What's happening behind the scenes to bring new GHAWG content? The GHAWG Diaries is my recap of what I've been doing.
Cover image designed by @magnacarta using emojis and Excel 2007 for text. Minor edits made using MS Paint.
Introduction
There's more to #GHAWG than just daily zapfic entries and the spreadsheet I use to track them. There's research. There's review. There's also thought and inspiration. Then there are the tools involved in doing any of those tasks.
Just to keep things from getting scrambled in my head, and also to document for myself what I've been considering, I began keeping a diary of my activities as they concern #GHAWG. With posts in the GHAWG, Uninterrupted series on hold at Interlude 3 while Act 7 remains in progress, I decided to share these diary entries with everyone on Hive blockchain.
On Mondays which don't feature a GHAWG, Uninterrupted post-- GHAWG-U-- I'll post diary entries from the previous 7 days or between GHAWG-U posts if the time between them is short. For Part 49, there are 7 days' worth of diary entries covering 14 days. The first entry starts on 2024-October-21.
Before anyone scratches their heads at a few terms, here are 3 I began using many posts ago:
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
Rate Bike | Code name for #GHAWG (the first and current zapfic serial) |
Blue Lion | Code name for the middle zapfic serial in the GHAWG Universe |
The Bronze | Code name for the final zapfic serial in the GHAWG Universe |
What happened to Monday 2024-October-28 though Sunday 2024-October-27?
You know what? I don't know what happened either! It's as if that week went into the Ether. Did I have anything written for those days? If I did, did I fat-finger the DELETE buton to wipe out that week? I have no idea, and I'll drive myself crazy trying to figure out what happened.
Monday, 2024-October-28
📓 Even through Felix Legion continues its ride on Route 66, It's been a while since I listened to my preferred version of this song. This is the techno-electronica version performed by 1980s band Depeche Mode and upgraded various times since then for concert performances as well as for digital media platforms of the 21st Century. Since this segment of David Guardia's Epic Ride is close to its end, I'm no longer getting the same inspiration as I had when Felix Legion was riding Route 66 through California (San Bernardino and Barstow) and then through Arizona (Kingman, Flagstaff, and Winona).
I won't deny that procrastination has entered the scene for me, but I thought I had more time. It turns out I misjusged the zapfic queue by 30 days. What should have been several weeks is actually a few days. I confess to having other things on my mind, but I thought I had managed my time better. Obviously, I had not. So now all I can do is take it a day at a time.
Tuesday, 2024-October-29
📓 It's time to add to the zapfic queue, but before I do that I need to review digital maps showing the area between Romeoville and Chicago. For reference, the 2 places are separated by about 31 miles. The previous destination of note before reaching Romeoville was Joliet. It was in Joliet where we meet The Blues Brothers the day one of them picks up the other when his prison sentence is completed. The tricky part is determining where the legendary Route 66 follows Interstate 55 and where it goes its own way. This is where I need to see what the digital maps give me in order to figure out how I can add to the zapfic queue. Time to get to it!
Wednesday, 2024-October-30
📓 So far it's been a quiet week on the GHAWG front. I've been publishing to LeoThreads the daily zapfic entry, so I have that going for me. As for the zapfic queue, I need to add entries to it soon. Felix Legion has entered its final day riding along the path believed to be that of the Route 66 of yesteryear. The endpoint is Chicago a short distance from the southwest shore of Lake Michigan.
In my mind I have a big set piece taking place to close out this ride, and it will include the reappearnce in person of independent journalist Aníbal Rivera. He has his own brief storyline on this day, and it will take place at the same time Felix Legion rides into town. Eventually the 2 storylines merge into one when David Guardia finds himself face-to-face with the man who calls Cleveland, Ohio, US home. This is when Rivera will witness for himself the man David had become since he interviewed him in Le Clair, Iowa, US just after he awoke from his 10-day coma caused by the near-fatal explosion which took place literally moments after crossing Illinois to enter Iowa.
Thursday, 2024-October-31
📓 Today I took a quick look at the zapfic queue. I had fooled myself into thinking I had enough entries to take me to 2024-December-08. I had misread the date code I use to designate each zapfic entry. It turns out the I had entries to take me only through 2024-November-07. That gives me a buffer of 1 week. What was I thinking when I thought I had enough entries to take me into December? October ends (for me) in a few hours, so I don't have much time. I need to go back to the digital maps and see what I have to work with. At least I have Felix Legion in its final day on Route 66.
