Shenandoah

I don’t know why I haven’t written much in the last few years. I thought a lot about writing, but for one reason or another, I couldn’t put what I wanted to say in writing. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve had the urge to write some more Fan-fiction. I have several stories that are begging for me to finish: Radiant Wasp and Justice Corp. In addition, I added a new story about James Olsen from Super-girl called “The Guardian: Year One.” He’s such an emasculated and bland character that I wanted to add some zest to the character’s life in some Fan-fiction.

I hate the way black characters are portrayed on television, and I think that’s one of the reasons I haven’t been motivated to write Fan-fiction. Taking in black, emasculated male characters isn’t healthy for the mind. I like to watch television to relax, and it’s almost impossible when the character that represents your group is being demeaned. What kind of people thinks it’s hip to put a black character on the screen, and his one job is to chase the white girl? It’s disgusting. This has to be the most disrespectful television trope in history.

I have enjoyed several of the Netflix Original Series, especially Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Dare Devil. I've been thinking about writing some Fan-fiction about Jessica Jones, but I don't have any good ideas at the moment. I enjoyed Jessica Jones so much that I watched the whole series three times, and each time I watched it, I liked it more. I had hoped Jessica Jones would have made a guest appearance on Luke Cage so he could tell her to take her ass back to Hell's Kitchen. I mean she did shoot him in the face. That's not something you can easily forgive. I'm hoping to see more of Jessica Jones' shenanigans in her second season.

Anyway, I will be doing a lot of writing on my stories, and I hope the people who take the time to read my work, enjoy it.

Feb 14, 2017

I’m frustrated that is shutting down its message boards on the 20th of February. I’ve been on their message boards for over eleven years, so it’s kind of upsetting to lose that small space on the Internet. I could go there, and rant about something I disagreed with on a television show or chat up some people about the latest iteration of Batman. I’ve been in hundreds, maybe even thousands of nonsensical arguments over the years on , but I found it therapeutic to a certain degree.

Feb 23, 2017

I found a new site where I can post about my favorite television shows and movies. It's called https://. I think IMDB shut down its discussion groups because of all the vitriol. Maybe this new board will be a more peaceful place than . I had plenty of insane arguments through the years, but I learned how to walk away from them. At some point, I realized there's more to life than arguing over old episodes of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer."

I went through some of my old writings before the 2013 tornado tore through Moore, Oklahoma, and turned my side of town to nothing but piles of debris. I found a lot of my Defiance writings on my old thumb drive and some on my Google Drive. They brought back a lot of memories about the show. I only liked the first season of the show, and pretty much couldn't stand the 2nd and 3rd seasons. I thought the show had an abundance of potential, but it never surfaced. The final season of Defiance disturbed me to the core because it came across as a bit racist. The Olmecs were intelligent, black cannibalistic over-sexed vampires or something like that, and if I'm not mistaken, they were responsible for creating the Indogenes. None of their intelligence ever surfaced, and it appeared that the other races sabotaged the Olmec's ships to keep them from coming to Earth. There wasn't anything original about the Olmecs, and since the Olmecs were a race of people before the Aztecs, I felt the writers didn't think outside the box.

Another issue I had with the show was with the languages. I had hoped the languages would grow, but that never happened. I would check web pages dedicated to the show for the Irathient language, but it was only a few pages. I had hoped the language would grow, but since the show was canceled, I guess there was no need for that. I wanted the show to take a closer look at the Irathient people, and how they left Defiance after forced vaccinations. I felt the setting of the show in 2046 was the wrong time frame.

The majority of weapons on the show were of the Po-tech variety. I think I saw a few advanced weapons on the show, but the majority of them were the basics: shotguns, pistols, and magazine fed weapons. I don't think the show had the kind of budget to produce the special effects I wanted to see. I thought it was a mistake to kill off a major character in the first season, Tommy in the second season, and McCawley and his family in the third. I had hoped the show would have shown more of Rynn's life because she was actually my favorite character. Well, it was kind of a tie between her and Irisa. So, I was crazy upset when that crazy guy victimized Rynn and removed one of her eyes.

I liked the dynamic between Jeb and Irisa, and the fact that Jeb was a dirtbag. I wanted to see more of Irisa's struggle between her two worlds: human and Irathient. I liked it when Irisa told her father, "I'm not a human girl."

I wouldn't mind seeing another iteration of the series with a good storyline, action, and characters that resonate with the viewers. The world of defiance is so big that there are a plethora of stories to be told.

