#also note the fact that any identifying information has been scribbled out

[nethiewrites]

They hurt you because they fear you. They fear you because you're winning.

I like to think right after this Rust immediately broke out, smashed some machinery and heads, and took off in a stolen police motorcycle. In fact I think the only reason they stood still long enough to get the picture taken is because I headcanon if you try to take a picture of Rust without their permission it immediately bricks your device. Unidentifiable protester and all that. So yeah every computer in the station is dead now.

[recurring-polynya]

Apparently, if you send someone an ask, but then deactivate your Tumblr, the ask gets deleted. I got this from our old friend k-rukias, and fortunately, I already had it copied over, but anyway, that’s why this isn’t in the standard ask format. Anyway, k-rukias, I hope you’re still out there somewhere and there’s some way you can see this!

k-rukias asked:

you grasp byakuya’s character SO PERFECTLY it always makes me laugh out loud, especially your “Uncle B” stories. i’d love it if you could write more of the kuchiki-abarai family+ichika(maybe throw in some byakuya&toshiro being bffs) I SWEAR YOU DO THE DOMESTIC GENRE SO WELL one can tell you have kiddos 🥺💕

“Give Uncle Byakuya a big hug, Ichika,” Rukia instructed, stifling a yawn. “You’ll see him again on Saturday.” Despite the cheer in her voice, the second Ichika’s tiny face was buried in Byakuya’s chest, she shot her brother a thumbs up and a quizzical look.

Byakuya gave a very firm thumbs up in return. His inconsiderate adjutant was having yet another birthday, and Rukia had asked if they might hold a small family celebration at the manor this year. Byakuya wasn’t sure why. Surely the man would prefer not to see his commanding officer on his own birthday, but Byakuya loved his sister and had made the arrangements she requested.

Ichika finished rubbing her sticky cheeks all over the silk of his kimono. “Here, Uncle B,” she said, handing him a folded piece of paper. “It has to be just like this, okay?”

“Of course, my blossom,” he promised.

“No, it doesn’t,” Rukia mouthed to him behind Ichika’s back. “Okay, kiddo, you ready to go home and see if Daddy missed us?”

“I bet he fell asleep on the couch again!”

“We’ll find out! See you, Saturday, Brother!”

“Enjoy the rest of your evening, Sister,” Byakuya entreated her.

“If you have any questions, please call me,” she begged. “Or send a Hell Butterfly, or however you communicate with people these days.”

“I am very good at Text Messaging,” Byakuya assured her.

Rukia gave him an Extremely Disrespectful Look, which he tolerated, because she looked very much like Hisana when she made it.

“I will not have any questions.”

As his beloved sister and niece took their leave, he unfolded Ichika’s piece of paper.

He stared at it.

He had so many questions.

--

“I do appreciate that you texted before you came over,” Captain Hitsugaya informed him stonily. “But next time, could you text, like, more than a minute before you show up? Maybe wait for a reply?”

“Is now not a good time?” Byakuya asked. “Have I interrupted Squad 10 napping hours?”

“I just… would have picked up first,” Hitsugaya grumbled, trying to keep a stack of paper from falling off his desk. “And it’s always Squad 10 napping hours.”

Currently, Lieutenants Matsumoto and Kuna were sprawled out on the Squad 10 couches, snoring quite loudly.

“I have seen it worse in here,” Byakuya replied. “I am your,” he swallowed, “friend, and I accept your imperfections.”

Hitsugaya glowered at him. “What do you need?”

Byakuya spread Ichika’s instructions out on Hitsugaya’s desk. “Can you tell what this is?”

Hitsugaya’s eyes scanned the drawing: the lumpy creatures that might be rabbits, the crayon scribbles, the puddle of glitter. “Is this a test?”

“If it is, I am in danger of failing it,” Byakuya admitted.

“Ichika made this?” Hitsugaya guessed.

“I imagine the glitter gave it away.”

“Can’t you get Abarai to decipher it for you?”

“I cannot. I am hosting a ‘Surprise Birthday Party’ for him this weekend, and this represents Ichika’s vision of it. I need to identify the items in the picture so I can have them for the party.”

Hitsugaya nodded slowly. “Ah. These are probably balloons, then?”

Byakuya straightened up. “Balloons or lanterns? Or possibly the overhanging blooms of the wisteria?”

“You’re overthinking it. She’s five. It’s balloons. Can you ask Rukia?”

Byakuya’s mouth turned down at the corners. “Ichika’s art style bears a certain… resemblance to her mother’s. I am worried that if I ask for help…” he trailed off.

“Gotcha,” Hitsugaya replied brusquely. He sucked his teeth, and poked a finger at the page. “Well, this is obviously Abarai.”

“Yes, he is always distinguishable by virtue of the fact that she draws him three times as large as the rest of us.”

“Also, he’s the only one with pink hair and stripes,” Hitsugaya replied, raising an eyebrow. “Oversensitive, much?”

“I am only three inches shorter than he,” Byakuya grumbled. “The hair makes him look taller.”

“You are not getting any sympathy here, give it up,” Hitsugaya grumbled back. “He’s got a hat on, I think? A party hat?”

“Yes, I did get that far. We are all wearing hats.”

“Abarai also appears to either be wearing a lei, or he is in bankai.”

“A lei?”

“A flower necklace? We should have some around here, from the last time Matsumoto threw a luau.”

“Ah, thank you,” Byakuya replied. He had not actually expected Hitsugaya to be quite this helpful, and he wondered how he was going to repay the man’s patience in this matter.

“All this stuff on the table is… food, maybe? Gosh, I cannot tell what any of this is. These things look like fish, but they’re brown… taiyaki, maybe?”

“Oh, yes, I had figured that part out as well. Even I know that taiyaki is Abarai’s preferred celebratory food. I actually have a specially made mold--”

“You should make normal ones. Fish ones.”

“He likes Admiral Seaweed taiyaki.”

“It’s the man’s birthday, don’t make him pretend to like your weird taiyaki.”

“They have more crispy bits because of the arms and legs! He told me that specifically, in a complimentary manner!”

Hitsugaya gave him an Extremely Disrespectful Look. Unfortunately, the young man did not have the advantage of resembling Byakuya’s beautiful late wife.

--

Byakuya was distinctly Not Sure About This, but Hitsugaya had hit a wall and decided they needed to bring in ‘a bigger gun.’

Byakuya hadn’t actually set foot in the Squad 5 offices since Aizen’s departure. He didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about Aizen, generally, but at least the man had a classical taste in decor. Now, his former workspace more closely resembled the interior of an eclectic Living World coffee establishment for beatniks. One wall (but not the others) was painted orange, and covered in strange, stylized art that appeared to have been done by the captain and lieutenant themselves. The rug hurt his eyes. There was a beaded curtain.

“I don’t know why you thought I was going to have any insight on this, Shirou,” Lieutenant Hinamori grumped, squinting at the picture. “Renji’s the only one who can decipher these things.”

Byakuya could not help feeling the tiniest bit smug that he was not the only one who was sassed by his loved ones.

“Well, I figured you’d been to an Abarai birthday party or two,” Hitsugaya excused.

“Yeah,” Hinamori replied. “The grown-up ones. Unless this thing over here is supposed to be a tokkuri, and Captain and Lieutenant Kuchiki are arm wrestling, I can’t help you.” She frowned. “You’ve been to an Abarai birthday party, haven’t you?”

“They’re a little wild for my blood,” Hitsugaya excused. “And nobody likes drinking around their captain. I’ve been, but I usually leave before he starts bench-pressing people.”

“There are captains who come,” Momo pointed out. “And I doubt your presence would slow Matsumoto down, anyway, she’s impervious to that judgemental thing you do with your eyebrows.” She contemplated the paper. “What are these weird marks? Is this a speech bubble?”

“We couldn’t figure those out,” Hitsugaya admitted.

“Lemme take a look,” Captain Hirako, who was unfortunately present, announced. “Sometimes you gotta look at things from a different perspective.”

He turned the paper upside down. He turned it backwards. He turned it right side up, and turned his head sideways.

“I got nothing,” he replied. “Kid’s got good style though. And I think Momo may be onto something, actually. I went to Abarai’s last birthday party, and Kuchiki the Younger beat me at arm wrestling in an embarrassingly short amount of time.”

“It’s your noodle arms, sir,” Hinamori supplied. She stuck out her lower lip. “A different perspective, though, is not a bad idea. You know who you should go ask?”

Byakuya did not want to hear the answer.

--

“This is dango. This is katsudon. This is shaved ice.”

Byakuya was frantically taking notes.

“How… how can you tell?” Hitsugaya gaped.

Hachigou Nemuri regarded him with her serious, dark green eyes. “I have seen many of Abarai-chan’s drawings.”

Akon made a grumbling noise. “Abarai-chan’s drawing fuuuuu---udged up Nemu’s image recognition subroutines for months. I mean, it was a good thing, in the long run, I ended up implementing an entire art appreciation suite of dynamically created subroutines. It took me forever to figure out why she couldn’t recognize normal drawings of things, though.”

“What are these marks?” Byakuya asked, pointing to the funny squiggles hanging above everyone’s heads.

“Abarai-chan can’t write yet,” Nemu explained.

“Yes, I know that,” Byakuya replied.

“Writing is a form of communication that utilizes mutually understood symbols to convey an idea from one party to another,” Nemu recited. “Abarai-chan does not yet grasp the importance of a common dictionary in the delivery of information.”

Akon scratched his neck. “You’re saying Abarai-chan doesn’t know very many kana, so she just makes them up.”

“Correct,” Nemu agreed.

“Can you read them?” Hitsugaya asked hopefully.

“She does not employ a self-consistent character set.”

Byakuya and Hitsugaya’s eyes darted to Akon, who was unwrapping a piece of nicotine gum.

“She makes it up as she goes along,” he elaborated, cramming the gum in his mouth. “There is no translation.”

“Momo thought it might be a voice bubble, like in a cartoon,” Hitsugaya mused.

“Maybe it’s just a title to the piece,” Byakuya surmised. “Father’s Birthday Celebration’, for example.”

“Abarai-chan calls Lieutenant Abarai ‘Daddy’, not ‘Father’,” Nemu corrected.

“It was an example,” Byakuya bit off testily.

“This could be cherry shaved ice or strawberry shaved ice,” Nemu added hopefully. “Abarai-chan likes strawberry shaved ice, but I prefer cherry.”

“You are not attending this party,” Akon reminded her.

“I just thought Captain Kuchiki might be interested to know,” Nemu sniffed. “In case he felt like buying me a shaved ice. As a thank you for my services.”

--

Byakuya examined Ichika’s diagram and compared it to the celebratory items currently marring the beauty of his garden. He had the balloons. The hats. The dango. The taiyaki. Both strawberry and cherry shaved ice. “I think I have replicated everything,” he declared. “Have I missed anything?”

“You don’t have rabbit ears,” Hitsugaya replied dryly.

“The rabbit ears are symbolic,” Byakuya explained. “I am wearing the lei. You should put on a lei.”

“I am not putting on a lei. I am not in the picture at all, actually, so I think I should probably scram.”

“You could stay,” Byakuya replied, feeling a little odd about it.

Hitsugaya raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t this a family thing?”

Byakuya blinked. “Family gatherings are large, mandatory, and unpleasant. This is a small party and I am very fond of the Abarai.”

Hitsugaya just stared at him.

Byakuya squirmed. “The fact is… I am not good at things like this.”

“Of course you are. Ichika adores you. Rukia and Renji do, too.”

A normal person would have wrinkled their nose, or sucked their teeth, but Byakuya wasn’t really into making facial expressions, so he just made his usual one and stared off into the middle distance briefly. “Hisana was very good with people. At these times, I often think about how easily she would host a birthday party for a brother-in-law, how natural she would have been with Ichika. She loved children.” He contemplated the drawing. “I am sure she would have interpreted this perfectly, text and all.”

Hitsugaya, who did make facial expressions, blew air out of his cheeks. “If it makes you feel better, I can stay.”

“I would, very much, appreciate it.”

Seike, Byakuya’s chief retainer, shuffled out onto the engawa. “Lord Kuchiki, the Abarai are here.”

“Please escort them out here,” Byakuya replied, plunking a hat on Captain Hitsugaya’s head, and one on his own.

“It’s so unusual for Uncle Byakuya to invite us over on a Saturday,” Byakuya could hear Rukia’s voice before he could see her. His impression was that the ‘surprise’ involved in this party was a figleaf for Ichika’s sake. Abarai was a fool, but he wasn’t an idiot.

“What is this?” Abarai exclaimed as he and his family stepped through the doorway, although he did a genuine double-take at Byakuya’s flower necklace.

Ichika’s face lit up as she took in the decorations, the food. But then her expression turned to dismay at her uncle, standing still and awkward. He had missed something. It was the text. It was important after all.

Hitsugaya’s elbow jammed into his ribs. “Surprise!” the younger captain yelled. A voice bubble! Of course!

“Surprise!” Byakuya added, belatedly.

“Happy Birthday!” they shouted together, with Rukia and Ichika joining in a beat later.

