The bulk of the story of Joe Collins takes place in the hunting of a killer. Joe finds a job interning for the district attorney. He wants to become a lawyer. It is an election year and there is a high profile murder case. The district attorney is about to lose his case. This is where Joe steps in. He uses his powers to find evidence to convict the killer.
I’ll have to construct a murder case and a convicting way in order to make it where it looks as if the guy is going to get off. I can always start my search for cases on court TV. I figure I will have a lot of court scenes. Joe will only have two classes a day and got to the district attorney’s to work for the rest of the day. This will anger is mother who is a compulsive spender and wants Joe to get a “real job” or one that pays real money. Joe needs this job in order to get into college on a scholarship.
I like this story and I’m still going to work the troubled friend angle. I still want his school life to be a major part of the story. Going from school to work Joe will have a multifaceted life. Slowly building the anger in the freshman, slowly revealing character as Joe discovers his power. And all the time revealing a most sinister villain. I haven’t figured out a lot of things yet, but I know where the story is going and that’s a big plus.
Saturday, July 24, 2004
Sunday, July 18, 2004
Story Nugget
A high school student with psychic powers fails to save the life of someone he loves. A vision of his friend killing dozens of his classmates forces him to learn how powerful he can be when stops his friend murder spree.
Sunday, July 11, 2004
Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
Joe is a mystic, psychic, or a prophet. However I do want to throw out a bone for those who are not believers in such things. Joe has Temporal Loge Epilepsy. Below is some research that I found on the subject and I plan on using the symptoms and causes to prove a rational explanation of Joe’s visions. There is of course the possibility that Joe has vision because his condition allows him to see the world for what it is, or God granted hi this gift and we see it as a disease. Either way it provides a reasonable explanation for why Joe is seeing what he’s seeing.
Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
TLE was defined in 1985 by the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) as a condition characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures originating from the medial or lateral temporal lobe. The seizures associated with TLE consist of simple partial seizures without loss of awareness (with or without aura) and complex partial seizures (ie, with loss of awareness). The individual loses awareness during a complex partial seizure because the seizure spreads to involve both temporal lobes, which causes impairment of memory.
TLE was first recognized in 1881 by John Hughlings Jackson, who described "uncinate fits" and the “dreamy state." In the 1940s, Gibbs et al introduced the term "psychomotor epilepsy." The international classification of epileptic seizures (1981) replaced the term psychomotor seizures with complex partial seizures.
Frequency:
In the US: Approximately 50% of patients with epilepsy have partial epilepsy. Partial epilepsy is often of temporal lobe origin. However, the true prevalence of TLE is not known, since not all cases of presumed TLE are confirmed by video-EEG and most cases are classified by clinical history and interictal EEG findings alone. The temporal lobe is the most epileptogenic region of the brain. In fact, 90% of patients with temporal interictal epileptiform abnormalities on their EEG have a history of seizures.
Aura
Auras occur in approximately 80% of temporal lobe seizures. They are a common feature of simple partial seizures and usually precede complex partial seizures of temporal lobe origin.
Auras may be classified by symptom type; the types comprise somatosensory, special sensory, autonomic, or psychic symptoms.
Somatosensory and special sensory phenomena
Olfactory and gustatory illusions and hallucinations may occur. Acharya et al found that olfactory auras are associated more commonly with temporal lobe tumors than with other causes of TLE.
Auditory hallucinations consist of a buzzing sound, a voice or voices, or muffling of ambient sounds. This type of aura is more common with neocortical TLE than with other types of TLE.
Patients may report distortions of shape, size, and distance of objects.
These visual illusions are unlike the visual hallucinations associated with occipital lobe seizure in that no formed elementary visual image is noted, such as the visual image of a face that may be seen with seizures arising from the fusiform or the inferior temporal gyrus.
Things may appear shrunken (micropsia) or larger (macropsia) than usual.
Tilting of structures has been reported. Vertigo has been described with seizures in the posterior superior temporal gyrus.
Psychic phenomena
Patients may have a feeling of déjà vu or jamais vu, a sense of familiarity or unfamiliarity, respectively.
Patients may experience depersonalization (ie, feeling of detachment from oneself) or derealization (ie, surroundings appear unreal).
Fear or anxiety usually is associated with seizures arising from the amygdala.
Patients may describe a sense of dissociation or autoscopy, in which they report seeing their own body from outside.
