With the next installment of the Skywalker Saga only 7 weeks away it’s hard to contain my excitement. I have detached myself from all social media chatter because I don’t want have any more expectations than I already do. But if you are interested here are my predictions for what will happen.
 
1) “When I found you… something special.” Is Snoke talking to Rey.

2) “I need someone to help me find my place in all of this.” Rey talking to Luke.

3) Rey is a descendant of Palpatine.

4) Kylo Ren actually saves Leia.

5) Ren is offering his hand to anyone other than Rey. Based on the background I am going with Finn as my first choice but could also be Luke, Poe, or distant a maybe, his mom.

6) Porgs are either Force sensitive or Force negating. They just better have a good reason for showing us Porgs on the Falcon. Their existence needs to be justified.

7) By the end it will all be flipped, Ren will be with the Resistance and Rey with the First Order.

8) As all 2nd installments do, it will end on a cliffhanger

9) Episode 9 will be Operation: Rescue Rey.
 
Other factors to think about:
Jedi is plural, not sure how that all will play out.
                Anakin’s Force ghost
                What is Hux up to
                Rey’s Force vision from Ep 7 @ Maz’s castle
 
If I end up being wrong, even really wrong, I will be so happy. I rather be surprised by a movie. Whatever happens I just hope they do the characters justice.
​
What do you agree with, disagree with?
What are your predictions?

“Good things come to those who wait.” A popular mantra since 1892. I recently saw a modified version of that quote that crossed out “wait” and replaced it with “work their asses off.” In this case, both are true.
 
Some of you have asked, and I really appreciate your interest, when book three will be out. My original hope had been this year, already. I had hoped to be done with it in 2015.  But alas, that is not the case. It WILL be published in 2018 or I will die trying.
 
When I started book one I had no idea it would lead to a second or third book. And I definitely did not have any notion of where the trilogy would (will) end.  (Word to the wise, don’t publish anything until you know how it’s going to end.) Anyways, once I had completed Trespassing, I had no conscious plans to do another book. Linchpin just came out of nowhere and writing it was so easy. So easy. I emphasize this because book three has been anything but easy. Book three, Iteration, is making me work for every single word. Which is fine, it’s just pushed back my timeline. When I was explaining to my writing coach what I wanted to accomplish with book three I realized it is an ambitious undertaking so it will need time to make sure it’s done right.
 
I have had to work for absolutely every word and I hope they are worth it. At the moment the word count is hovering around 100k, the wordiest of the three. I will wrap up the first draft by the end of November and then it will go through the hoops with my workshop group, writing coach, and finally the editor. Who knows how many words will survive after all of that. In any case, the waiting will be well worth it. I promise.
 
As to the why behind a third book, is really because – trilogy. Everybody loves them. Two books doesn’t feel complete. There is something so satisfying about sets of three, ask any art or writing major.
 
For the release of book three, I hope to publish a definitive collection of DPA/Elbie material. Including all the short stories, the graphic novel, and an alternate beginning to Trespassing. It’s going to be a big deal you guys. So I have my work cut out for me over the next six months, working my ass off, so that once the wait is over, you will be very happy with the results.

All my favorite characters are male. I am female. The trend in society at the moment is to exalt the minority. Which I agree with is a much needed trend. It has been said many times recently that representation matters. I feel like as a female I should be gravitating toward all these new strong female characters that are gaining popularity. But I don't.
​
Am I the victim of societal bias? Maybe. I am already aware that I have a propensity toward messiah figures (Optimus Prime, Ender Wiggin, Master Chief, Aragon, Takashi "Shiro" Shirogane,) but I'm not interested in fictional female characters. I think the idea of representation is at work here.

I actually know strong women that I admire and look up to. I don't need a fictitious example. I was raised by a single mother, who was a cop. Needless to say she had many female colleagues that were officers as well and they all have memorable personalities and dispositions. My mom is a good friend and has lifelong friends, something I've managed to pick up, and each of them are like her- independent, strong willed, tough as nails, grounded, smart, compassionate, thoughtful. I have been surrounded my whole life by excellent women.

Not so much for men. My life has always lacked strong male role models. That is exactly what drew me to Transformers. I always wanted a brother and those characters felt like brothers to me and most people will agree that Optimus Prime is a father figure. When I became a Christian I inherited a bunch of brothers and some father role models as well. But, I didn't become a Christian until the middle of high school and most of your formative experiences are set before then.

As a result, all my favorite fictional people are male. Self-sacrificing, defenders of justice and the powerless, courageous in the face of danger and undaunted by obstacles. I am just now realizing that most of them are military too. Don't get me wrong. I know good men. The kind of men that are noble of heart and make sacrifices for their families and communities but unlike fiction I am not privy to those hardships. And that is the beauty and value of fiction. I know the struggles of my favorite characters and it inspires me to be a better person. They are male and I am female but the traits that I admire most are not restricted by gender or any other label for that matter.

It’s important to examine why we revere the people and characters that we do. The admiration we place on them can be a reflection of who we would like to be.  I am glad that women and people of color are getting more of the spotlight but integrity, courage, compassion, loyalty, et al, these are universal qualities that make up the best of humanity.

Just as I was about to post this article I realized there is one fictional female character that I have always looked up to and that is Wonder Woman. But Wonder Woman was just an extension of who my mom was because both are awesome women. 

​The old adage is that writers write. I'm a writer, I have two books you can buy right now. Haven't written much in three months.
 
I'm not going to say I have writer block. It may be, but I'm not convinced. I think it's more akin to extreme procrastination. I am avoiding writing. I don't know why but I am. Once I sit down and start doing it I'm fine, it's the getting started part that I am struggling with.
 