“Well, I’ll be!” Abarai did his best impression of a surprised person.

“Were you surprised, Daddy!” Ichika asked, jumping up and down and tugging on her father’s hand. “Were you?”

“I was very surprised,” Abarai reassured her.

“Why is Captain Hitsugaya here?” Rukia asked, utterly befuddled.

“I heard there was shaved ice,” Hitsugaya excused very quickly.

“Uncle B did all of it, Daddy, just for you! Isn’t it perfect?”

“Of course it is,” Abarai snorted. “If Uncle B did it, how could it be otherwise?”

[hedwigstalons]

High Expectations - Ch9

This was meant to be just a quick bit of practice at freehand drawing so I could work on doing neat straight lines and circles.  Then I found my old glass paints that have been in a box for...8 years (?) and suddenly I now have a WASP suncatcher.  I’m a bit wobbly with the relief edging, probably not helped in that the tubes had gone a bit firm and funky, but I’m predicting more sun catchers and maybe a few candle holders will appear soon.

Many thanks are due to @willow-salix​ who has provided much hand holding and head pats.

Earlier parts: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight

AO3 chapter link

Chapter Nine

Gordon fell into line amongst the other hopefuls.  For the next few days he wasn’t Gordon Tracy, Olympian and heir to one of the largest fortunes in America, he was Number 14 and the anonymity suited him just fine.  The elastic armband around his bicep was the sole identifier to distinguish him from the other candidates as the assessors marked down their observations.  Only the course leader had the information that linked names to numbers; each stage of selection was kept separate to avoid bias.  

“Atten...shun!”

The command was barked out by the officer placed in charge of his group and Gordon found himself jumping to the alert and snapping his feet together automatically.  Evidently something had remained buried deep in his memory from all the times watching Scott being taught drill by their father or practicing out in the yard in Kansas all those years ago.  The rest of the group also snapped to attention with varying degrees of success.

“Group C, your first test is pool fitness.  You have two minutes to fetch your swimming kit and fall back into line.  Go!”

There was a mad scramble towards the door of their temporary accommodation as Gordon and the other potential recruits allocated to group C raced to retrieve their kit from their bunks.  They had barely been on base for an hour but had already learnt that failure to meet a time limit or just being last to complete a task would result in being given punishment press ups.  By the time they had reassembled groups A and B were nowhere to be seen, evidently separated off to undertake one of the other selection tests.

As they marched across the base to the pool Gordon couldn’t help but feel slightly pleased that his group was getting to swim first.  This was his natural environment and he justifiably had every confidence in his own abilities.  It would also give him a good chance to stretch out his muscles after sitting around in the airport and then being cramped in an airline seat; domestic flights were always taken in coach class for a Tracy son travelling solo.

Once within the pool building more orders were barked giving a time limit to get changed.  Gordon quickly found a space on the bench and started stripping.  Some of the other recruits seemed a little uncomfortable about changing in the communal space but Gordon figured that privacy would often be hard to come by within the submarine service and now was not the time to be worried about modesty.  After years of completing the action several times a week he could be in his kit almost as quickly as he could swim 200m and he was one of the first ready.  

He snapped on his sunshine yellow swimming cap drawing a few strange looks but Gordon shrugged them off; so what if only a couple of candidates in his group were wearing them?  To Gordon the cap was just a standard part of his kit, however he was glad he had decided to leave his Team USA branded items at home and opt for his plain training set; there was no need to draw more attention to himself than was strictly necessary.

Out on the poolside the elastic armbands were replaced by numbered stickers slapped on shoulder and thigh.  From the way the sticker pulled tightly at the skin Gordon just knew that ripping it off later would be a painful experience.  Once numbers had been applied everyone lined up expectantly, awaiting further orders.

“Right, I want two circuits of the pool as warm up.  No cutting the corners.  No touching the wall.  Do you understand?”

“Yes Sir!”  the chorus of voices responded in unison.  

“Into the water, in number order.  Go!”

One by one the men allocated to group C were counted into the water to complete their circuits around the perimeter of the pool.  The pace was frustratingly slow for the Olympian whose number placed him towards the rear of the pack and it took a lot of self control not to stretch out and overtake those ahead of him.  

The slow pace allowed Gordon plenty of opportunity to look around the facility.  WASP evidently invested in its sporting areas for the pool itself was up to Olympic standards even if the viewing and changing areas were a little more basic than Gordon had encountered at some of his competitions.  If he was given the opportunity to continue his swimming training, and it wasn’t unheard of to encounter military participants released for competitions, he would have no complaints about the standard of the Marineville pool.  Unfortunately his appraisal of the facilities nearly earned him a kick in the face, he hadn’t realised how close he had got to the swimmer in front and had to drop his pace yet again to maintain some distance.  For him the actual tests and the chance to stretch out his limbs couldn’t come soon enough.  

With warm-up over the first eight swimmers were allocated their lanes.  Gordon watched the action even more closely than the assessors, critiquing the style of others was all part of his ingrained training and he winced at some of the sloppy dives and mangled turns.  Still, the tests were about meeting a minimum standard rather than being competition ready.

Soon enough it was time for swimmers 9 through to 16 to claim a lane.  It didn’t escape Gordon’s notice that his number placed him in lane six and the coincidence struck him as lucky.  If you had asked him just a few months ago what his favourite lane was he would have promptly answered four but after his Olympic success he has developed a soft spot for his current position, after all it had been good enough to earn him gold and a world record.  He adjusted his goggles and wiggled his toes on the edge of the pool, he would have preferred to use a starting block but he could adapt.

The sound of the whistle had him launching into the water in a clean dive.  There had been no stipulations on the stroke to be used and Gordon automatically found himself using his preferred butterfly, unaware of the raised eyebrows this was causing among the onlookers; his rejection of freestyle making him stick out almost as much as the yellow hat.  That and the fact that he left the other candidates in his wake.  He shot through the water, powerful muscles propelling him towards the finish at a rate that far exceeded expectations.

Less than 2 minutes later and Gordon had completed his fourth lap and finished the test.  He had taken it easy, or at least he thought he had until he turned and realised the next nearest swimmer was almost a full lap behind him.  He returned bemused stares with a shrug and a smile before placing his hands on the poolside and launching himself out to sit on the edge and wait for the others to finish.

The remainder of the pool tests passed in much the same fashion with Gordon easily outstripping his cohort.  He could swim faster, dive further and hold his breath for longer than any of the others.  His techniques were sharp and in the water he moved with a strength and grace that were enviable.  Even skills like casualty towing, which wasn’t part of his usual repertoire, came naturally to him and he aced the tests with ease.  The assessors scribbled some hurried notes on their pads; when it came to the water based activities at least candidate 14 was marking himself out as someone to watch.

xoxoxox

The first day drew to a close and Gordon was thankful when his group were released to the freedom of their dormitory.  The pool session had been swiftly followed by a run then a drill lesson in one of the large parade squares dotted around the base.  His muscles were weary and clearly grumbling at the lack of deep stretching after his swim but he was in a better shape than many in the room.  WASP only accepted the very best to join its ranks and the selection tests were designed to weed out those not up to standard.  Already three beds in his room were empty after their allocated occupants had withdrawn, either having had a change of heart or to avoid the shame of being rejected at the end of the course having already failed too many of the test elements. 

Tempting as it was to just flop down onto his bunk Gordon knew from painful experience that he would regret it the following day.  He settled himself on an empty patch of floor and started running through some yoga poses to try and work out the tension in his back and legs.  Just because the instructors hadn’t given them much opportunity to stretch didn’t give him the excuse to neglect his body.  It also gave him something productive to do while waiting for his turn in the showers.

His activities drew some curious looks and half-sniggered comments from the others in the room but he zoned out and ignored them, instead focussing on his form until the showers came free.  He didn’t have long to wait, two showers came free at the same time and both he and Number 13 grabbed their towels and headed through to the wash rooms.

He stripped down to his shorts and picked experimentally at the stickers left in place after the pool session, the glue was strong and part of him was tempted to leave them except the edges were just beginning to lift and annoy him.  He gritted his teeth, pinched the loosest corner and ripped back sharply.  He swiftly repeated the action on the second sticker then rubbed briskly at the angry red patches left on his skin.

“That looked painful.  Not too sure I want to do that to myself”

He looked up, met the eyes of Number 13 and grinned.

“It’s just like pulling off a band-aid.  Nothing to it.” 

“Rather you than me.  I think I'll try and get mine in the shower.”

They went their separate ways into the empty cubicles and Gordon turned the shower up high.  The accommodation might be spartan but he was glad the water was hot and plentiful.  The powerful drops blasted away the sweat and chlorine that had built up on his skin and he turned his face into the stinging stream.  Much as he would have liked to stand there for longer he knew others were waiting their turn and it wouldn't be fair to hang around.  The temptation was strong but he hadn’t been impressed by the amount of time some candidates had taken and it wasn’t fair to keep the last few waiting longer than they had to.  

All too soon he was back in the chilly dorm room, hauling himself onto the bunk that had been marked out as his.  Eight sets of bunk beds lined the room, with thirteen of the individual beds now filled.  He wondered how many more gaps would appear as the selection course progressed.  Murmurs of conversation broke out around the room as the participants made use of the first real chance they had to get to know each other since arriving.  The instructors had kept them busy all afternoon and unnecessary chatter during the tasks had been swiftly quelled by punishment press ups,  but now, with no instructors around, the candidates could speak more freely.

Gordon lay back and listened.  It was the usual first-night whispers he remembered from some of his swim camps; name, city but unsurprisingly not their favourite distance and stroke.  The introductions travelled around the room; it seemed Marineville saw applicants from the west coast right through to the central states.  Gordon knew it would soon be his turn and he resolved to say as little as possible, he was enjoying being just another person in the crowd.

“So what about you 14?”

“Gordon, I'm from LA.” 

If he thought he was going to be able to get away with the bare minimum he was sorely mistaken.

“So what were you doing before you decided to try out for WASP?  You're built like a tank and you swim like a fish.  You some personal trainer or something?”

“Me? Uh, I've just high finished school.  I do swim competitively though.”

Thankfully the candidate doing the questioning latched on more to the school part than the swimming.

“Only just left school?  You don't act like some kid, I thought you were at least 20, maybe 22.”

“Nope, only 17.”

“Jeez, that makes you the baby of the group.  So what do your family think of you heading off to sea first chance you get?”

Thankfully Gordon was spared answering by a bellow from the doorway.

“This is a military base, not a holiday camp.  If you lot have enough energy to gossip you obviously aren't working hard enough.  Now if I hear another sound from this room I will have you outside running laps until you drop.  Do you understand me?”

A chorus of “Yes, Sir!” rang out before the room descended into total silence.

Gordon rolled over, wondering what challenges tomorrow would bring.

xoxoxox

The second day of selection started with the sound of drums at daybreak.  Sleepy heads were raised in confusion.  Others who were quicker on the uptake, Gordon included, leapt from their beds and started throwing on clothes.  He was glad he hadn’t skimped on the stretches the night before, some of his contemporaries were looking decidedly stiff after the exertions of the previous day.

The now familiar sound of shouting filled the room.

“Up!  Up!  Sports kit on and outside for PT before breakfast.  Move!”

Gordon was no stranger to early morning training.  As the first beats had sounded from the speakers in the corners of the room he had been on his feet, all shreds of sleep disappearing in an instant.  It was an enviable skill and obviously not one possessed by all in the room.  To the observing instructor in the doorway  Number 14 shone through yet again as one of the stronger candidates.

   There was no denying that WASP selection was a taxing experience. The group was whisked from one set of tests to another.  If it wasn’t their bodies being tested it was their minds as they sat exam papers or explored leadership scenarios.  By lunch time another member of his group had dropped out, and judging by the numbers sitting down to eat groups A and B were now similarly depleted.  Even those that lasted the distance had no guarantee they would be accepted to wear the prestigious grey uniform; the standards might have an absolute minimum but it had been made clear that if more met the standard than was needed then only the very best would be made an offer.

While many were struggling Gordon was relishing the challenge.  It was as though he had found his niche.  Even the written tests, which he had approached with some trepidation, had been well within his comfort zone which helped his confidence soar.  Theories and concepts which had seemed so abstract at school seemed to make more sense when applied to a real life scenario and for once in his life Gordon walked away from a classroom without feeling a failure.

After lunch group C were to take their turn on the obstacle course, a gruelling array of beams, walls and aerial wires that would require both strength and agility to navigate.  To Gordon the course looked like a massive playground and he couldn’t help but grin at the prospect.

The instructors divided the group into smaller teams of four and Gordon’s team set off onto the course first at the sound of the whistle.  

The group raced along, leaping over pits using rope swings and stepping along narrow beams as quickly as their balance allowed, each candidate aiming to be the first to reach and therefore clear each piece of equipment.  It was every man for himself.  That was until they were brought up short by a 10 foot wall.  Number 6, who was keen to keep his early lead, took a running jump at the obstacle.  His fingers caught the top edge but he was unable to keep a good enough grip to climb over and he soon fell back down again.

