Extreme Ghostbusters/Ghostbusters West Coast: Flip Side War, Part Six

September 2007–Timeline Year Twenty-Five

With the fate of the Ghostbusters West Coast, the Extreme Ghostbusters, and Peter Venkman on the line, Ian Epimetheus has only one option: surrender. The exciting conclusion of “Flip Side War”

And don't forget a small bit of follow-up to one of the subplots here

Ghostbusters 2021: The Eye Of Aretpo, Part Six

2021–Timeline Year Thirty-Nine
The moment of truth. Will a new generation be up to the legacy that has been passed to them? The fate of the world depends on the answer to that question.
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Well, after too long a delay, I know, I've finally finished The Eye of Aretpo, the origin of the Ghostbusters of the 2020's. I'm pleased with the results, even though it took a lot longer than I ever anticipated to be finished.

If you peruse the art pages, you may notice some differences. I spent a few weeks in February and March modifying and semi-“remastering” the stock pictures I use. The tan/grey/beige flight suits have been changed to a darker, more accurate color. The blues I used for black metal and plastic have been darkened. The flight suits of the original Ghostbusters have been adjusted–back when I first scanned in the pictures six years ago, I was trying to match hand colored pictures that, in turn, were colored in the days before the internet, and photoshop software capable of isolating and duplicating colors. Another change has been the standardization of equipment in the picture (what I basically did was remove the packs drawn into the hardcopies, and now drop in a standard picture. It's now easier to swap in different packs–if I wanted to see what Andy Harness looked like with a Mark 2 pack, I could do that in about two minutes)

Finishing “Eye of Aretpo”, and the art project, allieviated some of the sense of burnout I've been feeling, but I still don't think I can make any guarantees for the next story. I'm officially taking a hiatus from Ghostbusters fic writing. I have a few non-GB fan fic ideas I may play around with (one set in particular isn't Ghostbusters, but does tie in to the Ectozone/GBOT universe). I just need a break from feeling bad when I don't churn out a new story every three weeks.

I'm not leaving the community. I'm not quitting the GBWC unless they want me to. I'm going to keep maintaining the Ectozone and GBWC.net. I'm still helping Troy keep Still Playing With Toys running unless he tells me otherwise. I'm still going to be posting and interacting. I'm just not making any promises about when the next story is coming out.

In my heart of hearts, I know that there <u>will</u> be a next story. Maybe it'll be the GB202x idea I have. Maybe it'll be a story about Ray's “missing years” in the 1990's I've been kicking around. I have the resolution of the long-running Necromancer subplot in the GBWC and the long-hinted at “Gemini Ascendant” yet to do.

I'm just not sure when.

I hope you'll all be patient. Thanks again for reading.

Ghostbusters: Game Theory
November 2007–Timeline Year Twenty Five

Venkman has just returned to Ghostbusters Central with the news that a new video game is in production. Not all of the Ghostbusters are totally happy with what they're hearing…
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I promise they're a lot happier than they were in the Apocrypha version, though, written a couple of years ago when I was at the depth of a depressive funk. It was the only story I ever ended up withdrawing from the site.

I did say that I might re-release it when I wrote a more positive, balanced version of the story, and that's what's out today. I won't say I took out every bit of criticism, but there's a more positive perspective, and the most negative observer–Janine–does get challenged on it.

Anyway, I guess I'm still on official writing hiatus, but for the Ectozone's seventh anniversary I guess I took a little hiatus from the hiatus
Thanks above and beyond the call of duty to Jeff, Vincent, and Mick, who helped lanced a few parts that were still a little anachronistic and negative.

Ghostbusters 2022: Ghosts Can't Do It

July 2022–Timeline Year Forty
A young woman was kidnapped out of her shower, and paranormal involvement is suspected. The Ghostbusters don't have much time to solve the mysteries of how and why–because one of their own young women is the ghost's next victim!
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I don't know if this is going to mean I'm back in the fan fic game, but it's promising. I have one other story that's been done for a little while now, and one that's almost finished–both are lead-ins to a major Ghostbusters West Coast story I've been building to for some time now.

This particular story, “Ghosts Can't Do It”, was delayed from an original tentative Halloween release. It wasn't really a “Halloween story” so that wasn't a big deal. But let me tell you why, and thus give a little bit of a content warning:

I admit I based it off a story I wrote for my own amusement sixteen years ago, when I was sixteen years younger and hornier, and it shows. I go some places I don't usually go, so I warn you that the content may not be suitable for everyone.

