Free Short Story: The Trans / Androgyne Practice by Neale Sourna (romance, 1 chapter / 494 words )

http://figment.com/books/545108-The-Trans-Androgyne-Practice

The Trans / Androgyne Practice

by Neale Sourna

Copyright Neale Sourna 2013

Synopsis: Locked in a coffin for an Initiation practice, Kar is terrified; but Dev is the only one to offer help. And Dev, who all Kar's friends dislike, is the one Kar truly wants. It's gonna be a long three day weekend.

JamesPattersonContest, transexual, androgyny, androgynous, love, love :), initiation, graduation, school, school assignment, coffin, terrified, friends dislike,

We lay in my stark coffin, side by side, in pitch black. Why? ’Cause who wants to lie in their coffin alone the first time?

“You okay?” Devon queried, cautiously, like I was a baby, who might explode into screeching hysterics any second. Leg touching mine, Devon’s warm grasp fumbled for my cold sweaty hand; I clutched, tightly.

“Ouch! Cut your claws, Kar. Or wear olives on your fingertips.”

“That was fun.”

“Delectable.”

“No food talk, Dev.”

“You could lose some LBs, Kar. Ow! Claws. Make me bleed out and it’s gonna get way messy in three days of this.”

“Alone. Together.”

Devon gulped, then silence. Devon’s hand in mine was—warmness, and Dev’s leg along mine—delicious; I tilted my head until my forehead touched D’s. “Glad you’re helping me. Being alone in a casket, buried underground for Initiation freaks me awful. How d’you stay so calm?”

“Been alone a lot.”

“ ’Cause everyone avoids you.” D snickered.

“And everyone loves you. Why didn’t you ask your real friends, Kar?”

“Did. ‘Kar, you can’t be serious,’ ‘stop playing.’ Or ‘you’ll always be a sub-apprentice,’ if I don’t pass. Th-They....”

“Don’t get that this terrifies you. But, then, you’ve never been truly alone; without friends, family.” Wait for it.... “Or, buried in a wood box, while healthy ... without one wrinkle.”

“Unfunny, idiot.”

“But I’m your ‘idiot’.” Wow. Dev sighed. “You’d never have asked, if your real—.”

“STOP saying ‘real friends’. You’re my real, true friend.” Long silence.

“We’ll see, Kar, after ingesting nothing but seeds and water, then pissing, possibly shitting in those baggy things; unless we seal ’em wrong, lying in a REAL stinky mess; a smell we can’t escape. Plus, no bathing and limited movement with us two squeezed in her, no sitting up or....”

“Ran out of stupid stuff to say, didn’t yah?” Devon chuckled; a pleasant, rare sound. Beautiful.

“So, gorgeous K, what’re you gonna tell them, your real…, your other friends?” I touched my ... our coffin.

“What they’ll think doesn’t seem important.”

“Now. But, then.... Nevermind. Initiation’s important, for our futures. Helping each other.”

“How am I helping you, Dev?” There was throat clearing before D’s soft answer.

“I-I like being with you.” Dev’s voice gained conviction. “Whether you consider me your friend, I’m yours, completely. And love that you asked me; so, I can give selfless.... Selfless service is required to graduate; but, I don’t really feel selfless. I adore you. I’d do just about anything for you.”

“ ‘Just about’...?”

“I’d say anything, but you’d have too much power over me. I can’t allow that.” I smiled in the pitch black, until it spilled out as giggles, then full laughter. “What’s so funny, Kar?”

“You know me better than my ‘real...’. Thank you.”

“Welcome.”

“We are gonna be so foul Tuesday. But, foul together.”

“Your smell on me, and mine on you; an all new scent.” Wow.

“What’s wrong, Kar?”

“Th-That was the sexiest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

—00—

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The New 10 Commandments of Writing Screenplays.

Reprint: The New 10 Commandments of Writing Screenplays.

Most people know about writing screenplays, but if you break these commandments, your soul will be damned to eternal amateur-damnation…

…Or maybe it’ll just be a bit more difficult to become a pro. Either way, you’ll want to really consider these guidelines as you write or rewrite your screenplay.

Writing Screenplays By Commandment

1. Entertain us…or it’s over!

Entertainment is the number one reason that people go to movies. Every producer and agent knows that. So it should be the #1 focus of your screenwriting. Become a master at making any character or situation entertaining and you’ll be a writer in demand.

