A Message From "Deranger",

So I seem to have gone inactive again (what a surprise). However, there's an explanation this time. Back at the beginning of April, my computer went kersplode and I literally lost everything, including outlines for stories and drafts. After recovering as much of everything else that I could, I finally was able to get back to trying to write. Unfortunately, having lost all my drafts (including a mostly finished chapter five of Soldier On), I'm gonna have to take another break while I rewrite some stuff. To those who still care, thanks for following for the last six years. It's always good to hear people still read my stuff (well, at least the good stuff).

-Deranger

"Do you believe that everything happens for a reason? And when you close your eyes, do you see the future? And if you could escape from your past, would you be ready for the next adventure?"

Q&A

Who are you?

I'm Justin Lewis, nice to meet you!

What's that in your profile pic?

Just some ａｅｓｔｈｅｔｉｃ ａｆ dude idk.

How old are you?

Old enough to not be doing this anymore, but as they say "Time's arrow marches forward!".

Where do you live?

Northern Virginia

Why The Lone Deranger?

It's the title of a song off of Vildhjarta's "Måsstaden" album. I thought the name sounded badass and have stuck with it everywhere now.

Is there any way that I can contact you?

I'm always on Steam. My current name on there is ＧｒｕｎｔＭａｓｔｅｒ ６０００

What's your favorite novel?

A Prayer For Owen Meany - John Irving

What would you consider to be your biggest literary inspiration?

The music I listen to.

Could you suggest some other authors on this site?

I would say KeepingTheBlade, but he unfortunately took all his work down. He was nice enough to send most of his stuff to me, though out of respect, I will not upload them anywhere. Otherwise, just look at my favorites.

What is your personal writing process?

Well, I usually come up with my ideas from either personal experiences (Canis Lupus, parts of Oblivion), a song ("Unforgiven II" by Metallica (go figure) for Unforgiven, "Breath" by Breaking Benjamin for Deception, and "A Farewell To Arms" by Machine Head for Oblivion.), one of my previous works (Ordo was thought up during chapter five of Deception which I actually wrote when I was drunk, so thank you vodka for helping me think of an idea!), or simply to cure writers block (Across the Woods and The Beginning). In my earlier works, when the idea came to me, I wrote about it immediately and basically winged the story by playing a game of "connect-the-plotline". Starting around Across the Woods though, I began to make my plots more linear and work on them beforehand. With the introduction of Canis Lupus, I decided to take an approach that mixed the two together. I write out the major plot lines and keep a detailed synopsis on hand for me to play "connect-the-plotline" once again.

For the writing part of the process, I used to write two chapters a day. That wasn't very good for me because it showed in the final product. By mid September of 09, I wrote about 4-6 chapters a month. Before I even start writing, I always look for musical inspiration, which usually consists of me putting a bunch of songs that could be relevant to the story in a playlist and putting it on shuffle until the light in my brain switches on.

Speed wise, I'm a slow writer. I get distracted really easy and at times I go back to an earlier part of the chapter to see if I can fix it up and that normally takes up some time. Length wise, I used to be really lame and pull out chapters less than 1,000 words (Unforgivens longest chapter is 1,444 words, and pretty much every chapter in Deception is roughly 1,000 words. Across the Woods had similar numbers but it was alot more descriptive and just overall better!) When Ordo came along, chapter lengths were averaging 1,500 words with two chapters surpassing 2,000. Oblivion was a huge leap in my chapter lengths, with an average of 1,850 words per chapter and a third of them being over 2000 (with three topping the 3,000 word mark). In all the chapters I've done with Canis Lupis, I've reached roughly 1,500 words a chapter.

With Contact, things are alot different now. Both "chapters" are 4,000 words plus, and I've literally written the majority of the two "chapters" on the hour and a half bus ride to and from college. Though I get so distracted, that I usually do just a paragraph or two each trip, hence the three months between the first two "chapters".

Tell us more about your stories and your personal opinion on them.

