bigredaltoids

[bigredaltoids]

A (Hopefully) Short Introduction to all of my Major Stories

I’m going to be posting quite a bit about my stories on here, so I thought: “Hey! Why not give a short introduction to all of your little dumbbell stories?” So here’s that. Feel free to introduce your stories and characters. Let’s make this a community effort, shall we?

Short Stories

Stateside

Stateside is ancient. It’s five years old, meaning that if it was a person, it’d be in kindergarten. It’s about, you guessed it, the U.S. states going on wacky, sometimes absurdist, adventures. Stateside is character driven comedy, like a lot of what I write. Characters who are damn iconic my mind are of course, Texas, my home state, a wild and reckless but good hearted fellow, Wisconsin, the town drunk who’s a little on the slow side but also has a good heart, Delaware, a jaded old man who cares deeply about each and every one of the states even if there have taken years off his life, Ohio, a science nut who lacks social skills, California, a murderer superstar who’s also a bit of a jerk, and Missouri, the sailor mouthed observatory keeper who may or may not be a bit unhinged.

I could go in for hours about Stateside, but I’ll leave it here for now. (So much for this being short, huh).

Tales from High Ridge (working title)

This could technically go in the children’s section, but they’re technically short stories so I’ll put them here. Tales from High Ridge is about an ensemble cast of anthropomorphic animals who go on little adventures together, learning lessons about friendship and teamwork along the way. I’ve already started on the first story, The Grump of High Ridge, about Fox, Bear, and Armadillo encountering the ornery Badger, who fiercely guards the treehouse in the woods.

The stories are meant to be a bit more serious than my other children’s affairs, with one character, Mule, living in poverty, and another, Rhino, living with a seriously ill mother. I have big things planned for this series and while it’s currently on the back burner, I’m excited to see where it goes.

Novels

The Cicadas

The Cicadas is about a baseball team, the titular Cicadas, winning a championship game and beyond. The series of what I intend to be three young adult novels are less about baseball and more about the lives of these nine ball players as they grow from graduating high school to being grown adults with serious responsibilities who finally discover what they want to be. I have the lives of these characters very well planned out and the story itself is better outlined than almost anything else I write. I’m just putting it on the back burner because I want more experience in the adult world before I attempt a story covering those themes. I still love the Cicadas and I’m constantly drawing art for it, I just want to focus on other projects for a while.

The Great Watson

Another story that’s on the back burner right now is The Great Watson. It’s about five friends, Watson, Levi, John, Isaac, and Mason on their way to college. On the way, there’s a lot of reminiscing about the good times and the not-so-good times. It’s shaping up to be a pretty nice story. I have high hopes for it. Since this section is short, I’ll describe the characters a bit. Watson is a small black bear with a fighting spirit. He hates being underestimated and held back. He’s very strong willed. (The original story was about boxing, by the way).

Levi a kangaroo and is laid back, outgoing, easily distracted, and fun loving. He’s big on parties and girls but he’s also a true friend.

John was valedictorian. He wants to be a doctor and dedicates his whole life to studying. He’s pretty serious and doesn’t really have much fun. He’s basically Levi’s foil. Isaac is quiet and unapproachable to strangers. He can be sarcastic or blunt to the point of being mean, but he’s pretty cool when you get to know him.

Finally, Mason is a rich son of a gun who’s still pretty naïve. He’s the kind of guy Do-Wacka-Do was written for. He’s basically Isaac’s foil.

Mixed-Up Morality (working title)

This story is about Todd, son of a police officer, being pulled into the throws of temptation during the summer between eighth grade and freshman year. In addition to getting in trouble with his parents and his own conscience, Todd also has to deal with rotten Calvin and his “gang”. Good thing he has four great friends that stick by him through thick and thin, right? This story gives me a lot of trouble. It’s based on a story I wrote in middle school, but I can’t seem to get the POV or framing right. I can’t even decide if I want a young adult novel or a middle grade one. I love all of my ideas and characters for this story, but the technical details are really messing me up.

I have other stories planned in this same series, but I have the self restraint to have not started them yet. Aside from one, I’ll just call Westley. I won’t give it its own section, but it’s about an autistic boy who must overcome his fear of speaking out in order to save a good friend. That one I’m really excited for.

Children’s Stories

Red Ox

Red Ox is about a group of young farm animals going on adventures that often involve being imaginative or creative and learning life lessons along the way. I’m currently toying with both books and screenplays, and the current book I’m on is about finding stimulating things to do during summer, like going swimming, riding bikes, or reading books. I think it’s a really sweet little series.

