How Do I Know What I Think Until I See What I Say?

Hi, Random Girl! This post contains spoilers for The Fifth. This picture of this random girl who I have not been able to identify despite my best efforts, is as close to Suzanne as I have been able to find on the internet.  This girl is not quite as alternative in style as Suzanne is, but Suzanne is not as goth or alternative as the pictures that turn up when I google those key words, so this girl will have to do.  Imagine her wearing more black and more eyeliner and you'd have her about right. Contrary to the beliefs of some of my friends, Suzanne is not me.* She and I are similar in many ways, but Suzanne comes from a very different background and operates with a level of self-assurance I never would have had as a girl her age, because she comes from privilege and, as a result, has the belief that she should get what she wants when she wants it.  Sometimes, that makes Suzanne kind of a bitch in the bad way. In fact, one of the reviews from a stranger of The...

If I could only pick one album as the soundtrack to The Fifth, it would be Deep by Peter Murphy (and not just because Peter Murphy was the original inspiration for Anastase -- more on that, later).  Murphy is the former lead singer of Bauhaus, so it's not surprising that the album is dark and moody and mystical. But unlike a lot of music in the genre, Deep isn't sad or depressing . . . at least not entirely. :)  One of my favorite songs on the album is this one, "Cuts You Up," which is really a very representative song for the whole album.  I listened to this album incessantly for several years, so much so that parts of it made its way into The Fifth, like these lyrics: I find you in the morning after dreams of distant signs. You pour yourself over me like the sun through the blinds . Which some of you may recognize as very similar to the scene where Suzanne wakes up from the cantilever ceremony. ::whistles in the dark:: Also, is this the most Anastase B...

Seriously, look how good this cover is!        In 2018, I self-published a book that I've talked about on here for a long time -- The Fifth.  You can buy it here . Since then (even before then, honestly), I've been working on a sequel, which is in final stages.  And since these are trying times, indeed, I thought a way to spur myself to really complete the sequel is to release it serially here at my old blog.  So that's what I'll be doing. I plan to post excerpts of the sequel to The Fifth -- The Fourth Horseman -- two or three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, starting Monday, March 23rd.  Some of the posts will be the actual content of the book, but I'm also planning on doing some posts with character descriptions and inspirations, cut scenes, song posts, all the blah blah blah.  I hope it's as fun for those of you who choose to read as it's gonna be for me to do!  To get us started, a recap of the events of T...