C. S. Thurman

So I had to take a break for a while. This last month has been crazy. With Graduation, doctors appointments for my daughter with the broken arm, and celebrating 9 years of marriage with my wife, it’s been a full month. I will make this a 2 fold post with an update and a short story that I wrote.

Along with graduating college this past month, I decided I was going to do something that I had been wanting to do for a long time. I watched all of Marvel’s Infinite War (or at least what I had available through DisneyPlus) in chronological order. It was fantastic, and the character arcs were amazing. I loved watching the characters change and develop as they faced their challenges.

Some highlights that I had while watching the movies that I hadn’t thought/realized before.

• Iron Man: when Tony comes back from being captive and has his press conference, Obadiah asks Tony if he had/saved a burger for him to which Tony replies “Ah, no. This is the last one.” Literally seconds later, we see Tony pulling out a fresh brand new burger that he had hidden in his suit pocket. I nearly died when I saw that and realized that Tony had kept that from Obadiah.
• Iron Man/Captain Marvel: More of an inconsistency than anything else, but Agent Coulson said to Pepper that they were still figuring out how to shorten their departments name before they decided on S.H.I.E.L.D., but in Captain Marvel, Fury and Coulson I believe straight up called themselves S.H.I.E.L.D. and in most other movies they referred to themselves as such, even if it was before Iron Man.
• Major Character Arcs:
• Tony Stark – In the beginning, Tony went from being one of the most selfish avengers where everything was about him. By the end he was laying down his life for the world, and more importantly his daughter so that she could live the life that he wanted for her. I’m sure that I will forever cry at the scene when he passes away after saving the world.
• Steve Rogers – He went from being a man who was always looking for the next fight, looking for the next bad guy to stop. People have pointed out that he grew past his line of “I can do this all day” when he replied in Endgame “Yeah, I know.” But I think it’s deeper than that. I think that he had come to the realization that no, he couldn’t do this all day. He had been doing this and it had burned him out. He wanted to be done, he wanted to live a life past war and violence. Sure, he could “Do it all day” if he had to. But he was ready to get a life, and he did. This was also enhanced by the fact that he could now wield Mjolnir, which I believe he wasn’t quite ready to wield in Age of Ultron. Being worthy to wield Mjolnir isn’t about righteousness, but about a desire to end conflict. Thor has always wanted to end conflict, but even back in Age of Ultron, Steve was unwilling to let go that part of his life. It wasn’t until he had lost in Infinite War that he lost that desire to keep fighting and that it was time to pass the shield on. Then he was worthy when the desire for peace was strongest.
• Thor – At the start, Thor had wanted the throne and to lead his people to victory. As the years passed, we see his mind set change to saving the universe rather than being a king. He learned the value of being good a king, versus ruling as a king. By the end, he learned that even in our darkest hours he was still worthy of being called Odinson by wielding Mjolnir, and that sometimes to be a good king means not being the king, especially when you have a drinking problem and two of your best friends are no longer around any more.

Any way that was my thoughts and opinions on the matter. I could be wrong, I could be right. All that matters is that this is what I believe and this is what I noticed. And now you know why I missed the 15 of May without posting, and why I nearly missed the beginning of the month post.

Now for some updates on my books.

March of the Necromancer: I am still waiting on the right time to send out “March of the Necromancer” to publishers. Just waiting on a few more people to provide feedback on it, and once that’s done I’ll get it sent out so I can start getting those rejection letters! Gotta start somewhere.

The Necromancer’s Deceit: this is the follow up to “March of the Necromancer” and I have only gotten into the second chapter, but so far I am really excited with how far I’ve come. I hope that it will turn out as well as the first, and I think it really will.

Everything else is on the back burner. I’m struggling with the “Dark Lord” series. I really want this to be an epic fantasy, but I find myself also wanting to genre hop and include fantasy steampunk. I’m not sure how I feel for it since I have only ever read roughly 1 book series that had steam punk and I am only vaguely aware of what the genre entails other than what I have seen online. I’m hoping that it turns out well, but again, not sure about that steam punk element.

Thanks for reading and as promised, here is my short story “Lazarus, the Destroyer” Please keep in mind that this is a darker story of mine and is not within middle-grade reading. I would consider this okay reading for 16 and older, in other words, a YA short story. I when I wrote this story it was meant to be from the view point of the villain. I wanted him to be somewhat crazy like the Joker from Batman but not quite the Joker. Again, this is a dark story and not recommended if that isn’t your thing.