To be blunt, if there is anything in your script that doesn’t entertain, fix it.

2. Make EVERYTHING more interesting.

The industry is filled with readers who are fed a gourmet diet of professional screenplays. If you want yours to stand out, it has to captivate their attention and cause them to forget that they are doing a job.

This should be an ongoing campaign of yours. Make your scenes more interesting. Make your characters more interesting. Make your dialogue more interesting. Make everything more interesting.

3. Give us a lead character we can’t stop following.

Professional screenwriters intentionally create characters we want to follow. They are unique, yet familiar. We can relate to them and want to go on the journey with that character.

In general, your protagonist should be the perfect person to lead us deep into this story and the conflict that is about to occur. Don’t settle for a good lead. Go for great.

4. Promise us something special…and deliver on it.

Somehow, you have to keep people reading until the last page. Here’s a solution.

About 15 years ago, I read a book called “A Story Is A Promise” by Bill Johnson. Since then, I’ve always looked at a script from the perspective of “What is the promise you’re making to the reader/audience and how do you keep it in a unique way?”

Essentially, you are promising some major achievement by the protagonist or some big confrontation that will happen in the 3rd Act between protag and antag. If the promise is strong enough, we’ll read every page to see what happens.

5. Show us deeper meaning.

Deeper meaning can be built into the plot, character, situations, actions, and dialogue of a script. It doesn’t have to be profound, just beneath the surface…and perceived by the audience.

Audiences and readers just don’t appreciate on-the-nose writing. Subtext gives them a chance to interact with the film. They have an internal experience of the story because they are interpreting what the dialogue and actions really mean.

Because of that, it is just as important to take care of the subtext of a story as it is to create the surface story.

6. Put your characters through hell.

Great parents take care of their children and don’t let harm come to them. Great writers put their characters in the worst possible places to challenge their beliefs and physical limitations.

Don’t get the two jobs mixed up. Audiences don’t go to movies to see characters lead safe lives. They want to see your characters take risks, experience danger, and barely escape from challenging situations.

Writing screenplays will make you a tough task-master. By your final draft, your characters should hate you for all the terrible things you did to them.

7. Free up your dialogue so you can express more character.

Beginning writers often fill their dialogue with exposition and story details, thus reducing the amount of character and creativity that shows up in that dialogue. Don’t do it.

Instead, put the exposition, information, and story details into the action and situations.

For example, instead of a trainer telling a new boxer that a certain philosophy doesn’t work, have him put the character in the boxing ring and learn it by having his ass kicked. Now, the trainer doesn’t have to lecture. In fact, he is free to talk about anything – breakfast, politics, his favorite dog, etc. – because the real meaning is being delivered through the action.

It completely frees you up so you can be much more creative with your dialogue.

8. Turn cliches into fresh ideas.

In the film industry, a cliché is defined as “something we’ve seen before.” If you write a script with the same plot or the same lead characters or the same situations, people will balk at them.

Audiences want to see familiar stories told in different ways and familiar characters with something special about them. That means that your characters, situations, actions, and dialogue need to have something unique to them.

Your challenge: Hunt down every cliché in your script and brainstorm more unique ways to accomplish their purpose. Give them a twist or unique spin or different voice. It takes a bit of work, but it instantly improves your screenplay.

9. Give yourself permission to write shit in your first draft…

…and push yourself for perfection in your final draft. Not the other way around.

This is a better strategy for writing screenplays than trying to be perfect on the first draft and shoving yourself into writer’s block.

First drafts are the time for total freedom of expression, not criticizing your writing. You want to discover what you can about your story, characters, etc.

On the other side, writers often send drafts to producers that aren’t even close to ready. That’s the time to bring out your internal critic and make sure this is a perfect draft.

The more in sync you are with your creative process, the faster you’ll achieve perfection.

10. Rethink your script…until it is the most amazing it can be.

This is the ultimate challenge of a professional screenwriter – having to rethink the same script over and over until you discover the perfect way to tell this story.

Even if you think your story or character is perfect, you should have the skills to re-envision it in many different ways. Not only will this help you write a better story, it will also help you work with production companies and Studios when they request script changes.