To Gordon the solution was obvious; it was quickly becoming apparent to him that this test was different to those that had gone before and if they were to have any hope of making it through successfully then teamwork would have to be the order of the day.  

“Look, if any of us are to stand a chance of getting through this course we are going to have to work together.”

Number 6, after a second failed leap, was quick to agree.  Numbers 3 and 10, arriving a moment later, could also see sense in the plan.  

“Sure.  So how are we going to tackle this one.”

Three sets of eyes turned to Gordon expectantly.  Having been the one to voice the idea the others were evidently expecting him to come up with the solution.  He thought for a moment then turned and planted his back against the wall, bending his knees to make a step.

“6, you’re tallest, you go first.  Use me as a ladder to get up but stay on top of the wall, don’t drop down the other side.  You can then help up 3 and 10.  Once you’re all on top you can reach back down and haul me over.  Got it?”

There were three nods of agreement. 

Gordon braced himself as first his legs then his shoulders were used as steps.  Once.  Twice.  A third time.  His clothes became marked with muddy footprints but he didn’t care, the plan was working and he was soon being bodily lifted up and over the obstacle by the team he had helped up first.

Having made the decision to work together the group soon found themselves speeding through the course.  Many obstacles, while able to be attempted solo, could be cleared much quicker with careful cooperation and support; Gordon had evidently read the situation correctly.  

Despite being the youngest the others seemed happy to defer to him as their leader and Gordon found himself naturally assuming command of the team.  He directed the group to make the best use of their combined talents.  Before long the band of four found themselves at the far end of the course, just one final obstacle to navigate their way over then the run for home.

Using their now tried and tested method the team were soon atop the final wall despite it being the biggest yet.  From here they could look back over the whole course, the other candidates and their assessors were indistinct figures in the distance.

“Wonder who that is come to visit?  Probably from the World Navy.  Best make sure we put on a good show, they might be important.”

From his lofty vantage point Gordon looked back towards the start point.  Number 6 was right, someone new had joined the cluster of watching assessors, the dark blue of their uniform a stark contrast to WASP grey.

“No idea.  Come on, let's finish this as a team.”

The group jumped down from the final obstacle and began the mad sprint back to the beginning of the course and their waiting assessors.  As they closed the gap between themselves and the waiting officers, making sure no one was left behind, the mystery figure resolved itself into a familiar form for Gordon 

Recognition led first to confusion and then to anger.

Scott.

[vulcan-highblood]

Not According To Plan 4/5

Fandom: Supergirl(TV) / Legion of Super-Heroes

Summary: (Post Season 3 Ep. 18 “Shelter From The Storm”) Querl and Imra return to the 31st Century. It’s not at all what they expected.

Read it on AO3!

Chapter 4: Requisition

Upon inspecting Legion Headquarters, it became clear that Querl’s prediction regarding the state of technology had been correct. HQ was, externally at least, very similar to the headquarters they had left behind when they had been thrown back to the past. However, this building lacked the sophisticated security system Querl had painstakingly installed, and all other systems that had been operated by COMPUTO. 

Now Querl was stuck in his lab with an actual physical notepad, taking down the information on the individual they were seeking so he could determine the best way to make use of their limited resources and travel back in time again. He was finding that not being able to use an omnicom was both frustrating and painful. Frustrating, because it meant he had to physically scrawl all of his notes in Interlac, which took far longer than simply mentally dictating and watching the words appear on a screen. Painful, because he had been scribbling his notes in interlac for the better part of an hour and was beginning to develop a cramp in his wrist.

He was unused to hand-writing his notes. Even when he’d been in the 21st century, most of his work had been on computers. It was degrading, to be reduced to mere strokes on a page to try and work out his ideas. Everything was so sprocking slow, his mind felt as though it was whirling away from him, so much faster than his cramping hand.

“Well, Brainy? How’s it look?” Rokk asked, coming up from behind Querl to read over his shoulder.

Querl turned slightly, so Rokk wouldn’t be able to read his notes. Not that it mattered. They were so cramped and convoluted he doubted the Braalian would be able to make heads or tails of them anyway. His handwriting was atrocious. He had never needed it for more than the occasional scribbled notation prior to this point in his life, so he didn’t feel particularly put out by this failing. It didn’t make his wrist feel better, though.

“I have identified the technology advances that led my temporal predecessor to believe that this individual was the best choice to counter my cousin’s attack,” Querl said, “and I am in the process of learning the identity of this individual.” Turning, he looked at Rokk, clarifying. “The information on this person remains shrouded in mystery, but they appear to have hailed from the twenty-first century.”

“That’s where you just came from, wasn’t it?” Rokk asked, ignoring the fact that, technically, he’d been in the 21st century too. He had simply been asleep for the duration of the visit, and thus did not recall their lengthy stay.

Querl wrinkled his nose in irritation. It was troubling that he had not anticipated needing to rely on such an individual while he had been in the right place, at the right time. Then again, Querl had absolutely no recall of this individual in his own mind, which implied that this… (human? Likely. Though not all residents of Earth at that time were truly human, statistically speaking, it was the most reasonable assumption) inventor was possibly a survivor of the Blight who would have died without their intervention.

Fascinating. Their own actions to prevent the Blight also provided a solution to their problem, a problem which was also a result of preventing the spread of the Blight. While this was an intriguing conundrum, trying to determine the identity of this individual with limited historical records and significantly limited access to computer systems was proving to be a challenge.

“Everything has changed as a result of our actions,” Querl pointed out. “I do not even know of this person as their works are all completely unheard of from the time of the Blight, and yet… some of the technological advances pioneered by this individual appear to be foundational structures upon which today’s technology is based. It is…” Querl resisted the urge to sigh, “…admittedly genius-level work. Considering, of course, the limitations of the time.”

Rokk’s eyebrows jumped towards his hairline. “Did you just admit to another person’s work being genius?”

“Having only recently returned from that time period I can unequivocally say that managing to produce any functional tech is a work of exceptional skill and likely boundless patience.” Now Querl did sigh, turning to look at Rokk. “It was so sprocking frustrating, their computers are so stupid it was like talking to a stone. Twenty-first century computers are a lump of electrical impulses and silicon, they have no heart…” he shut his mouth suddenly, feeling as though he had shared quite a bit more than was intended. “It was infuriating,” he summarized.

Rokk was giving him a look, a look Querl received from his peers rather consistently. They didn’t understand computers, and likely did not understand the severe chasm that divided 21st century technology from the 31st century. But when you were a part of it, it was impossible to forget.

“Sounds rough,” Rokk said, neatly underlining the precise problem with the universe at present.

The people of this time still had not fully come to terms with everything they had lost. Could not appreciate how much his family had torn from them all. “What I am trying to say,” Querl turned back around to stare at his blocky interlac notations,  “Is that the AI virus is far more dangerous to us than people from another time - we don’t know how to survive without AI. We haven’t needed to, for centuries.” He glanced back at Rokk again, trying to clearly explain his theory. “An individual from the twenty-first century would not feel as though they were being deprived, precisely because they have never known the level of advancement we once had in this time.”

Rokk shrugged lightly. “I’ll take your word for it.” He turned to leave, then paused, as though he’d remembered something. “Oh, right, I almost forgot -” he quickly approached Querl, extending a large bundle of physical note paper. “I just brought the physical images and information from all the history texts in the National Archives related to the unnamed inventor that you asked Luornu to get for you. I’m guessing that’s the same one you’re researching?” He waved a small handful of paper in Querl’s face before dropping them on top of Querl’s notebook. “There’s probably two hundred pages more that Jo and Luornu are still printing off, plus they found some more research notes that your past self made about the inventor. I put that on top of the pile, actually - I figured you would like to start with what your past self had already decided was important.”

“Yes,” Querl agreed, “Let us hope that my former self’s last days were spent on useful research. I would hate to see my previous research only to discover it is all useless, necessitating additional months of fruitless study while society as we once knew it continues to crumble.”

Rokk made a strangled noise like he wasn’t quite sure how to respond.

Lucky for him, Querl wasn’t expecting a response. It had been a bit callous to make sarcastic remarks about his own untimely death, but Querl was stressed and under a lot of pressure. He felt as though he had earned the right to be a bit of a nass about this whole sordid predicament. But he recognized that this attitude was unhelpful, and so, taking a deep breath, Querl spoke again.“I appreciate the information,” he told Rokk. “I am certain the notes will be useful.” It was, after all, his own research.

“Right,” Rokk said, moving for the door to Querl’s lab. “I’ll just… leave you to it. Good luck.”

Querl lifted a hand in a gesture of farewell, already picking up the pile of notes Rokk had dropped in front of him. He had work to do, and time was running out. If not for him, then certainly for the Legion Cruiser. He needed to gather the necessary information quickly if they stood any chance of traveling back in time again. If only he could use a sprockingcomputer.

Querl lifted the first page, unintentionally dragging the side of it along his fingers, and - “Sprock! Grife! What the-” it had cut him! Why was this paper sharp? Nursing his wounded hand, Querl glared down at the pile of notes, which stared back at him accusingly. Sprocking grife. It was shaping up to be a long day.

~~*~~

Querl was beginning to regret the lack of natural lighting in his laboratory, as the harsh glare of the lights appeared to be causing him to develop a low-grade headache. It wasn’t a particularly painful headache, it was just difficult to concentrate when absolutely anything that strayed from the norm forced him to pause and run a self-diagnostic. Despite his near-certainty that he had not been infected in the short amount of time spent in this timeline, Querl nonetheless found himself bordering on paranoid. He had already died before seeing this mission through to fruition once. If he died this time… well. Querl didn’t expect there would be many other people in the universe capable of plotting a route through time and space using only pen and paper.

To be fair, though, other people would be able to use a computer without risking contamination. So perhaps he wasn’t the only person who could plot their route. He was simply faster than the others. With a sigh, Querl stared at the “historic artifact” that his previous self had found incredibly important and frowned. He could have sworn he’d seen it before, but his recall was taxed by the fact that he had multiple thought-tracks running system diagnostics at regular intervals while several other thought-tracks were attempting to plot a route back to the 21st century. Even so, Querl knew that this ‘artifact’ had been noted, once before. It was in his mind, somewhere. Which meant that at some point during his time int he past, he had been close enough to the inventor to actually take note of their work. How frustrating to know this now, when it was going to be so hard to get back to the same time and place as he’d been before. If only he had a name, or at least a face, to put to the inventor. He could work with that! He could work with…

Work. Why was it that work had sparked something? Immediately dismissing the system diagnostic, Querl attuned three of his thought-tracks to pursuing that line of thought. He could work with the inventor.

Perhaps, he already had.

As he focused, he brought up memory after memory, scrutinizing them for details, the slightest hint, and what he found was… frankly, unexpected. It couldn’t be. Despite the fact that even Querl would have been hard-pressed to predict a Blightless future with anything even resembling accuracy, the fact that he’d been so close was incredibly frustrating. It didn’t matter how unlikely it had been for him to know this, he still felt as though he should have known. Knowing that there was no reason for him to know such a thing was irrelevant in the face of an emotion as illogical as frustration.

Taking a deep breath, Querl set the artifact aside and steepled his fingers, attempting to quiet his mind as he considered the revelation. The thought-tracks he’d commandeered quietly went back to their system diagnostic as Querl mused on what he’d learned. All in all, it made a surprising amount of sense. After all, Winslow Schott had, at least according to DEO records, once opposed and prevailed against his descendant, Brainiac 8. Perhaps he was the right person to oppose Pirn. Or Brainiac. Depending on how much of the younger Coluan’s operating system had been subsumed by his evil ancestor, he might be willing to use that name instead. If Pirn was insisting on going by Brainiac 6, there was a good chance that Vril’s ancestral memory had somehow wrested control from the young Coluan entirely, as the cousin that Querl remembered hadn’t seemed the megalomaniacal sort. Of course, the mother Querl remembered hadn’t seemed the filicidal sort, either, and yet-!

He was going to need a lot of time to think about the meaning of family when this was all over.

For now, he had bigger things to think about. Well. Not bigger, simply more urgent matters than really thinking about the fact that no matter what timeline he fled to, apparently his family was still the sprocking worst. But he didn’t have time to dwell on that. He needed to figure out how to plot their trajectory as precisely as possible, preferably before the Cruiser, which was still equipped with onboard AI systems, shut down for good. At least now he had something to go on, but finding a way back to that time would be troubling.

Querl straightened up, rolling his shoulders, and reviewed his system diagnostics. All clear. His headache appeared to be strictly biological in nature, then. Perhaps because he hadn’t slept since he’d arrived in this century nearly 47 hours earlier. Querl shook out his hand, absently wondering if he would end up developing carpal tunnel from all the unfamiliar motions, and resumed his calculations. The fine-tuning would come later, but at least he had a more clear idea of where - and when - they needed to go next.

[han-made-bookbinding]

La Prose Part One: Recreation and Research

What an exciting project I have been involved in through my most recent bookbinding commission: the recreation of La Prose du Transsbérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France - the remarkable book by poet Blaise Cendrars and artist Sonia Delaunay. Sonia and Blaise first met in January of 1913 and formed an instant friendship, producing this book by letterpress and pochoir in 1913. The original book was a landmark achievement for its time and remains vibrant and modern today. 