March 8, 2017

I’m not relating to any of the series on the CW, especially the ones with African American characters because of the way they’re written. It’s painful to watch show after show where the black characters have no characterization. The writers of the shows with token black characters don’t actually empathize with those characters, and they make sure the viewers can’t sympathize with those characters either. It’s sickening. It’s like all the CW shows are written by sociopaths.

March 9, 2017

The Vampire Diaries is at the end of its long run, and that’s a good thing. I stopped watching the show after the 2nd Season because I thought the show was mundane. I didn’t see much character development with the token characters, and I find that unacceptable. I had written some fan-fiction about the show, and it was starring Caroline Forbes, but when I stopped watching the show, I deleted the writings. I don’t know if I still have those files on a drive somewhere. CW moved the show to Friday, and I thought that meant an immediate death, but it hung on for a few years. The problem with long-running vampire shows is humans age and vampires don’t; therefore, after eight seasons of the show, the vampires look like they’re ready for walkers. I think it’s time to stop with all the vampire shows for about the next five to ten years; they’re boring.

On one hand, I’m thinking we’ve had too many vampire shows and movies, while yet, I’m thinking an “I Am Legend” serial is needed stat. Better yet, I’d like a redo of “The Secret Circle.” I thought that show had potential, but it never picked up the momentum it needed. One of the major problems I had with the show was every cast member was way too hot to be believable. Sometimes a show needs a few good ugly people who can act that the average man finds relatable.

May 26, 2017

I had the opportunity to watch the Supergirl Season Finale, and it fell short for me. I might be a monster because I didn’t feel anything when Mon-El had to leave Earth because of lead contamination. Most people I think were saddened by that, but I wasn’t for some reason. I was one of the people who didn’t care for their relationship because of the way the Season Two opener went.

July 25, 2017

I’ve been working diligently for the Justice Corp: Gamma Book II. I have to edit it and make sure I’m telling the story I want to tell. I think I can finish with the edits and have it published by the end of August. If anybody read the first book, I think it’s easy to see I’m juggling a boatload of characters, and in my opinion, I feel each character must continue to grow throughout the epic.

I read through the Guardian: Year One and I don’t like what I’ve written. Furthermore, the writers and producers behind Supergirl have turned me off to the entire show because of their palpable neglect of James Olsen. I barely finished the Second Season, and the idea of watching the Third Season sickens me. I can’t subject myself to another season of that show, so if I write anything about James Olsen, it will be a story without any of the other characters. He was like missing for four episodes, and absolutely no character development throughout the entire season. Just sitting here talking about the show has me upset right now. I’m purposely being vague, but please know the same feeling I have about Supergirl is the same about 90210. That’s why I didn’t finish watching the final season or my fanfiction of the show.

I researched the character, Black Vulcan, from the seventies, and thought about doing a fanfiction piece with that character. I’m not sure how much cathexis the inventor put into the character because on the surface, he seemed to only be made for the show “The All-New Super Friends Hour.” As a child, I read a lot of Greek and Roman Mythology, and the gods always interested me. Vulcan was a Roman god of fire, and he was associated with the destructive and fertilizing power of fire. Some legends have him as the father of Jupiter while many of his attributes were similar to Romulus. Supposedly, he impregnated the virgin goddess and produced Jupiter who was the king of the gods. In ancient Greek culture, the Vulcan was Hephaestus, a god who was the blacksmith of gods. He forged many weapons for the gods: arms, armor, and lightning bolts for Jupiter. I’m thinking I will drop the adjective from his name, and just call him Vulcan, and write an origin story about him.

October 6, 2017

I'm working hard on the Defiance: Tommy's Life fan-fiction piece, and I think I can finish somewhere between 55,000 and 60,000 words. I'm enjoying writing about him, Rynn, and Irisa. It's funny the character Rynn was only in six episodes of the show, but that was enough for me to want to write a story about her. I think it might have to do with her backstory, and how the land thieves killed her parents, slashed her face, and destroyed her life. In addition, the Yosemite Massacre--of course--is the prelude to Tommy's Life, and we see Tommy as a small child raised by Irathient parents. He meets Rynn while working in the Bazaar with his Momma and immediately has an unbreakable bond with her. The story is about a man name Derrick Shooty who fights to become a better man in the new and exciting terraformed world. I hope to have the story completed by Spring, but I will start adding on to it in November.