Make those 10 Commandments part of your daily writing and someday, you’ll be soon be writing screenplays like the Hollywood writing Gods.

——

And if you want to dramatically improve your ability to write screenplays, check out ScreenwritingU’s screenwriting classes.

These 10 Commandments are built into our classes. That may be why Script Magazine rated our classes #1 in their “Top 9 Online Screenwriting Courses.”

===

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Copyright © 2012 ScreenwritingU, all rights reserved www.ScreenwritingU.com | site_team@ScreenwritingU.com |

Cleveland Public Library Collection: Literature Department Call #:FICTION SOURNA [Neale Sourna]

My print books are on the shelf in the main library downtown between Sister Souljah and an author named South. Cool to see in person, cool to see with the online what's on shelf app._Neale Sourna

Free Short Story online_The Veil: 1846 by Neale Sourna

The Veil: 1846

by Neale Sourna

Gretna Green, Scotland

His mother hates me, fears that I'll take him from her, or, well actually, neither he nor I know for certain what she holds against me. But he understands this hindrance; that she wishes to post the banns for his marriage to … that other person.

So we ran, he and I, with my aunt's tacit approval, including giving me a gift before our late night journey began northward, to Scotland's nearest border and the famous Blacksmiths of Gretna Green, who forge both metal and legal marriage.

We were soaked from the rain's downpour, literally steaming in the hot work shelter, leaving me unable to wear my aunt's fair gift, as the smith was hot of foot to close and splash through cold puddles and slick mud to dry home and warm supper, and so we'd married without our rings, too deeply buried in my love's valise for safekeeping, as the smith impatiently waited to legally bind us.

And we runaways were forged together, man to woman, husband to wife, with full intent to double secure our matrimonial with a visit to a somewhat distant, but well-respected, ordained minister—in insurance against my new mother-in-law's contrary wishes and any possible suit of that other's frail love and family, in desiring to forever bind him in law, and with child.

We'd been hard pressed by possible pursuit and by our own leaping hearts to be forged together as one, over the tongs of Scotland's generous law. Now, it was done.

* * * *

We'd arrived at this lovely, gabled inn, a room was provided, warm meal and warm blankets, too, and our clothes had gone to be cleared of travel mud and dried.

All we wore were scratchy, woolen blankets.

We ate in mute happiness with nervousness underlying our delicate, new bond. Words of power had been spoken in that forge's rainproof shelter, the smith's apprentice a witness to acknowledge our new status in sacred mutual agreement; and the minister's extra weight of rank and piety would hold till floods ceased.

Our meal was eaten, with only bodily consummation the next surety to our bond of runaway love as yet left undone. We put aside food and wine for later, in case we hungered and thirsted in the night, during our first night alon‑.

I ran, with nerves too heightened, to the window and stared out, and stated, "The rain slows." He came and stood behind me, he in his blanket and I... http://www.weddingnight.com/stories/the-veil.html

Popular Websites [Wikipedia] to Go Dark Over SOPA Controversy By Melissa Knowles | Trending Now

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/popular-websites-dark-over-sopa-controversy-174211626.html

If you have anything you want to look up on Wikipedia, you'd better do it today, or you're going to have to wait a full 24 hours to get your answer. Why? Well, Wikipedia will be leading a number of high-profile websites going dark on Wednesday to protest two controversial bills in Congress. 

SOPA, also known as the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House of Representatives, and PIPA, the Protect I-P Act in the Senate, are designed to crack down on the illegal sharing of movies and music on the Web. However, critics say the anti-piracy legislation is censorship and would force sites to police the online world.

On Twitter, Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, confirmed that all of Wikipedia's 3.8 million English-language articles will be unavailable from midnight Eastern time tonight until midnight Wednesday. Anyone who visits the site will be redirected to a banner that reads "The Internet must remain free." Also joining Wikipedia in going black are Reddit, Minecraft, Craigslist, and Boing Boing, among others. Craigslist has posted a message at the top of its city homepages with a link to "help put a stop to this madness" of SOPA and PIPA.

The Obama administration, as well as Congress, seem to be listening to the critics. In a blog post, the White House said it would not support "legislation that reduces freedom of expression ... or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet." 

