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At The Bright Empire....

12 Mar 2017 17:30 #53104 by brantley
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As of last night, 100 hits for the updated Empress-3.

--Brantley

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22 Mar 2017 11:16 #53269 by brantley
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The creator of the Aurora Universe has the spotlight today at The Bright Empire, with "A Dinner Party," a new take on one of his old stories -- but also a new take on the AU. And it's as current as CNN and Stephen Colbert, plus with cool details like... just what is it Anja's costumes are made of?

www.brightempire.com/DinnerParty.pdf

Today is the 80th birthday of film and TV composer Angelo Badalamenti. You must know him from Twin Peaks, headed for revival on Showtime. But he should be known for a lot more, and in my latest update of an essay about him, I'm including the latest:

www.brightempire.com/Badalamenti.htm

And then there's "Rambles in the Brambles," an edit of a discussion here at Superwomenmania about a hairy issue in the AU mythology:

www.brightempire.com/Rambles.htm

--Brantley Thompson Elkins

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23 Mar 2017 15:08 #53286 by brantley
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People must be hungry for Shadar -- 137 hits for "A Dinner Party" the first day.

--Brantley

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23 Mar 2017 23:13 - 23 Mar 2017 23:14 #53292 by brantley
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Anybody here who's also a member of AURG might want to get in on a thread started by Alex Vincent, "Turning the concept of a Protector upside down>" Could lead to a really good story, or even a series.

--Brantley
Last edit: 23 Mar 2017 23:14 by brantley.
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28 Mar 2017 17:40 - 28 Mar 2017 17:44 #53380 by brantley
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Every once in a while, the robots visit The Bright Empire, and bump up the daily total of hits to more than 1,000. That was the case yesterday, but I wonder why they have a preference or older stories and essays. Here are the latest totals, in the older of hits yesterday for those with more than ten. Good to see Incident at Madstop and Pictures of an Expedition doing so well, and I'm sure Shadar is happy with the count for Corrididor as well as A Dinner Party!.

--Brantley

1. /Incident.pdf 5,956 38 56.95%
2. /Pictures.html 3,225 36 1.13%
3. /Houseguest.html 4,697 30 1.11%
4. /Corrididor.pdf 2,399 30 8.46%
5. /DinnerParty.pdf 428 26 2.85%
6. /lit-rant.htm 2,256 18 0.99%
7. /new.htm 54,100 15 1.69%
8. /Girlfriend.htm 3,746 13 0.53%
9. /July4.htm 1,648 13 0.07%
10. /Links.htm 14,431 12 0.07%
Last edit: 28 Mar 2017 17:44 by brantley.

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01 Apr 2017 10:50 #53461 by brantley
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To get April off to a good start, I've mirrored Shadar's rationale for his new AU series:

www.brightempire.com/AU-2017.htm

Also added a link to True Spartan's AU story at Deviant Art, "Prelude:"

www.brightempire.com/TrueSpartan.htm

--Brantley

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02 Apr 2017 16:24 #53474 by brantley
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No fooling!

Not a new story, but First Protector 2 got 49 hits yesterday, for a total of 1,012. True Spartan's Prelude at 31 and Shadar's AU-2017 essay at 28 were new, while the latter's "A Dinner Party" gained 16 for a total of 497.

--Brantley

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03 Apr 2017 13:13 - 03 Apr 2017 13:16 #53487 by brantley
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School bus for Velorians?

--Brantley

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Last edit: 03 Apr 2017 13:16 by brantley.

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13 Apr 2017 22:43 #53629 by brantley
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Alex Vincent (The Pacifist) came up with the idea of a human-alien contact story set in the AU. The aliens would have heard about Velorians, presumably from the Scalantrans, but would't know anything about them except that they're blonde -- and thus mistake a Terran blonde for a Protector. But how to find any images of aliens beyond those in the Aliens series, E.T, and the UFO grays? After a good deal, of searching online, I found this:

bruceleeeowe.files.wordpress.com/2010/06...life.jpg?w=434&h=400

It comes from an article about what aliens might look like, but the link for that doesn't identify the author or illustrator.

--Brantley

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27 Apr 2017 20:09 - 27 Apr 2017 22:23 #53813 by brantley
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www.brightempire.com/First-2.pdf

Another edit of First Protector, Part Two. Some mistakes corrected, section titles changed and key passages edited. A new scene makes the first allusion to the epilogue of Homecoming 3, but of course Vespyr and the rest don't know it's an allusion...

I'll be out of state for nearly two weeks beginning tomorrow. Don't know how much I'll be able to keep in touch...

--Brantley
Last edit: 27 Apr 2017 22:23 by brantley.
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13 May 2017 14:17 #54082 by brantley
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I've noticed that most of the hits at my site are for older stories, with hardly any lately for more recent ones -- especially "Walking Tall" and "Delphic Obstacles" (The latest revision of First Protector 2 has done better.). Maybe I've lost my touch. But it would help if some of YOU would post about what YOU think I'm doing wrong. Don't be shy, don't be afraid to be harsh.