Autonomic phenomena are characterized by changes in heart rate, piloerection, and sweating. Patients may experience an epigastric "rising" sensation or nausea.
Physical:
Following the aura, a temporal lobe complex partial seizure begins with a wide-eyed, motionless stare, dilated pupils, and behavioral arrest. Oral alimentary automatisms such as lip smacking, chewing, and swallowing may be noted. Manual automatisms or unilateral dystonic posturing of a limb also may be observed.
Patients may continue their ongoing motor activity or react to their surroundings in a semipurposeful manner (ie, reactive automatisms). They can have repetitive stereotyped manual automatisms.
A complex partial seizure may evolve to a secondarily generalized tonic-clonic seizure.
Patients usually experience a postictal period of confusion, which distinguishes TLE from absence seizures, which are not associated with postictal confusion. In addition, absence seizures are not associated with complex automatisms. Postictal aphasia suggests onset in the language-dominant temporal lobe.
Most auras and automatisms last a very short period—seconds or 1-2 minutes. The postictal phase may last for a longer period (several minutes). By definition, amnesia occurs during a complex partial seizure because of bilateral hemispheric involvement.
Causes:
Approximately two thirds of patients with TLE treated surgically have hippocampal sclerosis as the pathologic substrate.
The etiologies of TLE include the following:
Past infections, eg, herpes encephalitis or bacterial meningitis
Trauma producing contusion or hemorrhage that results in encephalomalacia or cortical scarring
Hamartomas
Vascular malformations (ie, arteriovenous malformation, cavernous angioma)
Cryptogenic: A cause is presumed but has not been identified.
Idiopathic (genetic): This is rare. Familial TLE was described by Berkovic and colleagues, and partial epilepsy with auditory features was described by Scheffer and colleagues.
Hippocampal sclerosis produces a clinical syndrome called mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE). MTLE begins in late childhood, then remits, but reappears in adolescence or early adulthood in a refractory form.
Febrile seizures: The association of simple febrile seizure with TLE has been controversial. However, a subset of children with complex febrile convulsions appear to be at risk of developing TLE in later life. Complex febrile seizures are febrile seizures that last longer than 15 minutes, have focal features, or recur within 24 hours.
Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
TLE was defined in 1985 by the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) as a condition characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures originating from the medial or lateral temporal lobe. The seizures associated with TLE consist of simple partial seizures without loss of awareness (with or without aura) and complex partial seizures (ie, with loss of awareness). The individual loses awareness during a complex partial seizure because the seizure spreads to involve both temporal lobes, which causes impairment of memory.
TLE was first recognized in 1881 by John Hughlings Jackson, who described "uncinate fits" and the “dreamy state." In the 1940s, Gibbs et al introduced the term "psychomotor epilepsy." The international classification of epileptic seizures (1981) replaced the term psychomotor seizures with complex partial seizures.
Frequency:
In the US: Approximately 50% of patients with epilepsy have partial epilepsy. Partial epilepsy is often of temporal lobe origin. However, the true prevalence of TLE is not known, since not all cases of presumed TLE are confirmed by video-EEG and most cases are classified by clinical history and interictal EEG findings alone. The temporal lobe is the most epileptogenic region of the brain. In fact, 90% of patients with temporal interictal epileptiform abnormalities on their EEG have a history of seizures.
Aura
Auras occur in approximately 80% of temporal lobe seizures. They are a common feature of simple partial seizures and usually precede complex partial seizures of temporal lobe origin.
Auras may be classified by symptom type; the types comprise somatosensory, special sensory, autonomic, or psychic symptoms.
Somatosensory and special sensory phenomena
Olfactory and gustatory illusions and hallucinations may occur. Acharya et al found that olfactory auras are associated more commonly with temporal lobe tumors than with other causes of TLE.
Auditory hallucinations consist of a buzzing sound, a voice or voices, or muffling of ambient sounds. This type of aura is more common with neocortical TLE than with other types of TLE.
Patients may report distortions of shape, size, and distance of objects.
These visual illusions are unlike the visual hallucinations associated with occipital lobe seizure in that no formed elementary visual image is noted, such as the visual image of a face that may be seen with seizures arising from the fusiform or the inferior temporal gyrus.
Things may appear shrunken (micropsia) or larger (macropsia) than usual.
Tilting of structures has been reported. Vertigo has been described with seizures in the posterior superior temporal gyrus.
Psychic phenomena
Patients may have a feeling of déjà vu or jamais vu, a sense of familiarity or unfamiliarity, respectively.