And House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said a vote would not come up for SOPA until a consensus is reached. By the way, if you're a fan of any of the sites that are planning to participate in the blackout, don't worry: You can still tweet about it as much as you want. Twitter will still be up and running. In fact, CEO Dick Costolo tweeted this about the sites choosing to go dark: "Closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish."

Although there is a lot of opposition to SOPA and PIPA, some believe the legislation is necessary.
One person who does not mince words about his support for SOPA is Rupert Murdoch. Over the weekend, the media tycoon and CEO of News Corporation seemed to almost mimic the recent antics of Charlie Sheen and Kanye West, firing off a number of tweets in a short period of time. 

Murdoch blasted Obama and Google for how they are dealing with the anti-piracy legislation, tweeting, "Piracy leader is Google who streams movies free, sells [ads] around them. No wonder pouring millions into lobbying." Google responded, calling the accusation "nonsense" and adding that it has taken down 5 million infringing webpages from its search results ... and that it fights pirating and counterfeiters every day. 

Many believe that Murdoch confused downloading with streaming, and the next day he backed off. Murdoch tweeted, "Sure misunderstand many things, but not plain stealing. Incidentally google blocks many other undesirable things."

The Future Role of Agents [excerpted]

September 29, 2009
by Jane Friedman

[more before]

1. KEEPING PACE WITH DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES AND BUILDING NEW CONTRACTS AND RIGHTS STRUCTURES

...today’s boilerplate contract is inflexible and outdated. One idea put forth by Nash is that contracts become time-based, with potential for renewal, which dodges the sticky “in print” or “out of print” question that now determines the termination of most book contracts.

[more]

2. ESTABLISHING AND GROWING EMPOWERING PARTNERSHIPS AND ONLINE PRESENCES FAR BEYOND BOOK PUBLICATION

...For anyone in this publishing game for the long run, it can’t be about the sale of one book—and this is where sometimes I see a lack of vision across the board. People get so focused on selling a title or in how that title is (or isn’t) supported by a publisher, that they lose sight of the much larger goal of an author’s career.

[more]

...publishers aren’t in the business of producing books, but in the business of building authors’ careers—and connecting writers to readers.

[more]

3. DEVELOPING NEW BUSINESS MODELS FOR HOW AUTHORS PAY AGENTS FOR THEIR EXPERTISE AND PARTNERSHIP

...One agency has quietly come out with a new model that requires authors to pay a minimum commission—i.e., the agent must earn a minimum amount on a sale no matter what advance the publisher pays, which means authors would “share” a larger part of the advance upfront (or even pay out of pocket in the case of very low advances).

[more]

But, Agents may take projects knowing they will ultimately be paid by authors rather than by publishers.

[more]

...agents, like publishers, will have to survive by specializing, by being distinctive in some way.

[more]

-----
Well, if it's specialization, niche craft is right for writers then it's right for agents, too.

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Naked Gaming: What’s Your Character(s) Heart?

Naked Gaming: What’s Your Character(s) Heart?
By Neale Sourna
Copyright Neale Sourna 2008

“Who am I, MMORPGer? And Who are You, for That Matter?”

I’m curious about you, MMORPGer; and wonder who you are, deep inside.

There are a lot of faces of me, deep inside me. Wind songs and traveling songs talk to the free and footloose spirit in me, making me feel more at home, on the roads of my mind, than at my “home” home.

Does that ever happen to you?

Y’know, do you hear songs or certain word triggers and feel ancient things you’d long forgotten until triggered; about wayward winds or tumbling weeds and talking phantom spirits of dead cowboys, lost on a fantasy wide range, still herding dead herds from Hell without borders or fences.

Freedom and mobility locked in a fantasy’s context; enslaved to that context; or at least merely entirely engrossed.

When triggered, I FEEL that freedom and mobility within me; even on those days when I’m locked inside and hardwired to a thousand things keeping my feet to the taxpayer’s fire, and not at all thinking of MMORPGs.

But, in my head and heart there are cowherds, space warriors, American Civil War officers, Arabic scimitar specialist warriors, vampires with transformation powers when they reach a certain age of strength, and more. A nonending cinematic, plethora of lush detail and meaning and emotion I can never truly explain to anyone, not in just a few minutes.

That’s why there are novels, and graphic novels, and miniseries, and sequels. And MMORPGs. Free ones online and paid ones there, too.

