After spending a couple of fairly long, enjoyable nights editing I think I can consider the second chapter of Paradise in a state of completion limbo — not "done" by any means, but done well enough to the point where I can not worry about it and move on to the next chapter. Which I think I'll probably start work on at the end of the month.

Chapter 2, though, is fairly different than the first chapter in that there was no longer the need to be incredibly detailed in environment descriptions since, for the most part, there aren't a whole lot of new areas that were visited. In this chapter I decided to focus on the introduction of some important characters and tried flesh out Adam, the main character for those not in the know, a bit more. The overall tone of this chapter also isn't quite as a somber as the first one was. That's not to say that this chapter is uplifting by any means, because… It's not. The best way to describe the tone of this chapter is probably to just call it bipolar and move on.

Here's a little teaser to grab your attention enough to actually go read the thing:

Adam woke up from what felt like a half-hour nap. He opened his eyes and saw Rachel curled up on his chest. He picked her up and set her on the pillow next to him. Since he couldn’t think of anything better to do, he decided that he’d just head to school early. Looking over at the couch, he noticed that Jack was watching TV with a beer in his hand and two empty bottles on the table in front of him.

“I find myself angry, yet oddly entertained, by the fact that one of the four non-news shows they show us is about a group of people stranded on an island together,” Jack said, turning up the volume on the episode of Gilligan’s Island he was watching. He then drank the remaining half of the bottle he was holding on to.

“Uh-huh,” Adam said while he scanned the floor for a shirt to go over his dark blue t-shirt.

Jack turned his head around to look at Adam, “You were always one of those kids that used to watch these reruns and think that maybe, just maybe, Gilligan would get everyone off the island in that particular episode. Weren’t you?”

Adam had found a shirt and started to button it up. “Nope. I think I watched about three episodes and figured out that they would never get off the island. The series finale would be something like the Skipper finally getting sick of Gilligan’s shit and going on a batshit crazy murdering rampage.”

“Aided by the Professor,” Jack added.

“Of course,” Adam said, trying to find where he put the belt once he had taken it out of Rachel’s mouth.

“Well, let me tell you, Adam. I’m glad you’re the one who will ‘educate the future generations.’ The kids will have a nice, optimistic, mentally stable figure in their lives,” Jack said.

This segment is probably the worst indication of what the chapter is like, but it was one of the more enjoyable for me to write, so yeah. And it doesn't really give anything away… Which is either good or bad, I'm not sure yet. Either way, if you're interested in reading it there are a variety of formats: HTML, DOC, and PDF. As a quick WARNING this chapter, like the one before it, has quite a bit of swearing. It is devoid of any sex, violence, gore, or drugs (with the exception of beer) though.

All of this, as usual, is all available on my fiction page and I would highly recommend reading the first chapter (also on the writing page) if you haven't before the second chapter. This is just my damned chronological thinking, though. There's also an "Introduction" on that writing page… But I wouldn't really recommend reading that. It's an entirely different sort of beast that was written before I had given much thought to the actual novel and, now, I don't think it really fits in with the direction I'm taking anymore. It's still there, though, if you want to read something that's all sorts of special.

Any questions, comments, or what-have-you can either be posted as a comment here or e-mailed to me.

gotta wake up and smell the collected coffee