The recreation project was conceived by Kitty Maryatt, the proprietor of Two Hands Press in Playa Vista, California since 1974. In 2017 she decided to publish the recreation with the help of underwriters. Kitty has created a blog of her own documenting her journey through the process of recreating 150 editions as closely as possible to the original book by using letterpress and pochoir. Her blog is totally fascinating can be found here. It is thanks to this blog, plus some additional information that was printed to be housed with the completed book, that I am able to pass on so much information about this latest binding of mine.

The image above shows the binding made by Paul Bonet between 1963-64, sold by Christie’s in Paris on April 29, 2004 for 350,000 Euros. Sonia and Blaise had planned on making 150 copies however this was not completed.

“Was the primary reason for the incomplete edition the excessive length of time it might take to complete the pochoir process, assuming that the pochoir was the final procedure before binding? Did World War I intervene? Were there exhibits of the book, any reviews, any publicity at all? Were the sales disappointing? Did they run out of money?”

The actual number remains unknown, 74 have been identified but the list of these has never been published.

“The edition numbering system Blaise Cendrars used is somewhat random, indicating that the edition numbers were not written on the copies when they were first made. For example, there are two copies numbered 47, two numbered 111, and two numbered 139. Many copies do not have an edition number. There is a copy numbered 1 and one numbered 150.”

The La Prose of 1913 was printed on three materials: vellum, Japon and simile Japon, they stuck to the typical formula of publishing a deluxe edition and regular edition. Japon in one of many Japanese papers sold by the Japan Paper Company; simili Japon is made with Western fibres, also sold by the Japan Paper Company. The Paul Bonet binding is one of the vellum editions.

The below image shows Kitty’s recreation (right) alongside an original copy at The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA (left). This is #124, glued and folded into 21 panels, inscribed to Archipenko, the vellum cover is not attached.

“The book itself is captivating with its colorful and painterly pochoir (French-style stencil), so unlike stenciled copies of artwork at the time. The colors seep from the painted side into the poem on the other side.”

Kitty wanted to recreate the pochoir methods as closely as possible to the original using pommes (short, wide brushes) and metal stencil plates. Pochoir is a refined stencil-based technique employed to create prints or to add colour to pre-existing prints. It was most popular from the late 19th century through the 1930's with its center of activity in Paris. Numerous stencils were designed as a means of reproducing an image. (Photo courtesy of Kitty Maryatt)

My copy was one of two that Neale Albert (New York) had underwritten and commissioned. When I received my copy of the sheets in the post (#58 0f 150) they came with three different instruction sheets of how the pages could be folded - it was rather daunting! 

The long vertical format of the book was an unprecedented choice for a book of the period: 

“The Trans-Siberian Railroad was begun in 1890 when Blaise Cendrars was only three years old, but it was highlighted at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris that he attended with his family. The entire series of railroad lines weren't actually completed until three years after La Prose du Transsbérien was published. In the book, Blaise included a map of the journey from Moscow to Vlasivostok, which gives us a clue as to the distinctive folding scheme of the book. I've found tourist maps of Paris for the period similarly folded, in half first, and then in accordion – folded flat and glued to the cover. In the case of La Prose, as you open the book, you can't actually see anything in the book, neither the text nor the imagery, until the book is completely unfolded.”

It was up to me to choose which format I wished to use having been instructed that there was no set way of binding the book, so total creative freedom! Along with the written instructions, Kitty also sent all binders images of the folding and gluing process - crucial information to have before proceeding. There were three ways of folding the concertina, either like the original (left hand format), long and thin like the Paul Bonet binding (middle format) or double width (right hand format). (Photo courtesy of Kitty Maryatt)

  The 1913 edition book covers were painted in oils by Sonia Delaunay, some covers had a snap, which made the book resemble a purse. Kitty’s version of La Prose is bound with vellum covers however she used acrylic paint to decorate the cover as she found that the oils yellowed the vellum. The book is housed in an acrylic slipcase and is pictured below. (Photo courtesy of Kitty Maryatt)

So, the time had come to trim and stick all of my sheets together! 

The first step was to cut all four pages to size. I am used to working in cm, I have almost never used inches, so the fact that all of the instructions were in imperial took extra brain power - I never even glance at the other side of the ruler!

The first step was to measure 7 1/18 inches from the centre fold mark at the top and bottom and to cut off one vertical side. 

The next was to cut off the other vertical side so that the width of the page was 14 1/14 inches and the two sides were parallel.

Next I had to cut off one inch at the top of page one, and to trim the top of pages 2 to 4 at the printed mark on the right side just above the first line of type. The bottoms of each page then had to be cut to meet the following lengths: Page 1 - 21.75 inches, Page 2 - 20.25 inches, Page 3 - 19.875 inches and Page 4 - 19.5 inches.

I was then able to proceed with gluing all four sheets together. I soon found I didn’t have a long enough table to work on but managed to get around that by moving two next to each other! The cut edges of the sheet were not thinned or pared in any way, they were stuck together at full thickness (the same as with the original binding).

Pages one and two were lined up along their edges, overlapping by 3/4 inch. Each page was glued to about 1/2 inch in, so that when overlapped all of the paper overlap was covered in glue. The reverse of the upper page was glued, then the front of the lower page before being combined.

A weight was applied to the glued joint afterwards and I waited for it to dry before moving on to gluing the next joints. The instructions stated:

“Note that the images don’t line up completely at the joints. I copied the original exactly. Why did they do that? It’s odd from our perspective. The outside lines should line up pretty well if you cut to size carefully.”

Once all four sheets were glued together is was time to start folding. Her the instructions did actually switch to being in centimetres!

“Folding: I use a jig of board cut to 197mm. I place the board on to the paper at the bottom edge, blank side up, place the ruler next to the left side of the board, remove the board, and score the paper 197mm from the bottom edge, and fold up. The next fold is 197mm from the first fold, I score on the blank side and reverse the fold (or you can flip the book if you wish). Continue until you get to the top, where you will have a tab left for attaching to your binding, if you wish.”

These folding instructions left me with a text block to the largest format possible. I deliberated for a long while whether to keep it at this size, but in the end took the plunge and did an additional fold in each section to give me a text block that was half the width, so the same format as that of the Paul Bonet binding.

Once I had the text block size it was time to start designing the cover. I knew that I wanted to use embroidery, as I always do, so set about making sure I had threads to match all of the wonderful pochoir colours.

I decided to do some research into Blaise Cendrars. Blaise Cendrars was the pen-name for Fréderic Louis Sauser - a play on Braise (ember) and Cendres (ash). He was a Swiss-born novelist and poet who became a naturalised French citizen in 1916. He was a writer of considerable influence in the European modernist movement.

His writing career was interrupted by World War I, he was sent to the front line in the Somme from mid-December 1914 until February 1915. It was during the attacks in Champagne in September 1915 that Cendrars lost his right arm and was discharged from the army.

As he was right-handed, he had to learn how to write with his left hand following the war. I decided to try and find handwriting examples of his from before and after he lost his right arm which was possible online. It would have been wishful thinking to find a handwritten transcript of La Prose, however I did find some good examples of both his left and right handwriting on other documents.

What I decided to do was to transcribe parts of the poem in each of these handwriting styles to use on the front and back of the book. I used a typed print out of the poem to refer to and found example of whole words (if possible), or individual letters, from the documents I had found, and pieced these together to try and reflect the writing style of before and after the loss of his arm - the left hand writing was more haphazard and scribbly-looking. What I couldn’t work out at first though was which should go on which cover! 

I put the question to some family and friends and got some great feedback. What I hadn’t thought about before was that if I did the “before” handwriting on the front and the “after” handwriting on the back, when the book was opened up or laid flat I would have the writing on the sides which naturally correspond to the hands which were used - the decision was made.

So the “after” left handwriting became the design for the back board, and I took wording from the beginning of the poem.

And the “before” right handwriting became the design for the back board, and I took wording from towards the end of the poem.

It took a few attempts to get it to the right width for the boards, and to get enough words on so that the front and back covers started and ended at the same heights. For each of the covers I photocopied the writing onto tracing paper templates so I had a master copy to work from.

During the period of time I was working on this binding I made a trip to London to see the British Library’s exhibition entitled, Writing: Making Your Mark. 

“Writing: Making Your Mark is a landmark British Library exhibition, which spans 5,000 years across the globe, exploring one of humankind’s greatest achievements – the act of writing. From carved stone inscriptions, medieval manuscripts and early printed works to beautiful calligraphy, iconic fonts and emojis, Writing: Making Your Mark (26 April – 27 August 2019) will deconstruct the act of writing and consider its future in the digital age.”

What a timely exhibition to be on whilst I was making my own mark with the handwriting of Blaise Cendrars. 

“People first created writing 5000 years ago, its invention revolutionised society. Writing began in a number of locations around the world, at different times and for different reasons. People developed it to communicate across time and space, carrying it with them as they traded, migrated and conquered.”

It is amazing to think that writing and technology have often developed hand in hand. What began as inscribed patterns on bones thousands of years ago has somehow led to me sitting at my computer typing away at this blog on a keyboard. I hope I have done Blaise Cendrar’s two versions of handwriting justice in my binding! 

In August 2015 Kitty identified thirty-eight distinct typefaces used in La Prose. 

“Blaise Cendrars printed La Prose at Imprimerie Crété in Corbeil, France because he was already in the process of printing his second book, Séquences, at Crété in early 1913. The poem is four hundred and forty-five lines long. In a brilliant and groundbreaking master stroke, Blaise decided to select dozens of typefaces for the poem.” 

She was convinced that Blaise did not walk along the hundreds of type cabinets at Crété impulsively selecting type: Crété certainly would have had an in-house type catalogue to view the available typefaces.

The next blog post will go through the choices I made when it came to binding such a book, “La Prose Part Two: Structure”.

[geek-patient-zero]

Part 1, Chapter 2

Or: McCann Reads His Mail

Blood War: Masquerade of the Red Dead Trilogy Volume 1

Dire McCann returns to his office, in “the heart of the tenderloin district.”

Big, bold, black letters on the door proclaimed, D. McCann, Investigations. Beneath his name, in much smaller print, was the disclaimer Consultation by Appointment Only.

I guess even Dire knows his first name’s a little odd and abbreviated it. Who’d want to give work to a guy who looks like they’re trying to give themselves a nickname.

There’s several paragraphs describing the office. The outer office/reception area has a coffee table with old issues of Sports Illustrated and three red chairs, like a doctor’s office with an even more limited selection of outdated magazines.

It wasn’t much, but he didn’t require any better.  Recently, his only clients had been the Kindred, and none of them worried about his taste in furniture.

Not to his face, anyway. Vampires are like suburban parents that way.

The office proper, or his ”inner sanctum” as the narration calls it, is pretty standard; huge oak desk, “an elaborate telephone answering machine,” a table with a fax machine, PC, and printer on it, some metal cabinets, and more red chairs. It was also mentioned to have an “outrageous” rent that was almost worth it for the building’s cleaning lady.

The glow of a nearby streetlight gave the room an eerie, ghost-like interior.[...]No cheaply framed photos with hearty endorsements or tacky paint-by-numbers artwork hung on the walls. McCann believed in a strictly functional workplace. Besides which, it made a better impression on potential clients.

McCann sits behind his desk and reloads his submachine gun.

Considering what had happened already tonight, it seemed like good policy to stay ready for trouble.

For all the good it did him, but good thinking I guess. Proper paranoia helps in the World of Darkness.

Then he checks his answering machine. Two of the messages are for “divorce work.” That kind of stuff “didn’t interest” McCann, but there’s another detective in the building who specialized in it, and McCann trades him leads for favors, so he writes down the names and phone numbers. Another message is trying to sell him health insurance.

McCann grinned. Considering his present circumstances, he wasn’t sure he could afford the premiums.

Finally, McCann gets around to checking the mail he was carrying around during the first chapter. After separating the junk mail, he’s left with the small box, which was from Switzerland, three letters from Venice, Italy, another from Australia, and the last from Peru. He starts with the mail from Venice.

Dated approximately a week apart, the letters contained detailed records for financial deals made during the previous seven days.  The facts and figures covered hundreds of major business transactions throughout Europe and the United States. The detective scanned the documents carefully. There were no unusual expenditures or unexplained finances. Not that he expected to find any. The masterminds of the Giovanni Clan were the greatest financial wizards in the world. They kept a tight watch on their investments. McCann merely wanted to make sure no one other than him was skimming the profits.

Interesting. Despite doing work for the Camarilla, McCann also has connections to the independent Giovanni Clan, or at least is stealing money from them, and in a way that even their “financial wizards” can’t detect. There’s an even more interesting reveal at the end of the paragraph.

The longer he lived, the more cautious he became. And, though he appeared to be in his mid-thirties, Dire McCann lived a very long time.

Huh. The summary on the back cover describes him as “mortal.” Then again it also misspells his surname as McCannan, so...

