Midlife. Issue 1

Welcome to my Midlife Crisis.

Here is where you will find everything that has to do with my journey as a writer. Since I’ve been walking this journey into the wide world of meditative free-writing, I’ve decided to resurrect something I started over on the Midnight Dreamscapes YouTube channel. Midlife with Clint is a place where I like to explore my passion as a creative.

The first iteration of the project begain with film myself editing and revised my poetry.

Editing Bad Poetry on YouTube

As different collaboration began to develop between my writing partner and I, the Mid-life project needed to be put on the side burner. My passion for poetry is still strong; however, I also wanted to explore different writing mediums.

I guess, I can say that the second iteration of Mid-life grows out of Coffee & Cannabis.

My previous post on the importance of freewriting is also another medium I enjoy writing. I found that freewriting as a meditative process calms and focuses my mind on the tasks I need to accomplish. These are post I want to continue to do, as well as, post update to my WIP (Work in Progress).

But all the real credit for Mid-life’s return goes to this guy: Austin Campbell

Why? Because without him, I wouldn’t be sharing this post. Hell, I don’t think I would have the courage even to start developing Cross without him. He is the voice that continually tells me that I can do this.  

Cross is a story that has been sitting in the back of my brain for far too long. Initially, the story as a whole was your typical superhero origin story. Cross gains the power over electricity, and the narrative was going to employ the standard “hero journey” convention:  The taking up the call. Everyone who has ever read a comic-book knows this type of narrative convention. It all boils down to this one sentence, “with great power come great responsibility.” 

However, as Austin and I have discussed previously on Coffee & Cannabis, these conventions are formulaic and overused. This is not a bad thing. The “Hero’s Journey” is useful as a skeleton to your plot and characters. Spider-man is a compelling story because of the reliability of the character and his action. The problem with the hero’s journey is that it’s tired and dull. 

So, where does this leave Cross? 

Over the years, Cross has changed. He still has the power to manipulate electricity, but his heroic journey will take him from our world to his own. He will find his own way in a world where being a superhero is about being apart of a highly militarized and repressive institution. 

The details haven’t been fully fleshed out yet, but I will continue to update you on this project as if form.  

What I will tell you a lot of this piece you are about to read comes from the work Austin, and I have been doing over the last few weeks with our Youtube show Coffee & Cannabis. And this why I love doing this show with Austin.  Out of our latest prompt challenge, we were both to show an example of world-building from our own WIPs. 

Within this excerpt, the intention is to set up the world. There isn’t a lot of character development, it’s there, and this isn’t a finished product. There will be more changes to come.

Please enjoy.

Kassy Cross often wonders it’s all just an illusion, a cheap trick to keep insomniacs like her moving from shop to shop, swiping barcodes with their smartphone long after the business is closed for the night. During the day, the sun casts shadows on Elysian making the city as a whole seem bigger than it is. Yet, Thunder City shines its brightest among the massive metropolis’ which surround it. Hugging the Great Lake, Thunder City’s majestic modern skyscrapers stand out from all every direction. On the ground, the buildings engulf the skyline eclipsing all-natural light trying to bust through; however, no one really needs to look up anymore, because the constant barrage of flashing colours through traffic-jams and crowds of pedestrians distract everyone from anything that lies beyond the tallest buildings that brandish the name, Jeremiah Eckels. 

The city that never sleeps is a term that is used all to often these days. Perhaps, its a little cliche, but all to poignant not to describe the likes of Thunder City. Even Kassy will tell you, The City of Lights, like most of the people, have come to call it, is the epicentre that connects Northern cities of the Superior Region to the Southern cities: The Narrows, Fort Barker, Westfort, and Mountain View which all lay to the south, and Hill Valley, Port Shelly, Current River, and Castle Rock all located to the north. With Thunder City connecting every city together, Elysian was born cradling Lake Superior: The Great Lake of Tarian.  

Thunder City is what Kassy needs at the moment. Too many nightshifts at the Westfort Mall’s epic coffeeshop, The Kappa-Java, will give any girl the energy to dance the night away in the big city. She spent the last four months saving every credit for this night, and the only that can drown out the clicking of her brand new opened toed strappy shoe is the screaming sounds of the Police siren. She couldn’t control the police sirens anyway. However, she has been waiting for weeks to find the perfect sleek black skirt to go with them and now that she has both, all she wants to do is listen to the sounds of rubber slapping around the dance floor. 

Kassy is going to get her good time. A few free cocktails and dancing. That was of course only if she could keep Michael hands themselves. Michael’s a sweet boy. He was taller than her, but not too tall. When she wore the right heel, Kassy was able to look him in the eye. He dresses presentable. She has never seen him in any dorky fanboy t-shirts with the Alpha Squad emblem on it. Kassy appreciates the cities number one Super-team keeping the city safe from meta-terrorists. But she believes that there is a fine line between admiration and complete hero-worship. 

“So, my parents are out of town, and I was thinking, since,” Micheal said nervously into Kassy’s ear.  

Kassy struggles to squirm out of his arms. She hates it when he thinks that the two of them can walk holding each other down the street as those teenage couples do in romantic comedies.   

The boy can dance. Terrible in bed. 

Those two boys have been fighting over her since grade school. Now that school was out, there is no competition anymore. Those boys weren’t flattering like they once were. She knew she could have any one of them with a snap of her fingers and they would bow down before her with little restraint from their upper brain.  Kassy is ready for the club. Her new fake ID worked like a charm, dispute the picture of a middle-aged redhead with a fat face and achy scares. Her dealer should have at least found someone prettier. Her face isn’t scared. Actually, she thought she had a rather perfect. Sally takes care of her skin. She washes it made sure to cover up any adolescent marks on her face before going out anywhere. Her hair was dirty blonde, curly, with ringlet coming down past her chin. It always styled and pinned up in ponytail or braid. Her body already got her into the club. The ID was all apart of the show, and she knew it.

As long as the light from the TPD’s clean-up crew take care of the mess left behind but The lights always signal such an event. 

A vibration from Kassy’s Nexus smartwatch startled her as the Deftone ring of the Eckles Security crime alerts stream across the screen of her watch. 

ALERT. BEWARE OF META-TERRORIST INCURANCION IN THE AREA

“Translation: some meta-powered wackjob doped up on spice is blowing up the neighbourhood, and we should all flee for our lives,” Trevor announces to the group.  

“Does it say where?” Jill asks almost immediately despite already looking at her phone. 

“May and Parker.”  

“Oh, shit that’s like a few block aways still.”

“Hey, do you guys want to go check it out!” Micheal blurts out with an awkward enthusiasm. The four of them have known each other since grade school and none of them have ever taken any interest wanting to go near a street battle between meta-humans.  

“Fuck no!” Jill and Trevor express together

“Why not?” 

“Hey Mikey,” Trevor walks up to Micheal and shoves him gently, “I didn’t know you were one of that goofball super-fan that run into a warzone while everyone else is trying to get out.