A Stray to Botaram updates on Tuesday and Thursday.


Title: Cease this Inquiry
(The Voices speak sternly.)
Knifelike Voice: Quiet, wayward one, lest your own thoughts end you without our action!
Flamelike Voice: Your mind cannot sustain such speculations. You tread close to self destruction. Cease this inquiry!
(Chax trembles and weeps, pressure and pain build upon him.)
Chax: I feel the pressure in my mind to be silent, yet I must say something.
We the Oistrem do always faithfully obey you and carry out our duty to you and to Botaram, and spill our lives out to halt the Strasmin onslaught.
They die and we die, we stop them or they defeat us, and Botaram yet
perdures, as it always shall.
Yet if all we do is not enough, then what is?
Do the Spines offer no more positive wisdom? That we always fail, and it was all for naught?
5927

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

*

*

 

Recess – Planning Sketch


Botaram is usually composed start to finish in Illustrator. However, when no computer is handy, I take notes with what’s available. This sketch was drawn on a placemat at the Morristown Diner in early September of 2006. It constitutes very rough layout notes and dialogue for entry 5, “On Deeds”. I apologize for my atrocious handwriting.

This is the entry where I decided on Aun’s name. He appears as “Aut” here, which could mean anything, and I suppose that’s why I changed it. While composing the entry in Illustrator, I decided that something else needed to happen in the background, so I quickly made a flying critter to land on the tree. This is how the khirrik was born, and at the time I had no idea how important it would later become to the story.

In the last panel, Chax reminds me a bit of New Jersey.

Recess


I apologize for interrupting the story at this point, which will leave both Chax and the reader in suspense, but I need to take a short break from Botaram to refresh my mind and work on a few story matters.

I will continue to post small updates of Botaram-related content on schedule; these may take the form of notes, drafts, text updates, rough scribbles like the one above, or answers to reader questions. If you wish to ask a question, please leave a comment below, or send an email via the address on my profile page (also below). I expect to resume regular updates on September 8th.

Thank you very much for reading this story!