The Vulcan (The War of the Gods)

I finished the Guardian: Year One, and to be honest, I wasn’t enthusiastic about Supergirl, the quality of work the writers put into the Guardian, or the Guardian himself. Frankly, the whole concept of the Guardian felt like a lump of hardening clay, non-malleable clay, and I never felt comfortable writing a Fanfiction piece on him. The producers made the James Olsen character too likable, an all-around good guy that you felt like you had to dress up around just to meet him. After watching James go missing several episodes in Season 2 of Supergirl, I almost ditched the Fanfiction piece and the show. In addition, the producers hit the gay episodes pretty hard in Season 2. I don’t know if I have some biases or what, but I became a little angry when the characters ceased to grow because they had to let everybody know, “Yes! We’re the gay couple.” And then once they told everybody they were an item, it was automatically accepted, and not one person had reservations about it. There was like no drama. So, here we have this perpetually, untouchable good guy and a gay couple with little to no drama, and I was like, “James has to sleep with Maggie. I’m talking about hair pulling and doggy-style.” Not only that, but James is imbued with Superpowers in the story, and we’re also introduced to the Vulcan, Rachel Ballard, and Peppermint in that story.

At this time, I’ve posted a little over 12,000 words of The Vulcan(War of the Gods). He lives in a section of National City called Little Africa. His girlfriend and best friend in the whole world is Patty Lee, but he refers to her as Peppermint. They’re sixteen, Juniors in high school, and love to nerd out together. Now, the first time we see them is in Justice Corp: Book of Gamma. They’re living in a dilapidated spaceship near the moon to avoid the Kryptonians. Peppermint is in a wheelchair, and she’s dying. JJ restores them to their youthfulness. The Vulcan’s name is James “JJ” Johnson, and I named him before the new Supergirl series came on television. I was upset with myself because I have Jimmy McGinnis, James Olsen, and now JJ Johnson, and to be honest, I don’t know why the first and last characters are both James. When it comes to names, I have no creative skills at all. Due to his proximity to the particle accelerator, he’s imbued with what I’m calling the god spark. As he grows, he’s elevated to the rank of a god. I think what I like most about JJ is he has great compassion and love for Peppermint, and I try my best to make it known. He loves Alternative Music, and has a rock band called “Toxic Mold.” Cadmus taught him how to investigate crimes, and Supergirl taught him how to be a hero. He’s kind of nerdy, and all the cool, nerd kids refer to themselves as “Boxy.” He and Peppermint have the ability to lead as well as follow in any adventure.

I will complete Radiant Wasp because I need to finish telling her story as well as Ronnie’s and Green Glow’s stories.

October 19, 2017

So, I published "The Darkness" on 01-29-12 under the belief I would do something with it. It's a Fanfic based on the Secret Circle series. About a month ago, I said to myself, "Shenandoah, you really need to finish 'The Darkness.'" I read through my work, and I don't have a clue of what I had planned for the piece. I made an insane attempt to watch the series on Netflix, but I couldn't find what I liked about the show originally. Well, that's not true. I liked Diana Meade played by Shelley Hennig, and I'm pretty sure she inspired me enough to write what I had already written. Due to the events of the first portion of the story, Diana will leave her hometown, move to Misty, Oklahoma, and form new alliances against the evils of the world. Misty, Oklahoma is a fictional place, and it sits next to the mecca of evil, Muskogee, Oklahoma. I'm looking into adding Afro-Punk type of characters in the story, magical vampires, and a bunch of madness that I hope will form into a readable tale. When I say a bunch of madness, I mean what I'm trying to do will either work or I'm going to land flat on my face.

November 14, 2017

I've been working on "The Vulcan (The Broken Bat)", and that will segue right into "The Guardian (Year Two)". I will finish "The Broken Bat" in the first part of December, and then work diligently on "The Darkness." I've been writing snippets on "The Darkness" because I've been working on several character's backstories. Since the antagonist in the story has lived for thousands of years, I've decided several backstory scenes are needed. For example, I expect him to battle the Knights Templar, Joan of Arc, and Harriet Tubman in some of the backstories. I'm hoping I don't struggle too much in bringing the characters to life. I think if I take my time, and tell his story the way I've envisioned it, it will be a good read.

December 18, 2017

"The Vulcan(War of the Gods)" isn't drawing in the readers. In fact, "The Guardian Year One" isn't doing well either, so I will finish "The Vulcan(The Broken Bat)", and be done with the Supergirl Universe altogether. I wanted to write "The Guardian Year Two" at first, but there just isn't much interest in the character. So, I was working on "The Darkness" but had to stop, and started working on a vampire novel called "The Trail." I'll be finished with the editing before mid-January of 2018.