--Brantley

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15 May 2017 11:35 #54107 by brantley
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There was a surge Saturday in hits for First Protector-2. I'll have to work more on continuing that.

--Brantley

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21 Jun 2017 22:29 - 21 Jun 2017 22:33 #54936 by brantley
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www.brightempire.com/WW-Gadot.html

My take on Wonder Woman, posted to mark the summer solstice. Loved it, despite the nits...

Quite a contrast to a failed pilot six years ago: Nothing but nits there!

www.brightempire.com/WW-rant.htm

--Brantley
Last edit: 21 Jun 2017 22:33 by brantley.
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21 Jun 2017 23:16 #54939 by shadar
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brantley wrote: www.brightempire.com/WW-Gadot.html

My take on Wonder Woman, posted to mark the summer solstice. Loved it, despite the nits...

Quite a contrast to a failed pilot six years ago: Nothing but nits there!

www.brightempire.com/WW-rant.htm

--Brantley


Nice review… I think you captured the essence of the movie. First two acts were good, peaking in the second, and the third act was forgivable (but not notable) given it was the required ultra-powerful CGI fight that it seems all superhero movies have to include. At least Jenkins pushed it back far enough into the movie to do justice to two really good acts.

The underlying philosophy, that war is intrinsic to humans, along with, strangely enough, love, is handled reasonably well. Or as I would say it more simply, we humans are bipolar in that we can kill and love in the same day.

I thought of General George Patton, who claimed:

"Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood.”

Of course, I’ve always (wanted to) reject his philosophy, but it is possible he is right. In any case, the movie makes the case that war is part of our nature and cannot be removed. So we have to counter it with love whenever we can.

Not a bad message for a Hollywood superhero CGI fest.

Shadar

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22 Jun 2017 15:08 - 22 Jun 2017 15:09 #54949 by brantley
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I wonder if WW sequels and any other superhero/heroine movies to come will touch on the Ludendorffs and Morgans of the world as opposed to strictly cartoon villains like Lex Luthor.

By the way, before the Tom Hanks version of Cast Away, there was a 1986 movie called Castaway with Oliver Reed and Amanda Donahoe. Amanda spends a lot of her time naked, and in one scene she's naked reading Colin Wilson's The Criminal History of Mankind. I wonder if Jenkins or screenwriter Allan Heinberg had ever read that....

-- Brantley
Last edit: 22 Jun 2017 15:09 by brantley.

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22 Jun 2017 17:48 - 22 Jun 2017 17:50 #54952 by brantley
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Here's a quote from Wilson's book (first published in 1984) that seems to apply to, among other things, the scenario in Wonder Woman:

<< The frightening thing about the members of the Japanese Red Brigade who machine-gunned passengers at Lod airport, or the Italian terrorists who burst into a university classroom and shot the professor in the legs - alleging that he was teaching his students ‘bourgeois values’ - is that they were not criminal lunatics but sincere idealists. When we realise this we recognise that criminality is not the reckless aberration of a few moral delinquents but an inevitable consequence of the development of intelligence, the ‘flip side’ of our capacity for creativity. The worst crimes are not committed by evil degenerates, but by decent and intelligent people taking ‘pragmatic’ decisions. >>

--Brantley
Last edit: 22 Jun 2017 17:50 by brantley.

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24 Jun 2017 12:40 #54975 by brantley
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Added a reference to that to my WW Review post.

--Brantley

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27 Jun 2017 23:58 - 27 Jun 2017 23:59 #55040 by brantley
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Working on an update to First Protector 2 that introduces some new twists and turns and ends on a cliffhanger -- the day Alexius appears at the Shrine to Skietra as forecast in Homecoming 3. Shadar has added some further twists that I can use in the next update after this one. From my stats, I can tell that First Protector is a story that readers want to see more of.

--Brantley
Last edit: 27 Jun 2017 23:59 by brantley.

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29 Jun 2017 09:56 - 29 Jun 2017 09:58 #55068 by brantley
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www.brightempire.com/First-2.pdf

Book Two of First Protector is about to reach its climax in today's update.

Vespyr Tal-esta, the Companion who has come home from Tazzi to bring proof about the heavy GAR being deployed by the Aurean Empire against the Velorians and the innocent worlds where they serve, has no idea that the Galen are about to intervene on their behalf.

But their advance man Alexius Tornikios and the Galen he speaks for, Aphro'dite, likewise have no idea what is happening on Velor, with rival factions on the High Council faced with how to deal with the threat from the Empire with whatever resources Velor itself can muster. Story lines that began in the Empress of the Dawn and Homecoming series are about to come together.
www.brightempire.com/Empress-3.pdf
www.brightempire.com/Homecoming-3.pdf

The Aurora Universe has always been about superheroine adventure and romance, and my version of it has always been about world-building in the science fiction tradition. But here it is about Big History.