It’s a video game in my head, and it’s always been that way, but now we have the means and ways to explain that to others. Or share with others, and that’s good, because writers usually write alone, and readers normally read alone.

“They Just Don’t Get Me.”

My past experience has always been that Space Invaders and Mario weren’t able to keep up with the wildly graphic and emotionally depth-filled things going on in my Fine Arts, Film and Video, screenwriter, novelist’s mind. This isn’t a resume, so I’ll stop my list right there.

This is me taking a step or two closer to online gaming.

And why I haven’t is that I have a LOT of juice going through my head and body, electrically, already; and contact with crowds and communications equipment, and other busy things, like a lack of sleep just jolt me up all the more.

So, offline games make me nervous, and I’ve assumed, too, that online ones would be about the same, for me; but I also imagined worse, since not only are you playing those old systems, which had glitches, like knowing you’ve hit the spot, but the game says not.

I also have always figured I have enough “real” people telling me no, without a “system” doing the same, and being just as wrong as some people I know. But I gripe, and kvetch.

That was my past experience. The past is over, although it seems to keep informing us and doing recalibration checks on us, as if trying to reset us to a past and outmoded ideal.

“A New World, a New Landscape.”

Although game playing still makes me nervous, I do find some things fascinating. Maybe like me, you used to say that maybe I’d game when the video matched closer to what I saw in my mind. And then came the Wachowski Brothers, Keanu Reeves, and “The Matrix,” and I found not only something that made online MMORPG and computer gaming more fascinating visually, but also emotional and spiritual. And cultural.

I’m not afraid to admit it. I always liked “Tron,” but, finally, online is cool Tron, on spiritual and emotional and visual steroids; girl steroids, boy steroids, elegance and power, ugly and vicious.

Here were full characters, both cryptic but with depth, in limitless variety.

That’s what I write. I take all my scimitar kings, and Polynesian healers, and all the others inside me and write them; for scripts, games, and more. I craft stories layer by layer, skill by skill, breath by breath; until I know that THIS particular character will say this and that, but not THAT stupid thing.

That this one has a limp, so running is limited.

That this one has a brilliant way with people, but a genetic flaw that makes a depth perception defect and a bright day’s reflection things that blind him.

Or, that this one has such depth that I hadn’t realized his high power for healing and talent for leaving out important details about himself, has hidden from me, his author and maker (but not creator, he did that himself), hidden the fact that he is more highly skilled and dangerous than I knew. And I REALLY KNOW my characters.

Are You Making New People, or Retooling Old Ones?

But, there it was, a surprise. I experienced that, of a character withholding from me until the nearly the end, while completing my first novel to publish; finding hidden and surprising depths, hidden and surprising connections; that my main character could come out from me, and yet withhold a major plot point, which changes in the mind the entire book from page one to that spot.

All that was kept from me.

It’s like finding out something about your sibling, whom you always shared a room with and pretty much everything else.

It’s like having kids; they’re part of you and you know them, and then one day, they surprise the H out of you. And you wonder where they got THAT from; not from you, not from your significant other, not the sitter, not anyone. It’s somehow an element of their own creation.

As making a character, an avatar can be.

Some of us keep full control, but, I’m sure, that many of us must find that our onscreen selves are expressing parts of us that seem our best, or worst; expressing a hidden part of us, or something WE always knew about ourselves, but no one else did, because some things are so secret or so much a part of our being, like our cells, that we can’t share, or just never ever considered it.

Or just assumed no one else would want to stare through a microscope and see a tiny us waving back from a glass slide.

“You Want to Show Me … What?”

“I’ll show you my avatar, if you’ll show me yours.”

And that is why I’ve taken another step closer to stepping through the looking glass into the world of pixels and distant strangers meeting on an electronic plain, so like what goes on, in the wild, infinite prairies and deep black of space, and horror-filled, primal forests, and endless days of lockers and mislaid class nightmares, and other bits in my mind, making us all like dreamers wide awake in dreamland, the oh so many dreamlands, dreaming together, where we are more ourselves than here.

NEW FREE Neale Sourna Online Wedding Night and Romantic Fiction

Update on NEW FREE Neale Sourna lit/wedding and romantic fiction online at:

http://www.weddingnight.com/
http://www.romantic4ever.com/romantic-fiction/index.html