The "Old Shames"

Star Fox Adventures Epilogue - This was my first attempt at fanfiction and overall, my inexperience at the time shows in this one. Not to say it was horrible or anything (Okay, I'm lying here), it's just that I was really acting as though it was just a normal story. Shortly after publishing it, I also realized there was a slight continuity error but once again, nothing significant. I still look back on it from time to time (albeit I can't really say it's good)

Unforgiven (Previously titled Wolf O' Donnell: Unforgiven) - I liked the idea of this story, but my vision didn't exactly turn out as well as I planned. Once again, it's clear that I was still trying to get a foothold in the fanfiction universe. I hate to admit this, but I can't read this whole thing anymore, my latest attempt made me almost want to take it down altogether, but I have balls and will keep all works up on this site to remind myself of how far I have come.

Deception (Previously Titled Fox McCloud: Deception) - This one got off to a rocky start, but began to materialize moreso around chapter four. Actually, it was chapter five that gave me the idea to write the sequel. I'll be totally honest, this story made no sense and was a massive cheese fest.

Ordo (Previously Titled Fox McCloud: Ordo) - Okay, so this one wasn't nearly as bad as the others, but man is it cringey now...

Beyond The Crystal: This is another one of those unplanned stories I made to try and cure my writers block much like The Beginning was. I personally think it's interesting because it looks at the whole situation with Fox at the Krazoa Palace and seeing Krystal in a less than straightforward way. Overall, I kind of forced myself to do this and because of that, it really came out blah.

My Recent/Better Works

Across The Woods - In mid-August, I watched The Fox and the Hound for nostalgia and it ended up really inspiring me to the point where I began to write this. It continues the idea of the movie on how friendships can last forever, even in times of peril or when distanced from each other. In the end, what I thought would simply be a small side project would become one of my favorite works. As of November 13th, 2010, this is my most viewed and favorited story.

Star Fox: Oblivion - Much like Deception, this got off to a bit of a shaky start, but it was able to materialize alot quicker than Deception did. For the first time, I began to really pour my own heart out to write some of the chapters. However, there were a few bumps in the road during the middle of the story. After writing six extremely awesome chapters in the period of five days, I hit a major snag. It was a slight case of writers block, but it set me back big time. I wrote two chapters during this case of WB, and I regret doing that because compared to the previous chapters, they came out sub-par. However, I began to pace myself better and since then, I've been writing quality work again. With the story complete, I can say that this was worth the time it took me to write this. I worked my ass off on this and it really does show.

The Beginning - This was never originally planned. I took a two week hiatus from Oblivion to work on my Animation Overview With Kornography series on youtube. When that was done, I had trouble geting back into the swing of things, so I decided to try something new, and this is what happened. It's basically a prologue to Ordo in a way. I'm really happy I did this because I always loved my Ordo character, so sadistic and manic, I LOVE IT!

Contact: a Futurama fanfic which is based on the 2011 film, "Love". It was started to keep myself busy while my progress with Canis Lupis came to a grinding halt. I don't really consider this to be a full fledged story so-to-speak, but more like a character study of sorts. I have resumed progress on this story and hope to have another chapter out real soon.

Soldier On: (Previously Titled: Scraped and Sober) Mass Effect has become my newest obsession in the last year or so, and I immediately found Garrus to be my favorite character in the entire series, specifically during ME2. I got the idea (and title) from the Oasis song of the same name. I am still in the middle of writing this, so I won't post my thoughts in detail about this.

Cancelled Works

Canis Lupis: Canis Lupis originally went through two extremely different drafted ideas before I settled with the one I was going to write. I started writing this during a time where my life was making a lot of sudden changes, some good, some bad. I don't want to say that the story was based on these events, but I think the events themselves motivated me to write this. Unfortunately, that time passed quite fast, and things seemed to go back to normal, and I grew away from the story. I tried some rewrites last year, but I never really could get back into it. The central idea was really strong, but I no longer feel that I'd be able to properly convey it. My first major fanfic project I've cancelled, and my second major project overall.

Anything else you'd like to say?

Yeah, I took a dump in the punch bowl, sorry...

One more question: Coke or Pepsi?

Coke, it's more refreshing, but I'll take either one if I had only one choice.

Thank you for taking your time to talk to yourself, and showing that you have an inflated ego.

The pleasure is mine...I am God...