.htm

Alisa’s Story:
www.brightempire.com/Alisa.pdf

--Brantley

The second set of Alisa stories:

Shore Leave, Parts One-Three:
www.brightempire.com/ShoreLeave1.htm
www.brightempire.com/ShoreLeave2.htm
www.brightempire.com/ShoreLeave3.htm

--Brantley

The third set:

Pictures of an Expedition:
www.brightempire.com/Pictures.html

Throne of the Gods:
www.brightempire.com/Throneofthegods.htm

--Brantley

The fourth set:

Options:
www.brightempire.com/Options.htm

Encounter at Westfold, Parts One and Two:
www.brightempire.com/Westfold.pdf
www.brightempire.com/Westfold-2.pdf

PASSION PLAY, now in progress, is an overview of her life, but also fills in some of the gaps between the other stories.

--Brantley

Happy reading, Woodclaw, and -- hopefully -- others!

--Brantley

We're on the eve of Comic Con, which I'm not going to, but which we all know will be the occasion of a PR blitz for the new Supergirl series on CBS this fall. So I'm taking the occasion to weigh in on the possible significance of the show to the culture generally and to our little corner of it:

www.brightempire.com/SG-CBS.htm

A few other minor changes to PASSION PLAY and "Moment of Truth," as mentioned on the What's New page. And a reboot of a really old story (from way back in 2002), "You, and Each of You." which needed to be reformatted.

www.brightempire.com/You.htm

--Brantley

And a bit of explanation about the genesis of PASSION PLAY:

www.brightempire.com/behind_stories.htm

--Brantley

Besides updating EMPRESS OF THE DAWN III, I have it in mind to take up another uncompleted story:

www.brightempire.com/Walking.htm

This was started by Jordan “Ultragirl” Taylor way back in 2005, and was inspired by the movie WALKING TALL. But Jordan moved on a few years late.I finally finished another story we’d started, THE POPCORN WAR, in 2013. Just the other day, I came across an old e-mail that gave some details of what she’d had in mind for WALKING TALL::

<<They will talk about what has been happening a bit. Carla won’t say too much though. She may be cryptic even.

The next day will be the football match. Patricia will say it’s a game she learned in the Legion. That’s where she’ll meet her old school rival.

Her rival is actually selling off-world weapons to the locals to make money under the pretense that they will need protection when the Arions invade. Really, she is selling them for the Arions who obviously won’t be affected much by the weapons. Patricia’s first hint of this is from her uncle. She dismisses it.

Patricia comes home one night to find her uncle dead due to gambling debts. She finds evidence of the use of the off-world weapon. Obviously, she wants them out of her town.
Her first step is finding the main dealer though the pushers. This will involve the thorough destruction of a gang’s hideout.

Another scene will have her being visited by the local authorities, who are also in on it. They’ll want to search the house, she won’t let them. I have some good pics for Shadar to enhance if he will do that.>>

I don’t have any idea what those pics would have been. But I came across a soft-corn porn video starting Patricia Ford, the very model Jordan had chosen for the heroine, and it co-stars a guy who actually looks nice (male porn stars tend to be grungy), and there are scenes that are sexy in a fun way instead of a gross way:

kulakustash.blogspot.com/2010/11/patricia-ford.html

I figure the guy can be Patricia’s boyfriend in the story.

--Brantley

www.brightempire.com/Empress-3.pdf

It's been three months since I've added anything to Empress of the Dawn III, and the reason for that is that I've found it very hard to make the transition from one stage of the story to the next. Jumping from the exile of Alexius to the climactic war with the Aureans, as I had originally planned, was too abrupt. I had to do more to set the stage – in terms of Kalla's personal angst over the loss of her lover and the tangled web of secrets and lies she has been engaged in, the procrastination of Velor and the Scalantrans, and the troubled progress of Andros itself.

--Brantley

www.brightempire.com/Walking.htm

www.brightempire.com/Popcorn.pdf


Walking Tall is a story that was begun way back in 2005 by Jordan Taylor, who also began The Popcorn War in 2003. It was inspired by the 1973 movie about a former professional wrestler turned lawman in Tennessee, but here the protagonist is Patricia Ortiz, a veteran of the Velorian Legion who returns home to her planet, Alguna Parte, after serving on Novo Recife in the earlier story.

The first chapter was posted ten years ago, and a missing chapter three years ago. By then, Jordan had long since retired from writing, and I thought there wasn't any way to continue the story – although I did manage to finish The Popcorn War in 2013 after several setbacks. But I recently came across some old notes and correspondence of Jordan's and decided to take a stab at Walking Tall. That involved giving Patricia a family besides Uncle Teo and his son Rick, and providing an identity for her old boyfriend Reynaldo, not to mention taking note of the strange reaction of Clara, an old friend, to her return.

All this, plus giving a bit more of a background to Alguna Parte and its culture, and Uncle Teo's business there, are just part of the setup – the main story is yet to come. There are also some changes to The Popcorn War and earlier postings of Walking Tall itself to clarify the internal chronology of Patricia's life on both worlds.

--Brantley

Working on some revisions and updates to FIRST PROTECTOR. The situation has been confusing to readers because it's now split into two Books (There will ultimately be three), but with an older version of what became Book Two included in the first. I've also noticed some errors of continuity between FIRST PROTECTOR and HOMECOMING III, and have been working to straighten out the cross-references.

--Brantley

www.brightempire.com/First-1.pdf

www.brightempire.com/First-2.pdf

Readers may be understandably confused/annoyed by the status of First Protector. Two chapters of the original version appeared in 2006 at Shadar's AUOW site, but that was all. In 2013, he and I collaborated on a longer version, which went through some minor edits. But then Shadar reconceived the story as three books, and was going to work on Book One while I worked on Book Two. Only, part of what became Book Two, posted earlier this year, was already embedded in Book One, and the new version alluded to a new villain, Mal'kar, who hadn't appeared in the original version. We had a working draft of the new version of Book One, to which I had added a brief allusion to Mal'kar, and I referenced him in Book Two. The full story of his involvement with Vespyr is yet to come, but to give readers a sense of the overall story I have uploaded the draft of Book One and updated Book Two.

--Brantley

www.brightempire.com/Walking.htm

A short but important update to Walking Tall] today. Nothing of great import has been happening on Alguna Parte up to now, and certainly nothing to change the life of returned Legionnaire Patricia Ortiz. But now the shit has hit the fan, and from now on the story will follow the spirit if not entirely the letter of what Jordan Taylor had in mind,

--Brantley Thompson Elkins

Winter is icumen in -- NOT!

But I probably won't be able to do any further updating of FIRST PROTECTOR until then, because I want to await further input from Shadar, because where he lives outdoors is a lot more fun than indoors until the weather changes. Will concentrate on other things until then...

In the meantime, maybe somebody else can design that flamebird icon outfit for Protectors...


--Brantley

Well, attached is the image Shadar created or found somewhere for the flamebird. The trick would be to tweak it enough to go on a uniform (which wouldn't be flat in front, obviously), which in turn would have to be put on a model (for Vespyr in First Protector, that would be Kate Bosworth).

--Brantley