Badge

While I wrote a book for Red Ox, I wrote a screenplay for Badge. Badge is about an autistic badger who, through a combination of being himself and learning new social skills, makes and maintains friendships with Lawrence, a young boy in a wheelchair, Maggie, a somewhat troubled young lady, and Hunter, a boy from a land far away (A.K.A. England). He also helps out at his father’s store and hangs out around his house. You know, slice of life stuff. His thing is collecting buttons and pins, which I think is very cute considering his name.

Screenplays

The Careers (working title)

This series is about four of my made up creatures, flumbols and fuzzwoliks, all living in a small house in the middle of no where. The main gimmick is that all of these men have very different careers and personalities. There’s Freddy, the muscular and kind of slow fireman who can smell smoke from four states away, Sam, the worldly and intelligent sailor who is obsessed with killing sea monsters, Aaron, the idealistic and tech-obsessed astronaut who swears he’ll be the first flumbol on Mars, and Pip, the serious and tired policeman who is so tired and serious he might not even qualify as a straight man. I also imagine him sounding like Roger Miller at the beginning of Boeing Boeing 707.

Ernest (working title)

Ernest is a character I love. His concept is to be as absurd and surreal as possible while still being funny and playing around with concepts that I find interesting. For example, what if everything has sentience? I haven’t written much for Ernest, so that hasn’t been tackled, but what if it was? There’s a lot of possibilities, because Ernest’s world doesn’t obey very many laws and is more of an imagination realm than anything else. I also hope to keep a bit of character driven comedy. You know, just to keep things Ernest.

Other

The Ballad of Tex Watkins

This is my newest story, so I don’t know what I want to do with it. I thought of making it a series of children’s chapter or middle grade books, but after thinking over the story and themes, I’m thinking that might not suit it. I don’t know. If you have any insight, let me know. Anyway, Tex Watkins is about Tex Watkins, the son of a murdered sheriff in the town of WillBill. He’s now being trained by the ruthless Wyatt Feasbert and overworked Mr. Coccyx to become the next sheriff, but Tex really isn’t the sheriff type. It’s definitely a comedy, but there are dark themes in it. I know grief is going to be a big one. I’m really excited for this story, just like with all the others, but it needs to find its place.

Thank you for reading this monster of a post. Be sure to tell me about your own stories, and if you’re feeling exceptionally generous, tell me which of my stories you liked hearing about the best.

Have a nice day!

[bigredaltoids]

Why do you to Write?

Last time, I asked y'all what media you carry with you as you write, giving my own personal examples and experiences. Today, I want to pose a different question. Why do you write in the first place?

In the aforementioned post, I gave a few examples of why someone may write, but I think the reasons most people write are deeply personal. You might write in order to share those wild and crazy thoughts in your head, but there's really no reason you couldn't do that through any other medium. Maybe you just write because it's fun, but is it fun in the "recreational weekend activity" way or in the "I could do this for hours on end without stopping and not lose interest" way? See where I'm coming from?

For me, I started writing in the third grade, but I don't think I was a writer until "Happy Halloween, States" in 2019, which was well after third grade.

I never intended to write, at least not novels, children's books, or screen/stage plays. Instead, I started with comics. Specifically, my state comics. One day, I wanted to translate what I wrote on paper onto a computer using text, and thus, what I affectionately call the puesdo-drama was born. That is, a story that uses some conventions of a stage play while forgoing elements like stage directions in favor of having a narrator who tends to describe that kind of thing. Here's an example:

Ever since starting my state story obsession (I've started over 60), I've been a writing fanatic. I mainly write stories about states (of course) and animals. I love writing for children and I love writing comedy. I gravitate towards writing contemporary or western stories and my favorite part of the writing process is creating interesting characters and writing comedic dialogue.

But none of that answers why I write, really. Well, I guess the reason I write is because I love communicating with people, and writing is simply the easiest means by which to get a story or message out to a large group of people.

In the real world, unless I'm giving a speech, I'm not the best communicator. Beyond the fact that I can't seem to control my voice level, I'm pretty awkward in face to face conversation. I tend to either speak too quickly or too slowly, I tend to rely too much on filler words, and I laugh inexplicably at inappropriate times. I'm able to get my point across, but I feel like other people look at me like I'm either a second grader or I never made it past second grade. It's pretty disheartening.

But when I write, I feel like my words carry real power. I can format them, arrange them, edit them, change them, delete them, all at my digression.

Not just that, but these worlds and characters are all in my hands. I get to decide what's going to happen to them. There's no surprises. And when there are, they're good surprises.

I love my characters, I love my worlds. I love putting my vision on something real that I can read back to myself when I'm bored or blue.

But most of all, when someone reads my work and they laugh or give good feedback, my whole world lights up and I hear fireworks. I love it when other people read my hard work, and one day, maybe more than just a poem will be in the public's hands.

So that's why I write. What about you? I want to hear everything. Maybe we have some common ground. Whatever your reason, I'm sure it's perfect for you.

