DWELLING The Novel - Chapter THIRTY-FOUR: Power
The Ogre stood on the rooftop edge looking out as darkness descended on the powerless city. With all manner of convenience inoperable from lack of electrical current, the Ogre appreciated that for this one moment in time, he might not be alone in his torment.
In a reversal of their usual spatial order, the Artist hunched sixteen feet below. Using a tiny metallic knife, the Artist applied the final touches to a massive stretched cloth, bringing out minuscule details in a woman’s features. This was a rare instant where the Artist attained a state of mind uncluttered by distraction.
Three flights down, the Artist’s Subject pulled a soft quilt filled with synthetic fiber up around her chin in perfect darkness, still overcome with the pleasures of having her own apartment back. A fleeting appreciation of comfort, the Subject’s domicile at least somewhat restored.
And on the ground floor, the Superintendent leaned on one arm in the dim candlelight. His First Wife lay sleeping on the mattress next to him. His Second lay in the main room, her eyes locked with the Superintendent while the rest of their family slept. These tight quarters rarely felt so tranquil.
The tenement foyer sat in darkness.
The street outside was all but abandoned, except for the lone pizzeria Hustler—the decedent of a Caribbean archipelago loosely associated with the contiguous territories on which he now stood—making every effort to appear as if he were a law-abiding denizen on a midnight stroll. But the Hustler’s eyes betrayed him, darting repeatedly towards a pane of melted sand lodged in slowly degrading bricks halfway up the residential edifice.
Inside the structure’s entrance hall, the sound of an incandescent buzz not heard for days emitted from a ceiling bulb.
A spark of heat in the filament filled the bulb with luminous radiation.
The foyer lit up.
BEHIND THE KEYBOARD
Laying out a novel for print and epub is no joke! It took a whole lot longer than I'd imagined but it's very rewarding. I'm finishing up a video on the process which I'll share with you all shortly. Going from Steemit to print and digital publishing has been a tremendous thrill. Thanks for all your help along the way!
Yours in the Chain,
Doug
SPECIAL THANKS to my wife @zenmommas for years of support during the writing process, @ericvancewalton for his trailblazing, inspired collaboration and incredible guidance, @andrarchy for his mind blowing insight and friendship, @bakerchristopher for being an inspiration as a human artist and bro, @complexring for his brilliance and enthusiasm, Masie Cochran, Taylor Rankin and @elenamoore for their skillful help in editing the manuscript, and to @opheliafu for the fantastic illustrations she created exclusively for the novel's launch on Steemit and to Elena Megalos for her wonderful character illustrations. I’d also like to thank Eddie Boyce, Jamie Proctor, Katie Mustard, Alan Cumming, Danai Gurira, Stephan Nowecki, Ron Simons, Dave Scott, Alden Karr, Missy Chimovitz, my dad Andy Karr and late mother Wendy, and everyone else who helped lead me to this moment.
I am a Brooklyn based writer, film & commercial director, and crypto-enthusiast, my projects include @HardFork-series an upcoming narrative crypto-noir and my novel Dwelling will soon be premiering exclusively on Steemit, and you can check out more of my work at dougkarr.com, piefacepictures.com, and www.imdb.com/name/nm1512347
Please comment thoughtfully, up-vote and resteem and I'll gladly upvote your comments!
Aprecite it to read this great writing.
I'm very excited to see this in print and kudos for tackling the layout and cover design yourself, it's no easy task!
Thanks Brother!
You’re welcome! Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help!
The hustler looks like he is in the mood for some trouble... he's definitely getting some tonight
Hey there! Just passing through Discord looking for posts to curate for the Pay it Forward contest (you don't meet the qualifications for me to feature you there...)
I like what I'm reading so far - might have to run back and grab the others. :-)
However, I also saw that you were having fun with epub stuff. I want to share with you draft2digital - a website that was recommended to me for epublishing my novellas. I've found it extremely easy-to-use and they automatically pass your work to most of the major edistributors out there making it so easy! (I get nothing for passing this link to you - just felt that you might benefit from it.)
Keep up the good work!
Great writing mate. It has been quite some time since your last episode. Love your writing.
Thanks for all your hard work putting this together, you must be exhausted!
This really is such an amazing initiative. Much as netflix now makes it's own work I love the idea of the steemit made and presented novel with illustrations. I love where Steemit is going. I hope more of the internet will follow suit one day.