(Feature image is a low-quality screencap I took of an old Disney show)

I put Bionicle references in another book.  

So, in my last entry I mentioned that I hoped to finish the first draft of my second book in August (which I did) and in the last couple of weeks I've been working on the first major revision.   

Now, I could be jumping the gun on this because all books (but especially mine) change a great deal between drafts, but you know I'm pretty confident these things won't changes and I feel like talking about them now so let's go.  

The Pit

One of the first ideas I had while brainstorming chapter ideas in 2018/19 from my first book was to have a super scary prison called The Cuve.  The Cuve translated from Hefi means The Pit.  You know, the center of the 2007 storyline.  

My idea was actually to have the heroes liberate the prison after it had been taken over by bad guys, however once I complied all my ideas for chapters I had 32 so the prison chapter got the ax early on.  While it's finally making an appearance in book 2, it's still in the hands of The Law Bringer and they are getting some very rude guests early in the book.  

Originally, I wanted it to be a lava planet, the idea being it had a shield to protect the prison and if anyone tried to escape they'd be nowhere to run.  But this past year I accepted that I have more ideas than I'll ever be able to write books for, so now I'm trying to cram as many ideas into each book as possible.  Thus, since another idea is to have a team of water-based bounty hunters (a hydromancer, a shark-guy) go on a mission together I changed it to being an underwater prison.  

So now it's exactly like The Pit from Bionicle, but I never liked the look of it in the comics, so I'll make it look cooler in my book.    

Perditus

Something I was reminded of while going through my old writings is I once wrote a short story starring Perditus, back when he had one line of dialogue.  Why, I don't know, maybe because he was a blank slate?  He still is honestly.

Either way, once while looking for Latin names I came upon Perditus and added it to my super list.  And I went ahead and named the mentor character for my book Perditus because why not.  I didn't base his character on him though because Bionicle Perditus has no character.  

Since Perditus means lost I gave him the last name Invenio which means found, but in a different sense.  It's not a real name, I don't even think I'm using the word right but it can translate as found which is good enough for me.  

Those are the main two, I might try and reference Hero Factory's breakout episode since it's the only memorable moment from later Hero Factory (for me) and because the whole reason the prison is in the book is because there's going to be a breakout, but I am being more conscious of not including as many references to things.  I know everything's a remix and it can be a lot of fun, but maybe there are a limits.

Speaking of fun, the warden of that prison is Captain Impaler which might be tied for the dumbest reference I've ever made because he appeared one time in one episode of an old Disney show called "The Replacements".  

He was not a character in the show and as far as I remember he appeared one time for one joke in one episode.  The only trace of him I can find on the wider web is this low quality video from 15 years ago (fortunately I still have Disney+ from watching "Andor").  But the moment and the jingle have stuck with me for over a decade so I named a guy Captain Impaler.  

I'm aiming to have this revision done by mid-December then publish in the Spring, but it's kind of slow going.  Not to mention it's not the best motivation that my reach is at an all-time low right now, but I could write a whole blog entry (and IG post and YT rant) about the struggles of book marketing.  Regardless of how this writing career is going, at least I gave a little new relevance to Bionicle and Captain Impaler.  

-JAG