December 28, 2017

I finished writing "The Trails" but I have to go back and edit the book. I also have to go back and finish editing "The Vulcan (The Broken Bat)." It seems editing is harder than actually writing. Meanwhile, I've been working on "Defiance: The Badlands." I started writing that immediately after I finished "Defiance: Tommy's Life." The book goes deeper into the lives of Tommy, Rynn, and Irisa. I have to finish the "Yosemite Massacre" because that actually feeds into the other books. In addition, I want to do a backstory with Meh Yewll because she did significant things in the war that fed into the lore of Defiance. In addition, I want to do several stories with different races of Defiance besides the Irathients, Castithans, and humans. In the "Yosemite Massacre", I introduced a new race called the Liberati, and they're a hybrid of the Liberata, but used as sex slaves and assassins.

January 19, 2018

I enjoyed the new Black Lightning premiere on the CW. It was much better than I had originally hoped. I watched it while fighting off a massive upper respiratory infection that I'm still trying to get over. I haven't caught the sludge this bad in years. Anyway, I had been reading through different news articles online, and for some reason, Aziz Ansari's predicament caught my attention; well, that and the suicide of Dolores O'Riordan. I hate the fact that she's dead because I really loved her music. Her unique voice captivated my soul.

February 2, 2018

I have quite a few Facebook friends, but I don't know them all personally, nor do I interact with them on occasions. Maybe I have a couple of thousand Facebook friends due to my atheism, but most of them I don't know in real life. My writings haven't produced any Facebook friends, and to be honest, I haven't tried to generate any friends from my stories. Sometimes I wonder if I have a modicum of talent when it comes to writing, and then other times I'm like, "I"m pretty talented." Confidence comes and goes I guess. The facade of a Facebook profile is insidious in a lot of ways. The face we often see isn't the true face of the friend when it comes to Facebook. We only see the picture the user wants us to see, but rarely do we actually see them. Often, I have a Facebook friend who posts some of the happiest memes. You'd think their lives were without pain or suffering of any type. It's kind of crazy like that. Everything seemed normal, and then one day that happy Facebook friend posts a video about how hard life truly is. They say a few things that really hit home, and we're all agreeing with them by slapping them with likes and stuff, and then all of a sudden they say, "So long, world." And then we start typing frantically, calling for them not to do anything stupid, and the next thing you know the reporter chimes in on the television with breaking news, and some poor sap down in Texas just blew his family away. So, to help me deal with the craziness of life, I write. That's how I handle it.

March 4, 2018

[Defiance]

Defiance: Badlands was fun to write, but I've been doing some editing on the storyline, cleaning up the language, and making sure it's readable. I've written the entire story, but I'm taking my time to load it all into the system. I have to do some more editing on the other chapters. Most of my stories now have book covers. I learned how to do those by following some online instructions. It was pretty easy.

[Krypton]

I'm waiting for the new "Krypton" to premiere on the SyFy Channel, but to be honest, I'm skeptical about it because it's a new concept. We haven't had an opportunity to visit Krypton and explore what happened to the planet that caused it to explode. It's a hit or miss. It's highly possible the show won't be any good, but at the same time, it might be the best show ever. I'm hoping it will be the latter.

[Legends of Tomorrow]

I'm not sure what happened to Franz Drameh on "Legends of Tomorrow", but he's no longer on the program, and I find that disheartening. After Stein died, I thought the team would find a solution for Firestorm, but it never happened. According to , Jax (Franz Drameh) will return for Season 3's finally, but I'm not sure he'll return to being a regular on the show. Honestly, I felt like the producers kept Jax in the engine room most of the time without anything to do. Anyway, I'm thinking about doing a fanfiction piece on Jax over the summer, but we'll see. I think I have enough information to make an interesting story with him.

[Supergirl]

I'm not sure what happened to Supergirl, as far as the look and feel of the show. When the show was on CBS, the producers decided to make James Olsen black and Supergirl's love interest. People who don't agree with black and white relationships attacked the show indirectly by saying the relationship felt forced and so on. I don't think I need to rehash all the talking points on Kara's and James' relationship. In addition, a lot of people hated the fact that James Olsen was black because it was changing the race of a beloved character. In my opinion, Supergirl Season One had a down to earth feeling, and I felt like Catco Media was the perfect setting for most of the show. Unfortunately, CBS decided to ditch the show, and the CW picked it up. Immediately, the producer of the show said that they would take the show in a different direction. They also agreed with the segment of the viewership who said the relationship between James and Kara felt forced. They revamped the show, and we lost Cat Grant, James Olsen was relegated to background noise, and Mon-El pretty much took the lead male role. It felt like an alt-righters dream show, and to be honest, I tried to watch it, but it was hard. The storyline moved the setting from Catco to the DEO and pretty much left James Olsen in the background. The neglect of James Olsen was palpable. I tried my best to finish out Season Two, but I couldn't do it.