--Brantley Thompson Elkins
Last edit: 29 Jun 2017 09:58 by brantley.
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15 Aug 2017 19:43 #55836 by brantley
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IDEAS WANTED!

For the wrap-up of Empress of the Dawn III (www.brightempire.com/Empress-3.pdf).

It has to end with the Battle of the Triple Moons, which has to involve both the Androssian fleet and Kalla herself. I'm not sure how to make it all come together.

--Brantley

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16 Aug 2017 20:18 #55844 by brantley
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Well, more than three dozen people hit on the link yesterday. Maybe a few will speak up.

--Brantley
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16 Aug 2017 23:30 #55851 by slim36
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nice but long read. due to buffer overflow, might only be able to comment on shorter piece.

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17 Aug 2017 03:19 #55857 by brantley
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Alas (?), long stories are my thjng.

--Brantley.
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29 Aug 2017 13:39 #56013 by brantley
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Working on a Laboir Day update for First Priotector Two, leading up to the tie-in with the epilogue to Homecoming 3. But Vespyr and the Councillor who has befriended her, Dar'yul, have no idea what's coming at the Shrine to Skeitra. They;re worked uo about how the Velorian Sebate will try to deal with the GAR threat, And besides new scenes, there is a revised scene in which they discuss the issue of conscription:

<<I later took Dar’yul aside to discuss my own concerns as a Velorian
“Do you truly suppose that very many of my fellow Velorians will want to take the risk of being annihilated?”
“They won’t have any choice in the matter. Conscription.”
The first Companions had indeed been conscripts in all but name, given away by their fathers or the priests. It was only later that they discovered that how powerful they became outside the Velorian gold field and – much later – that they could live on and on, far past the time they would have died at home. But freedom for them, once they had served their indentures, had become a challenge for the High Council.
But now…
I could see where things might be going.
“Will they make the indentures indefinite, too?”
“I don’t think Koro’lat would go that far. The Companions have to feel they have a chance.”
“A chance of what?”
“A chance for freedom and near-immortality, versus the risk of being cut down in the prime of life. It should all balance out in their minds. That’s how Koro’lat sees it. How the conscripts will see it…”
A sudden thought occurred to me.
“What if they conscripted men too?”
Dar’yul was clearly flabbergasted, and it took a minute for him to respond.
“They’d never hear of it,” he said.
“But, like the women, they could look forward to longer lives.”
“Only, they wouldn’t have any women… unless—”
“The terms of indenture for Companions would forbid that. Even those for groups as opposed to individuals exclude outsiders.”
“Solomon Gazrall was an older man, and allowed me… certain liberties. I even formed… attachments.”
“You were indeed fortunate in being allowed those ‘certain liberties.’”
“Even if such liberties were sanctioned for all Companions, Terrans might resent us for taking them with Velorians – they’d be constantly reminded that they are ordinary men, that they can never measure up to Velorian men as lovers.”
“Some have taken Terran lovers, and even found happiness with them.”
“But only after fulfilling the indentures.”
Being indentured as Companions for a mere century came to seem a blessing, compared to a short life back home under the domination of men, for it could leave them free to live and love as they saw fit… although that freedom could be bittersweet, given the short life spans of their Terran lovers.
But it might all be academic, I thought.
“Won’t it take a vote of the Senate to authorize conscription?
“Indeed. And for all the military measures to be funded by the indentures – which might be assigned to planets as such, rather than wealthy individuals.”
“Until Gazrall, nobody on Tazzi was wealthy enough. But how could planetary indentures work?”
“There are doubtless worlds that would tax their own people for protection, or the illusion of protection, once word spreads about the GARs. As to the rest, I suppose the same kind of lotteries as for the boys sent to the Academy would be instituted to—”
“I get it!”
“And it might all be in vain. There are no easy answers. Perhaps none at all. But I can discuss the issue with the rest of the Council and the Senate after they’ve gone through the motions with the Priests at the Shrine for the Remembrance.”>>

--Brantley

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01 Sep 2017 11:47 - 01 Sep 2017 15:29 #56076 by brantley
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www.brightempire.com/First-2.pdf

Book Two of First Protector is finally reaching its climax in today's update. But it's been necessary to revise Chapter Eight and add a Chapter Nine to develop the relationship between Vespyr and Dar'yul, the junior High Councillor assigned to the case against her as a deserter who has actually taken up her cause and in whom she is able to confide about herself and what really happened – and what she only believes happened – on Tazzi, and how it changed her life and gave her a new sense of mission. There are seemingly small but significant revelations about other players, with more of these yet to come – including about the cult family Vespyr left behind when she became a Companion.

--Brantley Thompson Elkins
Last edit: 01 Sep 2017 15:29 by brantley.
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