Well, can't edit the link into the first post now. Thanks a sprocking lot, spammers.

Tales From The Ectozone: Primus XXIV

July 1, 2009–Timeline Year Twenty Seven
One of the leaders of the Order of Hermes has crossed to the other side. The news reaches a figure that has been lurking in the shadows of Los Angeles, and with it knows that the time has come to begin his ultimate plan, a plan that could win him the Primacy–and no doubt inflict something nefarious on the Ghostbusters in the process.

Warning 1: It's short

Warning 2: It's the first of two lead-ins to the upcoming GBWC story “Toy Soldiers”

Sorry I didn't get around to reviewing it, I saved it with the intent to read it but between various things it slipped my mind. I'll try get a review put together before the end of next week.

Five years ago, my brother OgreBBQ (you can also call him Al) wrote Blood Feud: Prague, featuring the exploits of a
character he created and I used in Ghostbusters: Shadow Of The Inquisitors. Well, he's back again.

Blood Feud: Los Angeles
By Fritz Baugh and OgreBBQ
July 8, 2009–Timeline Year Twenty Seven

The man known as Sergei Kalashnikov has come to Los Angeles. Expect lots of pain.

Al didn't write the story this time, but we hashed out the plot and some of the gags together, and I wrote it up a few months back.

Why did I hold it back, you might ask?

Well, for one thing, isn't the location this installment a little familiar? Oh yeah…Los Angeles…the home of Hollywood, smog, and these guys.

In addition to being another installment in the saga of the vampire hunter turned hunter who is a vampire, “Blood Feud: Los Angeles” follows
Primus XXIV in being a lead in to a very big story starring the Ghostbusters West Coast, which I hope to start releasing
before the end of the year. But I decided I didn't want to publish the lead-ins until I had a fairly good amount of the GBWC story “in the can”, which I now do (about four chapters
worth). It's a big story, and kind of like the conclusion of “Chronicles of Gozer”, I don't want to force it out just to get it done. As well as CoG ended, I think I made the right call
there.

I hope you'll check it out.

I've been sitting on this a long time now. The entire story is not done; in fact, I've been a bit stalled on it of late. But at this point, I think putting what's done out there and getting some feedback (hopefully) is gonna help me get moving on it.

And it's Halloween, and the story is sorta creepy, even if it isn't a Halloween story.

Ghostbusters West Coast: Toy Soldiers, Part One
July 17, 2009–Timeline Year Twenty-Seven
Chelsea Aberdeen Baugh is shaken by a disturbing dream. Even more disturbing is the sunrise murder of a hobo–one that signifies that bubbling tensions in LA's shadow community is about to spill into the light. Dark designs are coming to fruition; the toy soldiers have been lined up, and it will take only the merest push to begin their fall…


I'm provisionally planning to release Part 2 before the end of November, and Part 3 in January. That's really all I have “done” right now, and want to give myself some time to get a little more in the hopper. As for December, well, there's something I call “Mister Stay Puft's Christmas Adventure” on it's way.

I had some personal issues in late November that showed my releases even further, but here's something I hope everyone enjoys as much as I did writing it:

Ghostbusters: Mr. Stay Puft's Christmas Adventure

December 24, 1983–Timeline Year One
It's Christmas Eve. Venkman's in a foul mood. Ray misses his family. Egon is not sure how to react to Janine's elf costume. Winston has a fateful meeting. And then the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man shows up. Wait, what? How is that even possible?

Earlier in the year, after the release of Ghostbusters: Infestation, which sort of re-opened the issue of “How in the world did the Ghostbusters have Stay Puft in the Containment Unit anyway?”, a GBFans poster named mrmichealt had some interesting ideas on the subject, which in turn prompted some ideas from me for a story. This is the end result.

It was kind of fun to take the Ghostbusters almost back to the beginning–really only GB1 and the flashback parts of “Citizen Ghost” have happened when “Mr. Stay Puft's Christmas Adventure” begins. Not to say I didn't load it up with my usual helping of continuity porn (grife, I even found room for an IDW nod!), and after writing Egon and Janine as a rock solid sympatico couple so much it was kind of fun to go back to the awkward “Will Egon ever figure this out?” phase, just for a minute or two. Winston fans pay special attention–if you've read many of my other stories, you'll recognize that something very important to his future happens in this story.

Be back after New Years for the continuation of “Toy Soldiers”