I think one of the major problems with Supergirl is a masculine male actor upstages the titular character, Supergirl, with ease. I hate that she has to state, "A girl can be just as strong as a man" instead of just being as strong as a man. I'm not sure why that has to be stated so loudly instead of showing it. For example, Lillian tells Lena she's just as capable as Lex instead of just being stronger, smarter, and more capable than Lex. When Alex came out as a lesbian, she had to announce on more than one occasion that she was a lesbian instead of just being a lesbian through her actions.

March 23, 2018

I watched the new, Krypton serial on the SyFy channel, and I liked it. It airs on Wednesdays at nine o'clock central time. Honestly, I thought the first episode should have been two hours long because they needed to cover a lot of ground. I also liked the pacing of the program. One of my pet peeves with some serials is when they forget to tell the story. I've noticed something that bothers me about Krypton, and that has to do with how they administer justice. When people broke the law on Krypton, the punishment was your family name lost its ranking and the perpetrator of the crime was sentenced to death. The Kryptonians have advanced technology, but their laws are too brutal for my blood.

I have three stories that I'm working on at the same time under the Black Lightning tag: The Birth of a Lantern, Suicide Slums, and Jennifer's Story under my Jimmydeanbakker account. When I asked the administrator of Fanfiction.net to add the Black Lightning tag to the program, I had already started writing the Suicide Slums. Unfortunately, as soon as they added the Black Lightning category, the site started acting up. I was so frustrated that I quickly wrote, "The Birth of a Lantern" because I read that Lynn's last name was Stewart, and also to test the Black Lighting category. I added it successfully. But as soon as I added the story, the site threw up even bigger errors, and I was like, "Did the adding of the Black Lightning category cause this?" I went on Twitter, and some people were able to log into their accounts and view stories with no problem, so I thought I somehow damaged my account. I made a new account, and the next day I added the Story of Jennifer. Due to all the stories taking place in Freeland and Metropolis, the characters often interact with each other, especially the god Vulcan.

I'm working on a story, "Krypton: The Gods Aren't Perfect" that centers on the Vulcan (Ptah), The Great Mother, and the Guardians of Oa. Krypton is front and center in this storyline, and it's wholly mythological at this point. I'm hoping it'll be readable because I have a lot of crazy things happening in this story, but I think it'll be readable. For example, I'm hoping to be able to give the reader a visualization of what's happening in the storyline and to feel for the characters even though they're petty, greedy, and destructive.

[Vulcan]

When I was writing Justice Corp, I knew I wanted to add the Vulcan to the story, but a lot of craziness was happening in my life at the time. I did some research on the character back in 2012, but I didn't like the whole "Black Vulcan" thing, and in addition to that, I didn't quite understand why he threw lightning. Well, he was invented because the Network didn't want to pay to use the Black Lightning character. Even with all that, I didn't quite understand why Vulcan was the character's name. I think Black Voltage would have been a better fit. So, I said to myself, "I know about the god Vulcan, and that he made Zeus's lightning bolt." I looked up his attributes and realized he was the Greek version of the Egyptian god Ptah. So, I basically made his father Cronus-Zeus Amun Ra or The Great Father. The Great Mother, however, is a Gorgon but has all the powers and attributes of a God. In the old universe, she forms an incestuous relationship with Ptah, and the results of that illicit affair demolish the old universe. When they squeeze their way into the new universe, they discover the Kryptonians, and the Great Mother spends all her time caring for them. In this era, millions of years ago, it caused a rift between the family: The Great Mother and the Oans. In the new universe, the Great Mother breaks off her relationship with Ptah because of the damage it caused, and he has to deal with the loss in his own way. If you like unicorns, it has unicorns, but Ptah also eats unicorns. So, don't like them too much because Ptah will be cooking them up rotisserie style.

April 14, 2018

It will be a while before I update any of my stories. My wife passed. She was the source of my inspiration.

April 20, 2018

I've been doing a lot of reflection about life since my wife's passing. We had been married for a long time, and to be honest, I expected us to be married until we died in our eighties. I hope to start back writing once I've finished mourning my wife.

September 4, 2018

Right now I'm working on "The Guardian: Year Two," and I think it'll be a pretty good story. I hope to have the story completed before the first week of October. Once I finished with this book, I'll go back and finish "Suicide Slums", "The Birth of the Lantern", and "Krypton: The Gods Aren't Perfect." Once I finished these four books I hope to start writing on the "Victory" storyline. I finished "The Vulcan: The Broken Bat" and published it last month. I had finished that before I wrote the Black Lightning piece called, "The Kidnapping of Jennifer."

September 10, 2018

In the last 5 months, I personally know 5 people who've committed suicide.

Critique my writings