Journal #1: Shou-lyan Rei (April 1-April 20)

Character: Shou-lyan Rei, "Shou" for short

Profession: former soldier, a young Engineer specializing in Robotics

Writing Project: 'Land of Stars'.

In the distant future, mankind has moved from the Earth onto high-tech Celestial Colonies known as 'Stars'. Wars are fought on a virtual frontier via armored mechs, but the line between Virtual Reality and the Real World have begun to blur. The past thirty years have been marred by war and deep rifts between Stars that have only begun to heal, and after three years of uneasy peace, the assassination of the Prime Minister of the backwoods Star 7 outside of Pluto threatens a new war.

Along with his roommate David Klay and a small group of other virtual pilots from the earlier wars, Shou endeavors to prevent the world from falling once again into the chaos of a bloodied battlefield, but there are many very real obstacles in their way.


See You in April!

Why 20 Days?

I thought a good way to start this blog would be with a bit about myself and an explanation of the project I'm endeavoring on. To do this, I think the most important question in everyone's mind is probably 'Why 20?'

Well, for starters, fourteen days was already taken. So was ten. Thirty is too many, especially since February only has 28. I don't think it's possible to really get to know someone in a week, so to really get into a character I wanted a span of time somewhere between fourteen and twenty-five days. After that it was just a matter of narrowing it all down until I had a nice, happy, round number.

So, long story short, we ended up with the nicely rounded 20.

'Twenty Days' will not necessarily run every month--sometimes large projects will get in the way or I'll need a break and skip a month. But the months that it does run in--at least bi-monthly--it will run from the 1st through the 20th.

Towards the end of the month preceeding a new project, I will write a brief blurb about the character who will be featured over the next 20 days.

So there you have it, that's the basic premise that 20 days runs on. If anyone out there plans to endeavor on the same project with me, I would love to hear about you and the misadventures of your overactive imagination! And if you feel like starting your own companion blog (something like 'twenty-days-billybob.blogspot.com' heh) I'd be glad to do a link exchange. Just let me know!

As far as myself, as things stand when I write this I jokingly call myself a Professional Hobbyist, a jack of all trades, a creative misanthrope, but I pay my bills as a bookkeeper. Kind of a far cry from indulging my permanently overactive imagination, but it is what it is. I leave it at that, since really I'm not all that important in the grand scheme of this project, right? Of course I'm right.

Hope you enjoy the literary insanity certain to ensue!