Next he opens the latter from Darwin, Northern Territory Australia, which contains a newspaper clipping. Recently, “nomadic” Aborigines fled their reservation in the Tanami Desert and set up a shanty town outside the city. Officials tried to get the “troublemakers” to go back, “but with no success.”

No one could offer an explanation for the natives’ unexpected migration. Nor were the unwelcome Aboriginals willing to discuss why they had abandoned their primitive shelters and made the long trek to the coast. Their only reply was to point in the general direction of the Macdonnel Ranges and utter the word “Nuckalavee, Nuckalavee,” over and over again.

The hell’s a mythological Scottish demon doing in Australia?

Unfortunately, no one other than the natives understood what the term meant.

Have they tried asking a Scottish person? Maybe someone from the Orkney Islands? This is like Native Americans fleeing from the Loch Ness Monster or a kappa.

For those of you who’d never heard of it, or had never played The Bard’s Tale, the Nuckelavee is this big horse with the upper torso of a rider growing out of the middle of its back, and it has no skin.

The story ended with the mayor promising city residents that the shanty town would be gone shortly.

Australians being shitty to the Aboriginals. What a surprise.

I know, hypocritical coming from an American. But still.

McCann grimaced. He understood why the Aboriginals had fled. But he doubted that the government officials in Darwin would believe his answer. Or care. Mentally, McCann noted that he should request that his clipping service search for any follow-up stories. Or reports of unusual disappearances in the Northern Territories.

It’s a minor spoiler, but not an unsurprising one given the setting, but the World of Darkness version of the Nuckalavee is a vampire; a Nictuku, the name for a fourth generation Nosferatu. Father Naples mentioned them during the prologue when he was talking about the Nosferatu, remember?

“A few of their fourth-generation progeny are rumored to be grotesque monsters, known as the Nictuku.”

But whether it’s the mythological Nuckelavee or a vampire character based off of it, it’s bizarre that Weinberg took a mythological creature from one culture, transplanted it to a completely different one on a different continent, and act like it was always a part of that culture. Even in 1994, before Wikipedia, anyone familiar with Scottish folklore would know better. Hell, check that fan wiki page I linked just now. The reference used for the page came from VTM: Clanbook: Nosferatu. It came out in 1993, and it’s most likely what Robert Weinberg used for information on Nuckalavee too. If the information on the wiki is accurate to the book, then the book straight up says that the thing is Scottish. Even if the vampire migrated at some point, more people should know about it, at least as a legend, than some scared Aboriginals.

Speaking of... I’m no expert on Aboriginal cultures, living on the opposite side of the Pacific and all, but I’m sure they can communicate better than pointing at some mountains and grunting a monster’s name in fearful tones like some old Hollywood tribal character. At least enough to say “there’s something life threatening by our reservation and we’re getting away from it.” The story’s sympathetic to them at least, but that part rubs me the wrong way.

Next, McCann opens the envelope from Peru. It contains a photo and a handwritten note from a member of the Explorer’s Club. The photo makes McCann “swallow hard”. More bad news.

Scribbled in black ink around the margin of the photo were the words, “Found at entrance to huge cavern, Gran Vilaya ruins, Peru.” The picture showed a massive stone statue of a crouching demonic figure with a misshapen, bloated female body and the face of a snarling jaguar. Circling her feet in a ring were a dozen stone heads. Judging from the size of the skulls, the demon stood a least fifteen feet tall.[...]It fronted a huge network of previously unknown caves that honeycombed the Andes for miles. No one knew for certain the purpose of the underground warren. Several members of the expedition thought it might have served as a ritual burial ground for the mysterious Chachapoya civilization due to the numerous skeletons found scattered all through the tunnels. Which would therefore identify the demonic figure as the guardian of the dead.

Credit where it’s due, Robert Weinberg didn’t just make up the Chachapoya. Little’s known about their ancient civilization, and some of what we do know come from the Inca that conquered them and the Spanish, which aren’t what you’d call unbiased accounts. They even lived in the kind of “fog-shrouded region” or “cloud forests” that Gran Vilaya was described as being found in.

The writer ended his note with the hope that McCann felt his research money was being well spent.

McCann used money from a “secret Giovanni slush fund”, which of course none of the Giovanni clan elders know about, to fund the expedition. McCann feels the cost was justified, but would’ve preferred it it if they’d found nothing.

The statue was not a representation of the spirit guardian of the dead Chachapoyas. It showed their murderer..

Not sure why the Spanish had to build underground catacombs for the Chachapoyas to die of disease and poverty in when- No, wait, he’s talking about a vampire.

A creature who abhorred all life, she was named Gorgo, the One Who Screams in Darkness. And the empty caverns in Gran Vilaya indicated that once more she walked the Earth.

Turns out she’s another Nictuku, like Nuckalavee. One with a kickass title. It looks like some very old, very powerful vampires are waking up, and McCann is not happy about it. He opens the box from Switzerland. It came from “an old friend.”

Inside were photocopies of more than three hundred pages of hand-written memos and high level classified documents. They were a mixed selection from a half-dozen different European security agencies. All were marked TOP SECRET.

But we readers don’t get to learn what they say, because McCann checks his watch and learns he’s gotta be at the Club Diabolique to meet Alexander Vargoss in half an hour.

McCann’s preparing to leave when his phone rings. Remember his “elaborate telephone answering machine?” It’s got some spiffy futuristic tech in it like a “caller ID feature” and the ability to record phone calls. Stuff that only someone secretly skimming money from the Giovanni can afford. But seriously, I enjoy reading old stuff and seeing things that are common today described as rare and amazing. Hell, I didn’t know caller ID was a thing in 1994. My family’s middle class and we didn’t get phones with caller ID until the 2000′s.

Unfortunately, none of his phone system’s features come in handy in this case. He doesn’t recognize the number, but McCann answers the phone anyway.

A man whose voice McCann didn’t recognize spoke in clear, crisp tones. “Lameth,” said the stranger, “beware of the Red Death.”

Without another sound, the man hung up, leaving a stunned McCann holding the receiver. Lameth, the speaker had called him.

Nah, Dire, despite his clear, crisp tones the mysterious caller still has a bit of a lisp. He was actually calling you “lame-ass.”

It was a name from the dawn of history, one that McCann believed long forgotten. A master schemer, the detective did not like unexpected shocks. Especially ones of this magnitude.

McCann certainly has the connections and resources to be a master schemer. Still, I’d of liked to have seen him actually scheme before the narration straight up calls him one.

He tries to listen to the recording of the phone call, but turns out it didn’t record. The caller ID screen is blank, and even the phone number it picked up earlier disappeared. This is starting to sound familiar.

Luckily, McCann memorized the number despite his previous confidence in technology. He calls the local police station, specifically a cop named Harry. He asks for a favor due to him for a bottle of wine he sent Harry for his birthday; the location where his phone call was made from. Turns out, it’s from a booth in the front lobby of his building. One that’s been out of service for months.

Let’s recap. Assassins just tried to kill McCann. Powerful vampires are waking up abroad, which is worrying for a very old schemer with an eye towards international news like him. And an untraceable magic man just called him by a very old name no one should know and warned him of a threat with an ominous name. All before he’s gotta meet with the Prince of St. Louis. Good thing McCann’s a big tough book protagonist, ‘cause I’d certainly be a little anxious.

Not a believer in coincidence, the detective knew the three events had to be linked together. But how?

The voice on the phone had warned him to “beware the Red Death.” McCann had absolutely no idea who or what the Red Death might be. He had a terrible suspicion that he would soon find out.

[juncpers-blog]

i am truly the worst at introductions, so i do want to apologize ahead of time asdfg !! on that note, im gi and i am screaming of excitement right now !! its been a minute since ive been excited for a group, and an already open on at that .. anyway asdfj before i start rambling this right here is my baby face juniper and if you want to know more about her dumb ass please keep on reading !! 

╰☆╮ MADISON BEER ─ JUNIPER DUNAY identifies as CISFEMALE and uses SHE AND HER pronouns. they’re a MUSIC ARIST AND SONG WRITER, and they’re only TWENTY ONE ! they’re said to be +ALTRUISTIC, but also -ERRATIC. i guess that’s why they’re known as THE SKOOKUM in the tabloids. (mabel)

trigger warning !! gang mention !! murder mention !!

                                                               the synthesis !!

scribbles on empty pages that equal pain, anger, and struggle. words that had only been meant for one, carved themselves into the brunettes skin the moment air filled her lungs for the first time .. screams into the air, she formed into a fear that driven those around her. a fear that was so powerful, it made even a king cower. her king. the daughter of a man who ran an empire, was vowed to be protected along with her four other siblings who stood beside her. but the life of crime and danger always tugged at their skin, forced their claws into their flesh. it was an eat or being eaten lifestyle, and without choice juniper dunay was thrown in the middle of it. it was her bloodline. and while her mother wanted to protect and shelter, her father wanted to toughen her skin and wrap the chains of their gang around her feet. she was forced into situations by loyalty, by the love she had for of those around her, by the drive that was forced within her. but, this lifestyle was not always for her. the constant fear, the murder, the dirty hands, the loss, the pain, and the anger, it sat on her shoulders like boulders. the pain and anger that latched on to her and her siblings wrist troubled their mother, at first it was an itch, and then it was a rash, and then it ate at her flesh. she was barely skin and mostly bone when she decided to take her twin boys, juniper, and her youngest child out of their fathers arms, lifestyle, and curse.

                                             some important extras !! ; these are mostly for me to keep in memory of but can also be used for plots and whatnot !!

despite being a crime family, the dunay had hide behind the socialite title for decades. being something people that, everyone adores but no one can really get their hands on. basically, think of a celebrity family, the kardashians, the westbrooks and how they live. that was the dunays, but tie in gang ties and there you have them. 

her mother and father split when juniper was young, and despite them not exactly being in his life anymore they could never truly hide from him nor not be connected to him considering how public their family is. 

most people believe the reason for the split, and the children not talking to their father side is because of an affair and despite it not being anywhere near the truth juniper and the rest of them let the media take it and run.  

her oldest twin brother, has started to get back into the lifestyle their mother has done everything in her power to keep them out of- yet despite the knowledge and knowing for a fact that its not something he should be in she has kept his secret out of loyalty and has lied countless of times to not only his mother for him, but her other siblings as well as his friends and others in his life.

she once filled out a police report on her father, exposing everything he has and everything he has done. of course, it came from a place of anger and hurt, and a way to get back at him for not being in her the way she wants him to be. she never actually filed this report considering it could have gotten her into a lot of trouble with her father and his gang, not just trouble put could’ve put her on her death bed.

despite the anger and hatred she has for her father, he still sends her along with his three other kids money each month; while one of the twins refuses to touch it and her mother forbids it… she and her two other siblings have used it to benefit them to help build their careers and fund their startups, lifestyle, buy them new cars, spontaneous trips, and anything else they can get their hands on. considering she has made a living for herself now, she usually takes the money he still sends and donates it.

at five years old, juniper had actually witnessed a murder (the reason her mother removed them from her fathers live) and to this day it still lives on in her head. so bad, that she use to have night terrors (and occasionally still does ).

a lot of their time when people ask her about her father, she changes the subject or gives short answers. its always so hard not to expose him and in all reality she’s mostly just stuck in a state of not knowing how to deal with her emotions when it comes to him and their situation. 

 important career information !! ;

 basically, music was something that came rather early in her life. even as a small child, she had the habit of singing everywhere, everything, all the time..

her interest in music only grew as she did, putting herself in piano lessons and guitars lessons from the moment she was able to express her want to do so. of course, she had other hobbies such as soccer and dance but? music was her number one.

after separating from her father, her mother kind of pushed her children into normal things? encouraged them to do whatever they want. and so, at sixteen when she told her she wanted to be a singer her mom did everything in her power to make that happen. 

her already having created a fanbase from just being a ‘socialite’ breaking out into new industries was?? easier then most have it. 

a year later, age seventeen, juniper released her first single ‘my boy, my town’ that peaked number one on the charts for three weeks. 

she has been singing ever since, and of course growing and learning as a person and an artist. she is currently writing her second album. 

personality !! ;

compassionate, hard loving and big hearted. 

she goes above and beyond the limits for those she loves and feels deeply for.

she will burry your secrets so you dont have to, jump in the darkest of waters with you so you dont have to fight them yourself, will pull you into chaotic nights to keep your mind from straying to all the bad things in life.. she is a giver. 

trust issues are wrapped around her neck, clawing at her flesh. they are heavy on her shoulders, along with the ones she formed from her toxic relationship with her dad. she can be difficult is all. 

she refuses to let anything or anyone defend her and with that, you can nine out of ten times see her ebullient soul forcing its way out of her. 

she is always a super playful person, alway has to be teasing someone. 

she wants to give people around her home and comfort, someone they can depend on.

she is guarded, but its only because she feels everything so deeply. 

once she lets you in, you’re in forever. but when she hurts, she really hurts and when you cross that line you cross that line.

which is funny because she hates attachment but often finds herself getting attached to people. 

she is always on the move !! like if she isnt in the studio shes writing . if she isnt writing she is dragging her friends on trips across the world, endless parties. she seeks excitement, and things to keep her away from her thoughts. 

she holds grudges, and anger. 

you really cant be just anyone to get another chance after doing her wrong.

shes passionate, ambitious, stubborn, sarcastic. 

shes a affectionate drunk, let her live asdfg.

meaningful relationships really mean a lot to her? like she just longs meaningful connections with others. 

she honestly?? just wants to live life to the fullest??

shes also annoying as fuck just a warning ASDFGH

not personality related but !! close friends and family usually call her june and/or juni !! 

please, i absolutely love plotting? and am opening to so many different ideas and connections and everything else. dont be afraid to throw anything at me!! you can find some of her wanted connections here !! and of course know that i can expand on any of these and still have a whole lot more if you dont see anything on there that you like !! so with that, like this to post? or jump the gun and come message me!!

