Jackalhound on the Trail

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Mister Eclectic

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INTRODUCING A PROTAGONIST ABSOLUTELY UNCONNECTED WITH ANY STORY WRITTEN BY ME UNDER MY MORE FAMILIAR USERNAME OF "COPPERFOX." WHAT I'M DOING ACTUALLY REACHES BACK TO MY TEENAGE YEARS, WHEN I TRIED INVENTING AN AVENGING HERO LIKE "THE PUNISHER." HE WOULD POSSESS MIND- OVER-MATTER POWERS-- THIS, DECADES BEFORE I EVER THOUGHT OF MY FUTURISTIC HERO GREY EAGLE.

>>>> JOHN "EVENING STAR" BURKITT, FOUNDER OF TRAIL LIFE U.S.A., HELPED MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR ME TO SET UP THE MISTER ECLECTIC IDENTITY, WHICH WOULD ENABLE ME TO MAKE THIS NEW STORY ESPECIALLY DISTINCTIVE. NOW, GUESS WHY I AM STICKING THE WORD "TRAIL" INTO MY NEW SHORT NOVEL'S TITLE.

<<<< THOSE WHO KNOW ME AS COPPERFOX KNOW THAT I OFTEN INVITE READERS TO BREAK THE FOURTH WALL FROM THEIR SIDE, SO THEY CAN *WITNESS* THE CREATIVE PROCESS AS IT HAPPENS. HERE, I'LL FLIP THE METHOD. THIS WILL BE THE FIRST TIME EVER THAT I'VE WRITTEN A STORY IN FIRST-PERSON NARRATIVE. IT'S A STYLE COMMONPLACE FOR DETECTIVE NOVELS.

IF YOU WILL, I'M SUGGESTING THE WHAT-IF: SUPPOSE MIKE HAMMER, SAM SPADE OR PHILIP MARLOWE HAD MIND-OVER -MATTER POWERS LIKE THE GREY EAGLE. STILL ANOTHER DETAIL NEEDS TO BE PROVIDED: LIKE THE PARALLEL-TIME NOVELS OF ERIC FLINT, OR THE OLD TELEVISION SERIES "SLIDERS," I'M NOT WRITING ABOUT ANY 4TH-DIMENSIONAL TRAVEL TO THE PAST OR THE FUTURE. THE MOVEMENT IS SIDEWAYS[/I]. THE STARTING POINT IS A VERSION OF EARTH WHICH ISN'T OURS. THE YEAR AS WE START IS 2011; THE DAY IS SAINT PATRICK'S DAY.

OUR SOLILOQUY- TELLING PROTAGONIST IS PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR JOHN PEPPER .......THE JACKALHOUND.



CHAPTER ONE: My Three-Dee Traffic Jam

Whoosh-WHACK! The woman with the caustic whip had good aim; her flesh- burning lash darted between the two nearest of her henchgoats without touching them. Not only her aim was cunning, so was her timing. Barely two months after I'd been pinged by the carcatels, many jackals had formed an estimate of my telekinetic aim-shift. I'd been on a strong inward phase, yanking those men off balance, and she snapcracked in an effort to get ahead of my next outward push and yank ME toward her.
 
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We interrupt the above begin-with-action fight scene to grumble about how easy it STILL IS to miss just one of those confounded bracket-with -forward- slash commands. And then the code status WON'T LET YOU go back and correct your obscure mistake. I could simply delete the above post and restart from scratch; but that would have me rewriting for another ten or fifteen minutes, when I should be getting near to bedtime. Wood Nymph's already retired to her room, and we were up late last night for a show in Colorado Springs.

On the plus side, having underline and color continue too far HAS NOT AT ALL made the existing fragment of opening scene unreadable; it merely looks amateurish, but you can understand what John Pepper is in the middle of.

I have said more than once that I like to let my readers watch my story-writing experience with me; well, THAT sure is happening. And I can make some lemonade from the blankety-blank fumble. Hence, a packet of UNSUBTLE EXPOSITION, more than I otherwise would have put up front.

The powers enjoyed by John alias Jackalhound were _NOT_ externally imposed on him without his consent, the way I have imagined Grey Eagle being. Telekinesis is organic to John. The single most distinct attribute of John's native Earth-variant is that persons with telekinetic ability do exist there.

The amateurish story called "Jackalhound" that I made up at around age fourteen had the hero's power be a secret. But on the Earth- variant where New Model Jackalhound was born, he is already known to be a metahuman.
 
Might as well do a bit more of the backstage revelation for my readers' benefit. Here, in anticipation of resuming in earnest, I've returned to what works. I just fenced in a corral of writing space. I prompted the type font Courier New, then positioned multiple segments of place-holding words INSIDE the space between font-start and font- go. Eventually, I will write the rest of my disrupted combat scene, after which the mere place- filler words / gibberish will go away. That is, unless I decide that THEY ARE part of letting readers watch my process as an author.

The next voice you hear will be John Pepper.
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I bounded straight rearward. I could have added a backflip for effect, but it was more important to keep my eyes on her. My generalized sense of things around me wasn't sharp enough to be sure what she and her men did next.

They also chose to be cautious, wanting to be sure of what I did next. aaaaaaaaa aaa aaaaaaaaaaaagood 00000 000000
 
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