Part of the problem is distraction. Unlimited data is not my friend. Netflix and Hulu must think I'm bed ridden. Ray Bradbury has strong opinions about TV and he is not someone I would lightly dismiss.
 
In addition, for the last two years I have been obsessing over various fandoms. (Looking at you RvB and Star Wars.) Other fans are a source of great delight to me but it is a deep hole that can be hard to get away from, especially if I am facing a hard scene.
 
Lastly, people. There is a lot of demand on my time. I strongly believe that investing in the right relationships is important but it has come at a cost and that price has been my dedicated writing time. I have to schedule that time and I have to defend it, vehemently, or it will never happen.
 
I am not saying any of these activities are bad. All I am saying is that for me they are not helping me advance in my writing. If it doesn't contribute to my current goal of finishing book three it has to be set aside.
 
So. This is what I am resorting to. My goal, once a day, just write one sentence. That's it. Five to fifteen little words in the context of my story.
 
But you see it’s trick. Once I write one sentence the next one comes pretty easily. In no time I have a bona fide paragraph. And then I am on my way. As a precaution I have made myself accountable to someone. I text them that I have done my sentence. If they don’t hear from me they ask about it. Somedays I only have enough energy for the one sentence, but it’s still progress, I am still moving forward.
 
This is nothing new, it's Anne Lamont's bird by bird story. Start with one word, then do another. Don't think about the big picture. Focus on that one thing. Because all I need right now is my shitty first draft and the only way to get that is laying down sentences one word at a time.

In the past I have posted pictures of what some of my characters would wear. Since I am working a lot with the four, Brendan, Kristy, Matt, and Derek, in book three I wanted to expand that a little bit. So here you go.

At the San Francisco Comic Convention I got lots of compliments on my cosplay guns so I thought I would post my how to so you can make your own. For something like this it more about time over skill. If you can paint by numbers you can do this.

STEP 1: Sand. You will most like need a couple different grades of sand paper. The main point it to get off any shiny parts. It's good to start with a rougher grade and then and use a finer grade to smooth the surface.  

This can create a lot of dust so if you are sensitive you will want to wear a protective face mask.

STEP 2: Modify. Make any major cosmetic changes now. Since this was a water gun it's most glaring flaw was the water spout coming out of the top of the water chamber. I used a hack saw for this one. It was a soft plastic so it wasn't too bad. If it had been the hard kind, like what the handle is made of, I don't know if a hack saw would have done the job. 

After all the sanding and sawing you will get all the dust off with a wet cloth or just go ahead and run it under some water.

STEP 3: Patch. I had to cover up all the holes. Not only the giant one that was now on the top but also all the little ones where all the screws are (see above). For the big holes I got some wall patches from the hardware store. For the little one I used puddy. I have also use Gorilla glue. It expands as it dries so you do not want to fill it to the top. It can be sanded down later if needed. I just stuffed all the little holes with puddy and let them dry

STEP 4: Prime. You will want to coat everything with some spray paint primer. Let it dry completely.

Note that I taped over the part of the gun that is the hand grip. I did not paint it at all because I didn't want to chance the paint coming off on people's hands as  well as not wanting to agitate skin allergies or anything like that.

Step 5: Paint. I choose to spray paint everything silver as base layer so that if any of the blue came off there would still be a color that. This took 3 or 4 stages since I had to paint one angle, let it dry, and then do another angle. You don't want to spray too heavily or you will get drip marks.

​Using the silver as a base had an unexpected result. I used the sponges to apply the blue paint. With the first stroke my royal blue mixed with the silver and to get the light blue panels you see. I actually liked how it looked so I just went with it. But if you want to make sure that doesn't happen then use the masking tape to cover up the sections to want to be different colors. If the tape takes any paint off you can touch up later.

In order to get the darker color I had to dab the paint on rather than dragging the sponge across the silver. This took 2-3 layers. 

Make sure to let each layer dry completely.

Having learned my lesson from the rifles I did make sure to cover up all the parts I wanted blue for the hand guns. It took more time but I did get the results I was hoping to achieve. For the ones below I also got silver and blue Sharpie Paint pens to help with the more detailed work on these. The work good but the paint does come off so you don't want to use the Sharpie paint pens for any part that would get touched a lot. Or you can just touch it up often to.

And that is how I turned water guns into lazer rifles. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment or contact me using the "Contact Me" page. Have fun!

I have collected below all the posts I've made regarding the DPA. I try to make the worlds of my stories bigger than the books. Enjoy.

Bonus Material:
http://www.elbiefree.com/rants-n-raves/origin-story-elbie
http://www.elbiefree.com/rants-n-raves/character-spotlight-agent-ian-reynolds
http://www.elbiefree.com/rants-n-raves/character-spotlight-esbenedward-drake
http://www.elbiefree.com/rants-n-raves/character-spotlight-lheilh
http://www.elbiefree.com/rants-n-raves/origin-story-the-kids (Spoilers)
http://www.elbiefree.com/rants-n-raves/origin-story-the-dpa
 
Behind the Scenes:
http://www.elbiefree.com/rants-n-raves/hidden-treasure
http://www.elbiefree.com/rants-n-raves/random-thoughts-from-characters (Spoilers)
http://www.elbiefree.com/rants-n-raves/found-things3
http://www.elbiefree.com/rants-n-raves/the-secret-history-of-gifted1
 
The Movie:
http://www.elbiefree.com/rants-n-raves/trespassing-the-movie
http://www.elbiefree.com/rants-n-raves/trespassing-the-movie-part-2
http://www.elbiefree.com/rants-n-raves/trespassing-the-movie-part-3