[catrectorauthor]

The Immersion Tactic: Because we can’t stop telling people how to write

The writing process. You know, that thing that people want to tell you how to do properly. I’ve got some opinions. 

First and foremost, I'm no gatekeeper. I'm not here to tell you what is or isn't allowed, or what disqualifies you from the title of "serious author". I don't believe in cookie-cutter methods or elitism. I do believe in offering up information to others to do as they please with it, in order to help other writers find their way out of the dark woods that can be the writing process.

So. Let’s begin. As indicated by the title, my process has been immersion. Now wait, I'm not talking moving to France to bury yourself in croissants and macaroons. I'm talking diving in so deep that you're living your work during the majority of your free time. I'm talking about absorbing ideas and information while you're not actively working on your project, whether by watching a movie to study dialogue or by listening to a deeply moving love song to get in touch with your MC’s feelings. Writing is exhausting. Sometimes you need a break. But you can also choose to use your downtime in ways that benefit the work. 

If this seems an interesting theory, read on. It's worked for me, but it won't work for everyone. Maybe you'll steal a single item and leave the rest where it lies. I'm not here to judge; I'm here to build you up. Let me know if anything works for you. Here we go:

Sit in windows, on balconies, in gardens, at cafes, and on buses, and just stare into the abyss: You know when you lie down to sleep and then an amazing idea comes to you, and it's such inconvenient timing? It's not coincidence. You've finally stopped moving and thinking long enough to let ideas flow. Actively make time for this type of creativity by being idle. Leverage the still moments in your day to daydream about your story, even if you've completely zoned out at lunch and your whole table thinks you’re dead. 

Make a playlist: I have two playlists. I have one without English lyrics, so that I can tune out the world and focus on my task, and one with English lyrics. The second is a tool I use to immerse myself in my scenes and characters. I listen to it in the shower, on the bus, and while I'm doing the dishes. It forces me to remember the scene or character it references, and usually drives my motivation to write. Use this to keep your characters sitting on your shoulders at all times. 

Play video games: Yeah you heard me. While working on this project, I played God of War 4, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Northgard, Jotun, and a handful of other Norse/Viking themed games. They’ll never provide you with pure fact, but I learned to ask questions about the information they provided, to look up things they presented me with, and to study the contents for details I could use, like mood or setting. I didn't even know about Valravn until I play Hellblade, so I have no regrets. But don't be stupid. Horror games are perfect for brainstorming horror stories, dystopian  games for distopian worlds, etc. But I'm not dumb eh. You have no excuses to play Call of Duty if you're writing an Italian romance.

Watch TV: This depends on your subject matter. For me, I only watched Vikings. The takeaway is the same as playing games. Watch the thing, ask questions, look for facts. Study the content while you’re unwinding with ice cream and a bag of chips. Learn to identify tropes, try to guess where plots will twist and how, and then use those lessons to avoid being predictable. TV and movies are also the kings of dialogue, so pay attention. I learned a lot from watching Buffy on repeat, and recommend it to anyone.

Research with books: If you're not reading as research, you’ve missed a critical part of the reading books things. However, research isn't limited to looking up which era the T-Rex lived in. Read to study style, nuance, and flow. I started rereading the Kingkiller Chronicles because I wanted to learn from Rothfuss' writing style. No don’t argue with me. That man is a God.  

Make a Pinterest Board (or 20): How do you research ancient clothing, jewelry, and building types when your budget won't let you fly to Iceland for a month? Fucking Pinterest. Members of pagan communities who craft and wear period clothing have saved my life. Photo references of people, places, and things are key to any piece of research. Pin the shit out of things and then reference them for the rest of your days.  Go to a museum: Writing a book that takes place in ancient Egypt? Go get face to face with some mummies. Learn what you can while getting some air for once, and use the opportunity to talk out some of your ideas with your museum buddy. This applies to anything. Scout out cafes for scenes you're writing, go to fantasy festivals to drink mead and make offerings to Gods, check out a botanical garden and take notes, whatever floats your literary boat. Your body will thank you for leaving the house, and you won’t forget the experience. 

Go to writing meetings and don't actually write: Commiserating about the process might have been the only thing that kept me from crawling under a rock. Can't fix that plot hole? That's okay, these people know how you feel. Stuck on a section? They have some suggestions for you. Looking for research books? Somehow they have the perfect title for you. Sometimes you need a stiff drink and a chat to get back to work. (But for christ sake, don't be that guy who talks through work time. If everyone is feeling like chatting, fine. That's a group decision. Don’t be the asshat that distracts everyone else.)

Scribble down side stories: Sometimes something doesn’t fit the plot, but fits the world. It doesn't mean you shouldn't write it. It may help flesh out your current story. Keep a side folder for these and have fun writing them when you can't stand your story anymore. Cook and eat the food from your world: Good in the kitchen? Try making that exquisite meal you wrote into chapter 12. Remind yourself what sushi tastes like before you have to describe what it tastes like. Really want to go the extra mile? Learn to fish, make a fire and cook it yourself. IMMERSION. Sketch: If you have a talent for art, draw your characters. Draw their outfits, their jewelry, their pets. I did this a bit, but it turns out I'm out of practice and was more apt to throw the pencil through the window. Either way, it will help you visualize outfits, hairstyles, and will let you watch a fucking movie while you do it. Actually write the damn book: Naturally this is the most important part. You can’t get around it. You have to put in the time. I've done all of the above, but I've also stuck in hundreds and hundreds of hours of writing for this one story. And it can be hard to do the writing, I know that. But that’s what you’re here for, so when you’re done with the creative outlet, channel it into the writing. 

Now I hear the skeptics. These are all just distractions, you could just be writing! Listen, no one is saying don’t write. And you may be the type who can just sit and write, but not everyone is, and certainly not 24/7. All brains work differently. The conversation also conveniently ignores minds that function in other ways. Perhaps someone on the autism spectrum has another process than someone with synesthesia, or someone who’s neurotypical.  

Follow the path that takes you to the story. That path has more twists for some people than others. Put in the work, and do it how you need to do it. If you're worried about procrastinating because of all these side quests, give yourself guidelines and boundaries. Set yourself achievable goals that will bring you back to the work.

I’ve tried to have fun with my creative process, because that suits who I am, but it doesn’t make me less serious about the work I’m doing. Ask the people who haven’t seen me in a year if I’m committed to the work. The story will be written. It will be published come Hel or high water. I’m just doing it my way. 

TLDR; Don't let other people tell you how to be fucking creative.

[personalcoachingcenter]

Self Help Guidelines To Feel More Content

New Post has been published on https://personalcoachingcenter.com/self-help-guidelines-to-feel-more-content/

Self Help Guidelines To Feel More Content

If you are uncertain about how to develop a plan for personal growth, this article is for you. The more you can learn about personal development, the more effectively you can use it in your life. Keep reading for a variety of tips that can help you to choose, maintain or improve the perfect program.

Stress is one of the biggest enemies of happiness. You are harming yourself mentally and physically when there is too much stress in your life. So that we think clearly and work toward our goals in life, it is important that we eliminate stress from our minds. Take the time out of your day to sit down and clear your head. This mental break each day will improve your peace and clarity of mind, and help improve your self-image.

Discover what is standing between you and your goals. Most people don’t know where to start. The first step in dealing with our weaknesses is actually identifying them. If you succeed in removing some obstacles, you might find that the path to the future is much clearer.

Always make your own decisions, so you do not miss any opportunities that life is providing you. Do not be intimidated by decisions, even when you do not have as much information as you would like. Good instincts derive from making successful decisions. If you make a mistake, it is okay because you can learn from your mistakes. If you make the wrong decision, chances are you, you will not make it again.

Try to get the most out of your work time to get more accomplished. Take an ample amount of breaks when you are working hard. If you designate a time to relax, then you will be more willing to buckle down and focus during work periods.

Your core principles are important, and your actions should reflect them. Each person has his or her center of beliefs. When your system is woven together with integrity, your confidence will rise when you put it into action. This also helps to make you a consistent person. This is an essential character trait.

Make others feel good by offering them compliments. Being nice to others will help you learn to be nicer to yourself.

Anytime and anywhere, be ready for when your ideas strike. Carry a journal or diary with you, everywhere you go. Scribble detailed notes when something comes to you, and then carry them out whenever your creativity is piqued.

Therapy is a good way to work through serious issues. While self-help books can be helpful, a therapist can propose targeted, customized advice to help you achieve your goals. Simply talking can help motivate you to succeed. A book can not talk to you like a therapist can.

Are you a heavy drinker? Are you a smoker? What activities do you engage in that have negative effects on your body? Your body can best be described as a temple; make sure you treat it as such. Cutting bad habits out of your life is a way to improve it. Carefully examine your attitudes and actions and identify areas for improvement.

No matter what your personal development goals are, there is one thing you need to do. You must live life to the fullest, and avoid being a spectator who watches the world go by. Only observing and not living makes you dead to the world, and you must live!

Use your core principals to your advantage. People have their beliefs that act as the center of themselves. When you consistently practice these, you will gain confidence and believe in yourself. Even better, when you act on your principles, you will become more consistent without having to make any effort to do so. This is an excellent trait to be cultivating.

If you find that you are constantly having difficulty meeting your goals, take a step back to evaluate what’s going on. It can help to get input from others with similar goals or to do online research and compare your goals to others who have succeeded. You might be trying to do too much at once, have the steps in the wrong order, or only taking half-measures when allocating resources.

Shop to provide yourself with necessities, not as a form of entertainment. If you do a hobby versus raising your credit card bill, you won’t have to stress over those bills and will have less clutter at home to clean.

A positive attitude is key to personal growth. A negative attitude will thwart your attempts at taking your life in a good direction. Instead, stay positive and tell yourself that having a good attitude will help you achieve your goals.

It is a good policy to compliment those around you when you notice something positive about them. Try to replace any negative comments with positive ones, and see if this helps you become more positive as an individual.

Be on the lookout for new challenges all the time. Taking on a new challenge presents you with new opportunities. You may be able to gain a new understanding of the world and develop new talents. You may even want to achieve something that has never been done before. Take on a challenge that is unique and personally meaningful, instead of tackling something that someone else has already accomplished.

Decide what you think is the very best and place a value or reward on that thought. Value your personal best and make that important to your life.

Write a list of goals you want to achieve if you seek to grow as an individual. Find things you want to possess, a career you want to pursue or a quality you want to acquire. Think about as many things as you can to gain confidence. Then, put yourself in situations where that can happen. When you tackle it methodically, you give yourself a better chance at succeeding.

Give yourself a boost of confidence by reciting all the things you like about yourself. List the things that you love about yourself on a postcard. Keep it with you at all times, and refer to it when necessary. You can also read it and record it on video, and watch it often. This might sound silly but it really helps.

It is important to know exactly where you currently are, and the direction you want to go. This is the first step to actually starting the journey of where you want to be. If you fail to notice the difference between your current state and your desired state, you will never reach self-actualization.

Unless you are willing to work towards your personal goals, you will never be able to grow as a person. Unless you understand and accept the fact that it will require change, personal growth will be almost impossible for you to achieve.

Improve your own life by researching the habits practiced by successful people you admire. The best way to make a habit permanent is to practice the behavior every day. You need to give yourself a bit of time to make your new habit a permanent one. So don’t give up on it until you have continuously used it for at least 21 days.

Instead of bragging about how many things you’ve earned in your life, try to ask other people about what they’ve earned in their life and what they’re proud of. You will be amazed to hear some of the wonderful and interesting things the people around you have done in their lives, and you will earn new respect for them by understanding their true character.

Personal Development

Having the powerful information from the article above will give you the confidence you need to grow and achieve your personal development goals. Personal development is a goal that requires continuous searching for inspiration and new ideas, but once you begin it is much easier to keep learning and growing.

[michaeljames1221]

How Do I Contest A Will In Utah?

I will define a will contest as a lawful challenge to the authenticity of an estate plan. It is not uncommon for beneficiaries of the estate of a deceased person to disagree with the purported wishes of their mother or father. The disgruntled person is usually the one who feels what has been allocated to him is less than he should have. If he manages to contest successfully, he will receive a bigger portion of the estate than what was originally assigned to him. Remember that you should stage a will contest only after the owner of the estate passes on. Read on for deeper insight into who is eligible to contest a will, legal grounds for contesting a will, the procedure to follow when contesting a will, and the cost implications of contesting a will.

