The Thread

There’s a new entry in the Threads Journal for today http://ow.ly/aUn64 http://ow.ly/i/CUcJ

5/3/2012  The Elliptical Threads is now complete at least this version of it.

5/4/2012 The final edits and few changes are all done, but they are only in the PDF, iBook and Kindle versions enjoy.

5/11/2012 The blog for elliptical Threads is now in parts.

 Elliptical Threads on the blog is the final version chapters now not the originally published here though Fanfiction it sitill the original. This story without disclaimers is around 135000 words about a 450 page book.  It’s been read by about 25000 people if I did my math correctly.  About 500 of you diehards I thank you.  It was started on 2/21/2012 and was finished 72 days later. Cheers

For those who wish to extend the Threads here’s the master file now in PDF. Elliptical Threads Complete

For Mobile devices who have Ipads, Iphones or macs click here for the Threads epub  for ibook.

For Amazon Kindle Threads Mobi click here

Here’s the timeline Reference files Time_Line_References

Here’s the characters Reference file that I’m using for the characters

Links, Because you Asked  and  Read all the funny Disclaimers , The Thread How its being written and resources  

I got this tonight for chapter 43, I couldn’t answer you on FF but I really appreicaite your kind words and I get teary sometimes when I write it.

Ted

“Do you have any idea how embarrassing it is for a grown man sitting in a restaurant reading your story to get all choked up and be on the verge of letting a few tears slip? Probably not. My acting skills are such that I looked like any other older gentleman with allergies or a bad cold.

Little did anyone know; I had neither.

This is one of the best BBT fanfics I have read. I readily admit to being a huge fan of Leonard and Penny and you write them and their characters so well, so real, and so convincingly.

The pleasure I have derived from reading all of your stories and not just this one is immense. In the midst of a dark and cynical world your stories make me happy.

Well done, sir!

Well done!”

This used to be the bulk of chapter 26.  I’ve decided to move it here and out of the Threads so I can add to it as needed:

I think the author of any story I ever liked is a vessel for the story. Once he gets it out and nurtures it awhile then it’s gone from him forever. If I read fiction I wrote in college and shortly afterward then they bring back the reason I wrote it. But I can’t visualize the story anymore which is a shame, I can visualize what I wrote and it’s never everything I had visualized then.

It’s happening with this story. I write a plot line, ideas and draw things then write the chapter. I’m trying not to revise things to much or I would never be finished. I can be a touch OCD when it comes to the perfect description. So I write the chapter revise and edit it twice. Then publish it that night so it’s finished and I can move on. The morning edit is done on paper while running on the treadmill. These are typos, grammar and spelling check. I write very quickly so something always slips through. That’s the last edit a chapter is getting until the entire story is done.

Sometimes it’s rather heartbreaking when I look back through the notes and find a really good idea or plot I never got around to writing. If you like this story you must care for detail. I try to minimize it at time. Most detail is in the beginning and middle scenes. By the last few scenes I’m trying to accomplish something so things move quicker. I try to change up the perspective as I write it. 1st person, 2nd and 3rd. I’ll write a character’s view of things then switch to the other or 3rd person to flesh something out. I tell you the reader so you know it’s intentional. I may write 2 chapters soon with the view of something from one character in the first. Then the next chapter of the same event from the others point of view. Chapter 25 has some of that because we made a big time jump. The pacing had been about 3 chapters per day, then finally to a chapter per day, then every other day.

Part II will be with about the same pacing. It’ll start slowly and speed up as the characters need to. Now onto the questions:

Do I read the whole piece?
Yes and no every week I used to read the whole piece make small edits on the master which I don’t post. I also tend to read the last 4 or 5 chapters each day to get feel about where I was going with something.  As we are now getting into 60 chapters its starting to be a every two or three week thing, it take the better part of a day to read.  I am posting the entire master file now so you can downloaed it in several ways.

Do I respond to everybody?
I try to and as soon as i possibly can. I get about 5 times as many private messages, email, and tweets as reviews. I also like the banter. I have a few people that respond within minutes of the posting. Because I’m on the West coast I hear from most of you the next day. At that point I’m writing the next chapter I hope.

When will the story end?
It almost did at the end of Part I. I considered just writing a very long chapter 25 as an epilogue to finish each characters story and beyond. I would have done a mélange of what I thought were important scenes and called it done. Right now I’m excited about writing the European chapters. You’ll know it’s the last chapter when I name it “The Epilogue Thread”

How much of the characters resemble there TBBT characters?
The short answer is maybe 25% on Leonard and Penny, 50% plus on the other characters. I take a lot of liberties there. We are going to get a real good look at Sheldon and Amy soon. Here’s what the main characters look like to me. Most of this was written after the first couple of chapters I just cleaned it up here.