Patients may experience depersonalization (ie, feeling of detachment from oneself) or derealization (ie, surroundings appear unreal).
Fear or anxiety usually is associated with seizures arising from the amygdala.
Patients may describe a sense of dissociation or autoscopy, in which they report seeing their own body from outside.
Autonomic phenomena are characterized by changes in heart rate, piloerection, and sweating. Patients may experience an epigastric "rising" sensation or nausea.
Physical:
Following the aura, a temporal lobe complex partial seizure begins with a wide-eyed, motionless stare, dilated pupils, and behavioral arrest. Oral alimentary automatisms such as lip smacking, chewing, and swallowing may be noted. Manual automatisms or unilateral dystonic posturing of a limb also may be observed.
Patients may continue their ongoing motor activity or react to their surroundings in a semipurposeful manner (ie, reactive automatisms). They can have repetitive stereotyped manual automatisms.
A complex partial seizure may evolve to a secondarily generalized tonic-clonic seizure.
Patients usually experience a postictal period of confusion, which distinguishes TLE from absence seizures, which are not associated with postictal confusion. In addition, absence seizures are not associated with complex automatisms. Postictal aphasia suggests onset in the language-dominant temporal lobe.
Most auras and automatisms last a very short period—seconds or 1-2 minutes. The postictal phase may last for a longer period (several minutes). By definition, amnesia occurs during a complex partial seizure because of bilateral hemispheric involvement.
Causes:
Approximately two thirds of patients with TLE treated surgically have hippocampal sclerosis as the pathologic substrate.
The etiologies of TLE include the following:
Past infections, eg, herpes encephalitis or bacterial meningitis
Trauma producing contusion or hemorrhage that results in encephalomalacia or cortical scarring
Hamartomas
Vascular malformations (ie, arteriovenous malformation, cavernous angioma)
Cryptogenic: A cause is presumed but has not been identified.
Idiopathic (genetic): This is rare. Familial TLE was described by Berkovic and colleagues, and partial epilepsy with auditory features was described by Scheffer and colleagues.
Hippocampal sclerosis produces a clinical syndrome called mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE). MTLE begins in late childhood, then remits, but reappears in adolescence or early adulthood in a refractory form.
Febrile seizures: The association of simple febrile seizure with TLE has been controversial. However, a subset of children with complex febrile convulsions appear to be at risk of developing TLE in later life. Complex febrile seizures are febrile seizures that last longer than 15 minutes, have focal features, or recur within 24 hours.
Saturday, July 10, 2004
the throughline
This is a story about a young man learning to cope with a powerful gift. He is blessed with the power of foresight. But his is not sure how to use it. He sees thing that he cannot understand. He needs the guidance of others who are wiser than he. He must understand things no one can fully understand, and he’s got to make it through his senior year of high school.
Having such a gift is not a pass of his other responsibilities. To his schoolwork, to his family, and to his classmates. Above all he learn that he’s also given a great deal of obligations to help people who need help even when it seems like there is nothing that can be done. He is a psychic, a mystic, and a prophet all rolled into one. His life is hard. A broken home, nearly blind, and he’s a poor black man living in the south. After learning how to deal with everything his life has given him he become a savior.
Music of the Spheres comes from a philosophy of the Pythagoreans. A subject I am not entirely familiar with. I have go to the library and read up on the philosophy that can correspond to my novel and with Joe.
Though the entire book is not based on philosophy, a major part of it is. Joe is on a quest for knowledge about his own gift much of which must come through by reason alone. The process of great philosophers is of great importance in dramatizing Joe’s great inner struggle.
Having such a gift is not a pass of his other responsibilities. To his schoolwork, to his family, and to his classmates. Above all he learn that he’s also given a great deal of obligations to help people who need help even when it seems like there is nothing that can be done. He is a psychic, a mystic, and a prophet all rolled into one. His life is hard. A broken home, nearly blind, and he’s a poor black man living in the south. After learning how to deal with everything his life has given him he become a savior.
Music of the Spheres comes from a philosophy of the Pythagoreans. A subject I am not entirely familiar with. I have go to the library and read up on the philosophy that can correspond to my novel and with Joe.
Though the entire book is not based on philosophy, a major part of it is. Joe is on a quest for knowledge about his own gift much of which must come through by reason alone. The process of great philosophers is of great importance in dramatizing Joe’s great inner struggle.
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