Who may challenge

Of course, not every Tom, Dick and Harry has the right to contest a will. To do so, you must be an interested party in the estate plan. In other words, a portion of the estate under contest must have been allocated to you. You are contesting because you are likely to lose something if the will is executed as written. Statistics have it that spouses of the deceased are the ones most commonly involved in will contests. Children, parents, and relatives of the deceased have also been involved in will contests.

Grounds for contesting a will

We shall look at six legal grounds for contesting a will. These include:

1. Lack of testamentary capacity

2. Lack of valid execution

3. Lack of knowledge and approval

4. Undue influence

5. Fraudulent or forged wills

6. Rectification and construction claims

Lack of testamentary capacity

Utah law clearly stipulates that the testator must be of a sound mind at the time of writing and signing a will. The will is only valid when the testator:

– Is aware that he is making a will and knows the consequences of the will

– Knows the actual value of his estate which he intends to distribute among the named beneficiaries

– Knows the repercussions of including some beneficiaries in the will and leaving out others

– Is free from any medical condition that may cause him to make irrational decisions

This is normally the first port of call whenever you think of contesting a will. Ask yourself, “Did the testator have testamentary capacity?” If the answer is No, you are good to go on with the contest.

Lack of valid execution

There are a number of legal requirements that a will must meet in order for it to be legally binding. Some of the requirements concern the testator while others concern the will itself. If a will does not meet any of these requirements, it is said to lack due execution and thus can be legally contested. Below is an outline of some of the legal requirements that the will must meet.

– The testator must identify it as a will

– The testator must revoke all previous wills and codicils

– The will must be in writing

– The will must be signed by the testator, or in the event that the testator is unable to append his signature, he may direct some other person to sign on their behalf, provided that the testator is present as the will is being signed.

– The will must be signed by two witnesses. These witnesses should be present as the testator or his representative signs the will.

– The testator should appoint a guardian where minor children are involved.

– The testator must provide a formula for sharing the estate.

– The testator must be over 18 years of age.

Allow me not to get into the finer details of who can or cannot act as a witness to a will. I find it worthwhile to mention at this juncture something about revoking a will.

The testator, while alive, has the option to revoke a valid will. This can be done in a number of ways. The most obvious is changing the contents or adding to the contents of the will before passing on. This is possible provided the testator is still mentally capable of doing so. The change here does not imply crossing out details on the original will and scribbling in new ones. The testator has to follow all the legal procedures as was required in the original will. Another option is to write a whole new will. In such a case, every page of the old will has to be signed “revoked”. The revoked will should be kept as such so that nobody later on mistakes it as a lost will. A more interesting method involves tearing up the old will in front of the lawyer and signing the new will. So make sure the will you want to contest is not a revoked will.

Lack of knowledge and approval

The testator must understand the contents of the will and approve them. In case you have doubts about whether the testator really understood the contents of the will, you can go ahead and dispute the will. Be prepared to prove that the testator did not fully comprehend the contents of the will. You can also object the will if you sense that it was prepared under suspicious circumstances. Take for instance a situation where the person who drafted the will has awarded himself a generous share of the estate. It might be that the testator signed without full knowledge of what was contained therein.

Undue influence

You may rightfully suspect that the testator was unduly influenced when making the will. If you have facts on the exact culprit who wrongly influenced the testator, you can choose to contest the will in court. Note that this is a tricky ground for contesting a will. You must have concrete evidence that such and such a person coerced the testator to distribute his wealth as he did. There should be no other way of explaining why the wealth was distributed in such a manner.

Fraudulent wills and forged wills

Fraud takes many forms. One of the sons of the deceased may prepare a will and forge the signature of the deceased. The contents will almost definitely be in favor of the fraudster. Such a will may be contested if you have concrete evidence of the forgery claims.

Rectification and construction claims

There are instances when the person drafting the will may have made errors. This may be as a result of not grasping the intentions of the testator. If you detect such errors, you may contest the will on the grounds of professional negligence.

In this sense, you may also request the court to reconstruct the will in case the words used therein are ambiguous.

With any of the above-mentioned reasons, you may now move on to the process of contesting the will. I will outline below the three basic steps you should follow. One more thing to put into consideration is the case of no-contest wills.

Steps of contesting a will

You first have to file a petition with the probate court, requesting an official testacy proceeding. You have two options here – you can either request the court to do away with an informal probate which has already been closed or request them to put a halt to a probate that is in process until you air your objections. The petition must include the objections.

After filing the petition, you have to notify all the interested parties that you have filed a petition to reopen or block the probate. You can check more details of all the persons to notify in Title 75 Section 3-403 of the Utah Legislative Code. In a nutshell, the most common persons are the spouse and children of the deceased, followed by close and distant relatives. The aim here is to inform all those persons who would have fallen heir to the estate of the deceased had he died without writing a will, the beneficiaries specified in the will and the administrator of the estate.

In addition to direct contact, the law also requires you to publish a notice in the local newspapers so that your intentions to contest the will may reach anyone with rights to the estate but whose contacts you do not have.

The court will contact you and give you the specific date and time you should appear at the court. Prepare very well beforehand so as to convince the judge that your petition is valid. It is always advisable to hire an attorney to guide you through this process. An experienced attorney has probably handled several such cases and is well equipped to put meaning into your claims. As an individual, you may not have the wording and convincing abilities required to state your case.

Some clauses in the will also require expert advice. Take for example a testator who specifies in his will that any beneficiary who contests the will and loses should receive nothing at all. This is called the no-contest clause. Some no contest clauses also specify that the beneficiary who files a petition to contest the will and loses will have to pay the attorney’s fees and all the costs for the two sides of the case. How do you go about this? Do you cower and abandon your intention to contest? This is where an attorney comes in.

It is worthwhile to note that the other party will most definitely appear in court with his attorney.

Costs to contest a will

No litigation is cheap. No litigation comes without cost implications. Be ready to spend some generous amounts on legal fees and such. What more, will contest can really drain you financially because of the number and nature of investigations required. They are generally more expensive than other forms of litigation.

Remember that the costs will greatly be determined by the court. The loser(s) of the contest may be required to pay the winner(s) the costs involved in the case.

Do not fall prey to the misconception that the costs will be covered by the estate under contest. This is not true. Be ready to foot the costs from your pocket. You will only get the payback when you win the contest. This general rule has the following two major exceptions:

1. In case the testator or the interested persons are the cause of the contest, the costs will be funded from the estate in case the contest is lost.

2. In case the contest necessitated investigations regarding the will, the costs incurred by the two parties will be covered by those who incurred them.

The worst scenario comes when the costs involved in the contest are higher than the value of the estate. This outrightly means that you lose big. It is therefore in order to really weigh the costs versus returns before setting out to contest.

Remember the contest is not a 1 day thing, nor a 1-week or a 1 month thing. Contests normally run for up to one or one-and-a-half years. You may, therefore, incur thousands of pounds in this process.

Utah statistics have it that only about 5% of cases filed proceed to trial. The other 95% of cases end in mutual agreement by both the parties.

After the hearing of the case, the judge may rule that the will is entirely invalid or partly invalid. In such a case, the property of the deceased is distributed according to the intestacy laws. Generally, the wealth is distributed to the spouse and children. In case they are not there, the court may consider the close relatives, and finally the distant relatives. Succeeding to contest a will is such relief. After the months of hard work, it is only good you get the portion of the estate you deserve.

Will Contest Lawyer Free Consultation

When you need legal help fighting about a will in court, please call Ascent Law LLC (801) 676-5506 for your Free Consultation. We can help you with Probate Law. Will Contests. Estate Planning. And Much More. We want to help you.

Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506

Ascent Law LLC

4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews

Recent Posts

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from Michael Anderson https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/how-do-i-contest-a-will-in-utah/

from Criminal Defense Lawyer West Jordan Utah https://criminaldefenselawyerwestjordanutah.wordpress.com/2019/12/11/how-do-i-contest-a-will-in-utah/

[melissawalker01]

How Do I Contest A Will In Utah?

I will define a will contest as a lawful challenge to the authenticity of an estate plan. It is not uncommon for beneficiaries of the estate of a deceased person to disagree with the purported wishes of their mother or father. The disgruntled person is usually the one who feels what has been allocated to him is less than he should have. If he manages to contest successfully, he will receive a bigger portion of the estate than what was originally assigned to him. Remember that you should stage a will contest only after the owner of the estate passes on. Read on for deeper insight into who is eligible to contest a will, legal grounds for contesting a will, the procedure to follow when contesting a will, and the cost implications of contesting a will.

Who may challenge

Of course, not every Tom, Dick and Harry has the right to contest a will. To do so, you must be an interested party in the estate plan. In other words, a portion of the estate under contest must have been allocated to you. You are contesting because you are likely to lose something if the will is executed as written. Statistics have it that spouses of the deceased are the ones most commonly involved in will contests. Children, parents, and relatives of the deceased have also been involved in will contests.

Grounds for contesting a will

We shall look at six legal grounds for contesting a will. These include:

1. Lack of testamentary capacity

2. Lack of valid execution

3. Lack of knowledge and approval

4. Undue influence

5. Fraudulent or forged wills

6. Rectification and construction claims

Lack of testamentary capacity

Utah law clearly stipulates that the testator must be of a sound mind at the time of writing and signing a will. The will is only valid when the testator:

– Is aware that he is making a will and knows the consequences of the will

– Knows the actual value of his estate which he intends to distribute among the named beneficiaries

– Knows the repercussions of including some beneficiaries in the will and leaving out others

– Is free from any medical condition that may cause him to make irrational decisions

This is normally the first port of call whenever you think of contesting a will. Ask yourself, “Did the testator have testamentary capacity?” If the answer is No, you are good to go on with the contest.

Lack of valid execution

There are a number of legal requirements that a will must meet in order for it to be legally binding. Some of the requirements concern the testator while others concern the will itself. If a will does not meet any of these requirements, it is said to lack due execution and thus can be legally contested. Below is an outline of some of the legal requirements that the will must meet.

– The testator must identify it as a will

– The testator must revoke all previous wills and codicils

– The will must be in writing

– The will must be signed by the testator, or in the event that the testator is unable to append his signature, he may direct some other person to sign on their behalf, provided that the testator is present as the will is being signed.

– The will must be signed by two witnesses. These witnesses should be present as the testator or his representative signs the will.

– The testator should appoint a guardian where minor children are involved.

– The testator must provide a formula for sharing the estate.

– The testator must be over 18 years of age.

Allow me not to get into the finer details of who can or cannot act as a witness to a will. I find it worthwhile to mention at this juncture something about revoking a will.

The testator, while alive, has the option to revoke a valid will. This can be done in a number of ways. The most obvious is changing the contents or adding to the contents of the will before passing on. This is possible provided the testator is still mentally capable of doing so. The change here does not imply crossing out details on the original will and scribbling in new ones. The testator has to follow all the legal procedures as was required in the original will. Another option is to write a whole new will. In such a case, every page of the old will has to be signed “revoked”. The revoked will should be kept as such so that nobody later on mistakes it as a lost will. A more interesting method involves tearing up the old will in front of the lawyer and signing the new will. So make sure the will you want to contest is not a revoked will.

Lack of knowledge and approval

The testator must understand the contents of the will and approve them. In case you have doubts about whether the testator really understood the contents of the will, you can go ahead and dispute the will. Be prepared to prove that the testator did not fully comprehend the contents of the will. You can also object the will if you sense that it was prepared under suspicious circumstances. Take for instance a situation where the person who drafted the will has awarded himself a generous share of the estate. It might be that the testator signed without full knowledge of what was contained therein.

Undue influence

You may rightfully suspect that the testator was unduly influenced when making the will. If you have facts on the exact culprit who wrongly influenced the testator, you can choose to contest the will in court. Note that this is a tricky ground for contesting a will. You must have concrete evidence that such and such a person coerced the testator to distribute his wealth as he did. There should be no other way of explaining why the wealth was distributed in such a manner.

Fraudulent wills and forged wills

Fraud takes many forms. One of the sons of the deceased may prepare a will and forge the signature of the deceased. The contents will almost definitely be in favor of the fraudster. Such a will may be contested if you have concrete evidence of the forgery claims.

Rectification and construction claims

There are instances when the person drafting the will may have made errors. This may be as a result of not grasping the intentions of the testator. If you detect such errors, you may contest the will on the grounds of professional negligence.

In this sense, you may also request the court to reconstruct the will in case the words used therein are ambiguous.

With any of the above-mentioned reasons, you may now move on to the process of contesting the will. I will outline below the three basic steps you should follow. One more thing to put into consideration is the case of no-contest wills.

Steps of contesting a will

You first have to file a petition with the probate court, requesting an official testacy proceeding. You have two options here – you can either request the court to do away with an informal probate which has already been closed or request them to put a halt to a probate that is in process until you air your objections. The petition must include the objections.