Friday, 2024-November-01
📓 Now that the end of the ride on Route 66 is nearing its end, what can we expect from Felix Legion? Certain stops will be chosen not just based on recent events or my own personal interests but also to take advantage of discoveries I make on the digital maps as well as to flesh out more details for the relevant characters. This is what I did in the early stages of Rat Bike when David Guardia was alone, riding with the uncanny Manny Rey, and riding with second co-pilot Rhonda Bella. More will be revealed about not only The Kids (Sanjay Rampersad and Lionel Odunsi) but also The The Twins (Hank Marchenko and Frank Marchenko). Besides the usual character interactions (David and Rhonda, Lindsay Etxeberria with Hank & Frank, Lindsay with Sanjay and Lionel), there will be other combinations of interactions. One thing which will be new for The GHAWG Universe is zapfic entries taking place in purely fictional settings, areas not to be found on any digital map. For one major sequence of zapfic entries I've been considering for a while, I may need to employ this technique. If I do this using a real place, it will reflect badly on the area's people and community and businesses; that's not what I want to do. Once these zapfic entries are published to LeoThreads, people will see why I employed this writing technique.
Saturday, 2024-November-02
📓 If I had to design a set of data cards for each member of Felix Legion (plus a few other people from Rat Bike), what data should I include? The usual data points such as name, town, and birhdate will be included. Town can be divided into place of birth and domicile. Educational history could be included, whether or not a character attended college or university. More difficult for me to include is family since now all characters have family associated with them.
However, there is one item of interest I should include: the motorcycles they ride. Just in Rat Bike we see that David Guardia went through three of them. The motorcycles offer us an insight into the characters who ride them. This information is just as useful for supporting characters such as The Twins and The Kids as it is for leading characters David Guardia and his wife, the former Rhonda Bella.
Other items of interest include religious and political leanings. While GHAWG is biased in favor of Christianity (and that's because its what I as the author know best), the messages delivered via zapfic should find a home in other faith systems. As for political leanings, they are presented through the perspectives of pirates and misfits. GHAWG admittedly leans right, but not in favor or a domestic political organization or party. David's beliefs may have been formed early in life courtesy of his Force Recon United States Marine Corps father, but they were tempered and refined by life-changing events such as a corporate bankruptcy and the need to become a business owner. Hank & Frank, the Brothers Marchenko, are anarcho-capitalist libertarians; they don't hold back in their criticisms of the dominant ruling philosophies of the day. Lindsay Etxeberia had been a far-left activist until meeting David and company in Portland, Oregon, US; while her beliefs at one time overlapped with those espoused by the Democrat Party in the United States, there is no way she will be associated with any flavor of the Republican Party now that she chose to start over with a clean slate. Meanwhile, Rhonda Bella Guardia is the most apolitical of the crew. It's possible that The Kids, Sanjay Rampersad and Lionel Odunsi may have political leanings, but they keep them to themselves given their status as foreign exchange students from India and Nigeria respectively. However, the fact that they have been riding with David Guardia since meeting him in Iowa indicates they have right-leaning tendencies.
At some point posts will be published, wiki-style, explaining these characters and others. For now, we can agree that David formed himself a motley crew for his Epic Ride.
Sunday, 2024-November-03
📓 The zapfic queue is down to 4 entries. At this point, Felix Legion is riding into Chicago to reach the eastern terminus of the iconic road known as Route 66. I'm still fuzzy on how the 2 storylines unfold and then intersect, but I still have time to figure out the storylines not only for Felix Legion but also for independent journalist Aníbal Rivera. Although I can't demonstrate this right now, I have faith that I will come up with a satisfactorysequence of zapfic entries which will allow Felix Legion to continue David Guardia's Epic Ride to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, US (home of the University of North Carolina, where Basketball Hall of Fame player Michael Jordan played during the 1980s.)
When (and Where) To Catch #GHAWG
When
This is the normal schedule for the posting of content for #GHAWG:
● Daily -- Each zapfic entry is posted shortly after midnight, from New York
● Weekends -- Weekly Summaries (with modified screen capture from LeoThreads as cover image) are usually on Saturday, sometimes Sunday
● Monday -- Either GHAWG, Uninterrupted if present, or The GHAWG Diaries
● Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday -- GHAWG Behind the Scenes -- The goal is to publish these posts on all days not dedicated to the Weekly Summary, GHAWH-U, or The GHAWG Diaries (TGD). There may be days with no post, so I'll minimize those occasions as best as I can.
Where
● Daily zapfic entries drop at LeoThreads, usually posted shortly after midnight from New York (sometimes around noon)
● All long form posts-- Weekly Summaries, GHAWG-U, and TGD-- can be accessed using the #GHAWGnav sticky post or from my InLeo profile page
That's it for this edition of The GHAWG Diaries. I'm 
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Thanks for your time. Give the post an upvote or a reblog if you liked it. Feedback is welcome. Until next time!
[!!] -- Graphic signature was designed by @ahmadmanga