[bigredaltoids]

Let's Talk Inspirations

What inspires you to write? Is it an amazing story you just have to share with the world? Is it a desire to create something that sticks with the audience? Something that entertains, informs, or persuades even if that isn't its primary purpose? Is it to have to have something personal that you can look back on with pride knowing that you created something in spite of the difficulties? Do you just write for fun? Do you write because it's a good way to pass the time?

Furthermore, what inspired you to write, and what work do you wear on your sleeve as you create?

This is what I'm hoping to discuss today. I'm thinking it'll help us all get to know each other and maybe help us bond over some common interests. I'll start.

So, I've always been a big media junkie. Sure, I love animals and nature, doing things with my hands, certain aspects of certain sports (like baseball card collecting), and history, but my earliest memories are sitting in front of that darn television watching PBS Kids, Nick Jr., Disney Jr., and what might of been my favorite, PBS Kids Sprout.

My family also owned a few Golden Era, Bronze Age, and Renaissance Disney films that I'd watch over and over again. I loved Bambi, Dumbo, The Fox and the Hound, and especially The Lion King. My first memory is actually seeing The Lion King in theaters when it rereleased in 2010. I loved animation from the moment I saw it, and for a while, I refused to watch anything live action.

Starting in early elementary school, I started watching The Simpsons, as well as shows like Spongebob Squarepants, both of which would enrapture me in different ways. Aside from those shows, some childhood cartoons that influenced me were Franklin, The Minimighty Kids, Oswald, Pajanimals, and Little Bear. I honestly don't watch television shows or movies anymore unless I'm looking into a genre or want to revisit my boyhood, but those shows stick out in my mind.

(Side note: I know Minimighty Kids is a bit of an outlier, but that show influenced a spinoff comic to my longest running series, Stateside, so I thought it deserved a mention.)

A different revolution would happen around kindergarten, though. I started reading. Starting with Go, Dog, Go, I proceeded to eat up book after book. I was reading at 5th grade level by 1st or 2nd grade, and by 5th grade, I was reading at a high school level. Books opened up such an amazing world for me. Some favorite books of mine include Call of the Wild, Animal Farm, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Wayside.

But reading opened another world. That of comics. I was never very big on superheroes, but I loved newspaper comics. My dad gave me his copy of The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes and sealed my fate as a comic nut. My favorite comic series are Beetle Bailey, Garfield, and of course, Calvin and Hobbes. I also own several single volumes of comics that I've loved, but simply don't know enough about to truly call a favorite. Besides, who here cares about Belvedere?

The latest discovery of mine was music. I've never been very into music because it's loud and most of what I'd heard was the junk on the radio. However, my darling grandfather and mother teamed up to introduce me to proper music. They introduced me to country and later novelty music, which are huge inspirations in the humor and storytelling of my stories. My current favorite songs include Class of '57 (The Statler Brothers), Old Army Hat/America the Beautiful (Bill Anderson), Miles and Miles of Texas (Asleep at the Wheel), Wolf Creek Pass (C.W. McCall), and King of the Road (Roger Miller), but my favorite artist will always be Ray Stevens.

So that's what inspired me, but why do I write in the first place? Well, this post is getting long, and I'm sure we all have stuff to do, so I'll leave it here for now.

But before you leave, tell me what your biggest influences are, because I'm curious. Come back soon (hopefully tomorrow) for a discussion on why we'd even write in the first place.

Thank you! Have a wonderful day!

[bigredaltoids]

"The human mind is a wonderful thing. It starts working before you're even born and doesn't stop again until you sit down to write a song." -Roger Miller

[bigredaltoids]

Howdy Folks.

It's me, Conner. I made this blog a long time ago in order to share my newly found passion for retro gaming and the little fan story I had come up with.

Since then, my interests have shifted back onto my own original work, so I decided to rebrand this blog for that purpose.

This blog is for my stories and the drawings that go along with them. I've also created a secondary blog to share my love of novelty music as well as the drawings I have drawn commemorating that love.

With the blog, I hope to share my love and passion for what I've created. Some of these stories have been in the works for four or five years and they're an important part of my life. I can't wait to see what becomes of some of these stories.

I hope I'm able to share more intimate details of the creation process here, such as where I get my inspiration, as well as being able to spoil some of the details of whatever story I'm showing off (within reason of course).

I would appreciate some patience. I'm autistic and I often communicate ineffectively or go too far with jokes, so being clear and direct with me is always best. Also, I know my stories can be weird, obtuse, silly, or even borderline absurdist, but big things are planned, even if you're not into that kind of thing.

Thank you for reading this. As a reward, have a look at some drawings I've done recently that I'm quite proud of, and maybe share information about yourself or your stories/art in the comments. I reply to all comments, so feel free to say hello!