Penny:

Who is Penny based on? Of course it’s based on the character from TBBT. Then add in a little Kaley Couco herself. A touch of other actresses and their travails are in there also. What are her traits? Penny has strength and courage to go on even when things seem hopeless to her. She still has some issues with showing frailty, weakness or doubt. But now she will really fight for the things she wants knowing that in the end it will be the right place she ends up. A lot of people get channeled into her. Now in this fiction she protects herself, her image and her privacy. Think Helen Hunt, Jodie Foster. They are in there somewhere. To be a real person but to hold back a portion of that which you are is a very difficult and a treacherous path to be both lover and friend outside the industry. This is still very attractive women around 38 years old. She can still pass for under 30 in a pinch.

Leonard:

Leonard at 45 is the Leonard of the show. But more refined, parts of me are in there. Wine, scotch, cooking. He’s moved a long way down the road of life both professionally and personally. I try to make Leonard introspective but not obsessive as he is with over thinking. He’s aware now that when it comes to people and how they react he’s not usually right. Think about the “Recombination Hypothesis” episode. Comfortable with himself, yet not, Leonard has found a certain ability to calm himself. Europe has produced a certain sophisticated erudite quality to Leonard. He has the same caring heart he has in the show but can more easily forgive faults in others. I have relieved him of his many maladies he suffered. Vision Issues, lactose intolerance, asthma, allergies were very funny vehicles for the sitcom but a little too shallow for the piece I envisioned.

Liisa, Horst, Lena and Lisel are all very real people to me. They are drawn off of real people both still with me and some not. I find them entirely the most difficult to write sometimes even though I know them the best.

Pictures in the blog

A lot of the time I will use a picutre or pictures to let me meld and describe different scenes.  What is Paris like in the winter.  You have to invision those same beautiful trees with no leaves.  The avenues now of bare trees, more forlorn perhaps but the vibrancy still there, it is Paris after all.  Geneva in a similiar vein.  Sometimes I just need a picture of Lenord and Penny from the show to put the chemistry together.

There are more questions I know, I responded to most when they were asked.

69,645 words in 31 chapters, 61287 if you take out disclaimers, asides and footers

126 standard pages in 11 point Arial font, around 210 pages if this was a book,

90000-10000 words being a full length 288-320 page book.

It has 11627 hits on Fan Fications site, the blog is seeing more traffic each day

It’s been interesting, at the current rate ET should be done by April 7th unless I find something for a part III

Ideas, thought are welcome ?

I’ve put several cool pieces new technological advance in the piece.  Thought I’d talk a little about them.

TISHH Transparent Interactive Synthetic Human Home

Wouldn’t having Tish be cool.  All the sensor, controls that Tish would have are already out there in 2012.  It’s the software and Artificial intelligence that is lacking.  With the current state of voice recognition even with Siri you’d burn the house down before you could turn the heat down.  Tish can do things like answer the phone and the door for you.  She could screen your calls and visitors.  A pipe breaks in the winter and Tish turns the water off.  Tish is the beginning of the house Avatar.  Tish would have a personality that grows with you and your home.  As it is Tish is a great writing device that can be used instead of the character to do things.  She can also give me the choice of doing a scene where you see what’s going on from the house’s point of view.  If these walls could talk, with Tish they can. Tish goes beyond this as the central data storage for your house. She houses all your media or can go get any media you would ever ask for.  She’ll interface to your car downloading that media to it.  She can keep inventories of food stocks and order your groceries.  Tell you the milks about to go bad, etc.

Autodrive Feature

I really want this feature.  Get in the car tell it where to go then sit back with a good book and read until you arrive.  You could watch a movie, do your emails, tweet whatever.  It solves that whole drunk driving issue rather nicely.  On the freeways you could have long distance lanes, yours and other autodrive cars traveling at high rates of speed.  Pulling their power off the road they could arrange your car and others into ad hoc trains.  All the cars in the piece are assumed to be totally electric.  I want this now.

Digital White Boards

We already have them, they’re just rather cumbersome to use.  I have two white boards in my office now.  Wouldn’t be nice to just have ones that store it, erase it, then bring it back as needed?

Beds on Airlines

This is being done right now by British Airways and others flying the Pacific routes,  if you can afford it that is.

There’s more coming but I’d spoil it so we’ll add it later

The one in the story is a mixture of the Belle Horizon suite and the Belle Vista Suite.  living room vista, bedroom horizon.

Pictures from Piece,

Penny’s Haricut from the pilot and chapter 1 think about that face but  20 years down the road.

,

The framed picture on Leonard Dresser

The real smile and the dress for the Mixer