After filing the petition, you have to notify all the interested parties that you have filed a petition to reopen or block the probate. You can check more details of all the persons to notify in Title 75 Section 3-403 of the Utah Legislative Code. In a nutshell, the most common persons are the spouse and children of the deceased, followed by close and distant relatives. The aim here is to inform all those persons who would have fallen heir to the estate of the deceased had he died without writing a will, the beneficiaries specified in the will and the administrator of the estate.

In addition to direct contact, the law also requires you to publish a notice in the local newspapers so that your intentions to contest the will may reach anyone with rights to the estate but whose contacts you do not have.

The court will contact you and give you the specific date and time you should appear at the court. Prepare very well beforehand so as to convince the judge that your petition is valid. It is always advisable to hire an attorney to guide you through this process. An experienced attorney has probably handled several such cases and is well equipped to put meaning into your claims. As an individual, you may not have the wording and convincing abilities required to state your case.

Some clauses in the will also require expert advice. Take for example a testator who specifies in his will that any beneficiary who contests the will and loses should receive nothing at all. This is called the no-contest clause. Some no contest clauses also specify that the beneficiary who files a petition to contest the will and loses will have to pay the attorney’s fees and all the costs for the two sides of the case. How do you go about this? Do you cower and abandon your intention to contest? This is where an attorney comes in.

It is worthwhile to note that the other party will most definitely appear in court with his attorney.

Costs to contest a will

No litigation is cheap. No litigation comes without cost implications. Be ready to spend some generous amounts on legal fees and such. What more, will contest can really drain you financially because of the number and nature of investigations required. They are generally more expensive than other forms of litigation.

Remember that the costs will greatly be determined by the court. The loser(s) of the contest may be required to pay the winner(s) the costs involved in the case.

Do not fall prey to the misconception that the costs will be covered by the estate under contest. This is not true. Be ready to foot the costs from your pocket. You will only get the payback when you win the contest. This general rule has the following two major exceptions:

1. In case the testator or the interested persons are the cause of the contest, the costs will be funded from the estate in case the contest is lost.

2. In case the contest necessitated investigations regarding the will, the costs incurred by the two parties will be covered by those who incurred them.

The worst scenario comes when the costs involved in the contest are higher than the value of the estate. This outrightly means that you lose big. It is therefore in order to really weigh the costs versus returns before setting out to contest.

Remember the contest is not a 1 day thing, nor a 1-week or a 1 month thing. Contests normally run for up to one or one-and-a-half years. You may, therefore, incur thousands of pounds in this process.

Utah statistics have it that only about 5% of cases filed proceed to trial. The other 95% of cases end in mutual agreement by both the parties.

After the hearing of the case, the judge may rule that the will is entirely invalid or partly invalid. In such a case, the property of the deceased is distributed according to the intestacy laws. Generally, the wealth is distributed to the spouse and children. In case they are not there, the court may consider the close relatives, and finally the distant relatives. Succeeding to contest a will is such relief. After the months of hard work, it is only good you get the portion of the estate you deserve.

Will Contest Lawyer Free Consultation

When you need legal help fighting about a will in court, please call Ascent Law LLC (801) 676-5506 for your Free Consultation. We can help you with Probate Law. Will Contests. Estate Planning. And Much More. We want to help you.

Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506

Ascent Law LLC

4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews

Recent Posts

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from Michael Anderson https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/how-do-i-contest-a-will-in-utah/ from Divorce Lawyer Nelson Farms Utah https://divorcelawyernelsonfarmsutah.tumblr.com/post/189602366500

[aretia]

How Do I Contest A Will In Utah?

I will define a will contest as a lawful challenge to the authenticity of an estate plan. It is not uncommon for beneficiaries of the estate of a deceased person to disagree with the purported wishes of their mother or father. The disgruntled person is usually the one who feels what has been allocated to him is less than he should have. If he manages to contest successfully, he will receive a bigger portion of the estate than what was originally assigned to him. Remember that you should stage a will contest only after the owner of the estate passes on. Read on for deeper insight into who is eligible to contest a will, legal grounds for contesting a will, the procedure to follow when contesting a will, and the cost implications of contesting a will.

Who may challenge

Of course, not every Tom, Dick and Harry has the right to contest a will. To do so, you must be an interested party in the estate plan. In other words, a portion of the estate under contest must have been allocated to you. You are contesting because you are likely to lose something if the will is executed as written. Statistics have it that spouses of the deceased are the ones most commonly involved in will contests. Children, parents, and relatives of the deceased have also been involved in will contests.

Grounds for contesting a will

We shall look at six legal grounds for contesting a will. These include:

1. Lack of testamentary capacity

2. Lack of valid execution

3. Lack of knowledge and approval

4. Undue influence

5. Fraudulent or forged wills

6. Rectification and construction claims

Lack of testamentary capacity

Utah law clearly stipulates that the testator must be of a sound mind at the time of writing and signing a will. The will is only valid when the testator:

– Is aware that he is making a will and knows the consequences of the will

– Knows the actual value of his estate which he intends to distribute among the named beneficiaries

– Knows the repercussions of including some beneficiaries in the will and leaving out others

– Is free from any medical condition that may cause him to make irrational decisions

This is normally the first port of call whenever you think of contesting a will. Ask yourself, “Did the testator have testamentary capacity?” If the answer is No, you are good to go on with the contest.

Lack of valid execution

There are a number of legal requirements that a will must meet in order for it to be legally binding. Some of the requirements concern the testator while others concern the will itself. If a will does not meet any of these requirements, it is said to lack due execution and thus can be legally contested. Below is an outline of some of the legal requirements that the will must meet.

– The testator must identify it as a will

– The testator must revoke all previous wills and codicils

– The will must be in writing

– The will must be signed by the testator, or in the event that the testator is unable to append his signature, he may direct some other person to sign on their behalf, provided that the testator is present as the will is being signed.

– The will must be signed by two witnesses. These witnesses should be present as the testator or his representative signs the will.

– The testator should appoint a guardian where minor children are involved.

– The testator must provide a formula for sharing the estate.

– The testator must be over 18 years of age.

Allow me not to get into the finer details of who can or cannot act as a witness to a will. I find it worthwhile to mention at this juncture something about revoking a will.

The testator, while alive, has the option to revoke a valid will. This can be done in a number of ways. The most obvious is changing the contents or adding to the contents of the will before passing on. This is possible provided the testator is still mentally capable of doing so. The change here does not imply crossing out details on the original will and scribbling in new ones. The testator has to follow all the legal procedures as was required in the original will. Another option is to write a whole new will. In such a case, every page of the old will has to be signed “revoked”. The revoked will should be kept as such so that nobody later on mistakes it as a lost will. A more interesting method involves tearing up the old will in front of the lawyer and signing the new will. So make sure the will you want to contest is not a revoked will.

Lack of knowledge and approval

The testator must understand the contents of the will and approve them. In case you have doubts about whether the testator really understood the contents of the will, you can go ahead and dispute the will. Be prepared to prove that the testator did not fully comprehend the contents of the will. You can also object the will if you sense that it was prepared under suspicious circumstances. Take for instance a situation where the person who drafted the will has awarded himself a generous share of the estate. It might be that the testator signed without full knowledge of what was contained therein.

Undue influence

You may rightfully suspect that the testator was unduly influenced when making the will. If you have facts on the exact culprit who wrongly influenced the testator, you can choose to contest the will in court. Note that this is a tricky ground for contesting a will. You must have concrete evidence that such and such a person coerced the testator to distribute his wealth as he did. There should be no other way of explaining why the wealth was distributed in such a manner.

Fraudulent wills and forged wills

Fraud takes many forms. One of the sons of the deceased may prepare a will and forge the signature of the deceased. The contents will almost definitely be in favor of the fraudster. Such a will may be contested if you have concrete evidence of the forgery claims.

Rectification and construction claims

There are instances when the person drafting the will may have made errors. This may be as a result of not grasping the intentions of the testator. If you detect such errors, you may contest the will on the grounds of professional negligence.

In this sense, you may also request the court to reconstruct the will in case the words used therein are ambiguous.

With any of the above-mentioned reasons, you may now move on to the process of contesting the will. I will outline below the three basic steps you should follow. One more thing to put into consideration is the case of no-contest wills.

Steps of contesting a will

You first have to file a petition with the probate court, requesting an official testacy proceeding. You have two options here – you can either request the court to do away with an informal probate which has already been closed or request them to put a halt to a probate that is in process until you air your objections. The petition must include the objections.

After filing the petition, you have to notify all the interested parties that you have filed a petition to reopen or block the probate. You can check more details of all the persons to notify in Title 75 Section 3-403 of the Utah Legislative Code. In a nutshell, the most common persons are the spouse and children of the deceased, followed by close and distant relatives. The aim here is to inform all those persons who would have fallen heir to the estate of the deceased had he died without writing a will, the beneficiaries specified in the will and the administrator of the estate.

In addition to direct contact, the law also requires you to publish a notice in the local newspapers so that your intentions to contest the will may reach anyone with rights to the estate but whose contacts you do not have.

The court will contact you and give you the specific date and time you should appear at the court. Prepare very well beforehand so as to convince the judge that your petition is valid. It is always advisable to hire an attorney to guide you through this process. An experienced attorney has probably handled several such cases and is well equipped to put meaning into your claims. As an individual, you may not have the wording and convincing abilities required to state your case.

Some clauses in the will also require expert advice. Take for example a testator who specifies in his will that any beneficiary who contests the will and loses should receive nothing at all. This is called the no-contest clause. Some no contest clauses also specify that the beneficiary who files a petition to contest the will and loses will have to pay the attorney’s fees and all the costs for the two sides of the case. How do you go about this? Do you cower and abandon your intention to contest? This is where an attorney comes in.

It is worthwhile to note that the other party will most definitely appear in court with his attorney.

Costs to contest a will

No litigation is cheap. No litigation comes without cost implications. Be ready to spend some generous amounts on legal fees and such. What more, will contest can really drain you financially because of the number and nature of investigations required. They are generally more expensive than other forms of litigation.

Remember that the costs will greatly be determined by the court. The loser(s) of the contest may be required to pay the winner(s) the costs involved in the case.

Do not fall prey to the misconception that the costs will be covered by the estate under contest. This is not true. Be ready to foot the costs from your pocket. You will only get the payback when you win the contest. This general rule has the following two major exceptions:

1. In case the testator or the interested persons are the cause of the contest, the costs will be funded from the estate in case the contest is lost.

2. In case the contest necessitated investigations regarding the will, the costs incurred by the two parties will be covered by those who incurred them.

The worst scenario comes when the costs involved in the contest are higher than the value of the estate. This outrightly means that you lose big. It is therefore in order to really weigh the costs versus returns before setting out to contest.

Remember the contest is not a 1 day thing, nor a 1-week or a 1 month thing. Contests normally run for up to one or one-and-a-half years. You may, therefore, incur thousands of pounds in this process.

Utah statistics have it that only about 5% of cases filed proceed to trial. The other 95% of cases end in mutual agreement by both the parties.

After the hearing of the case, the judge may rule that the will is entirely invalid or partly invalid. In such a case, the property of the deceased is distributed according to the intestacy laws. Generally, the wealth is distributed to the spouse and children. In case they are not there, the court may consider the close relatives, and finally the distant relatives. Succeeding to contest a will is such relief. After the months of hard work, it is only good you get the portion of the estate you deserve.

Will Contest Lawyer Free Consultation

When you need legal help fighting about a will in court, please call Ascent Law LLC (801) 676-5506 for your Free Consultation. We can help you with Probate Law. Will Contests. Estate Planning. And Much More. We want to help you.

Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506

Ascent Law LLC

4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews

Recent Posts

Crowdfunding Law

Criminal Defense Lawyer Alpine Utah

Tax Deductions For Doctors

Fencing Law

Did Divorce Get Canceled?

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Source: https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/how-do-i-contest-a-will-in-utah/

[advertphoto]

How Do I Contest A Will In Utah?

I will define a will contest as a lawful challenge to the authenticity of an estate plan. It is not uncommon for beneficiaries of the estate of a deceased person to disagree with the purported wishes of their mother or father. The disgruntled person is usually the one who feels what has been allocated to him is less than he should have. If he manages to contest successfully, he will receive a bigger portion of the estate than what was originally assigned to him. Remember that you should stage a will contest only after the owner of the estate passes on. Read on for deeper insight into who is eligible to contest a will, legal grounds for contesting a will, the procedure to follow when contesting a will, and the cost implications of contesting a will.

Who may challenge

Of course, not every Tom, Dick and Harry has the right to contest a will. To do so, you must be an interested party in the estate plan. In other words, a portion of the estate under contest must have been allocated to you. You are contesting because you are likely to lose something if the will is executed as written. Statistics have it that spouses of the deceased are the ones most commonly involved in will contests. Children, parents, and relatives of the deceased have also been involved in will contests.

Grounds for contesting a will

We shall look at six legal grounds for contesting a will. These include:

1. Lack of testamentary capacity

2. Lack of valid execution

3. Lack of knowledge and approval

4. Undue influence

5. Fraudulent or forged wills

6. Rectification and construction claims

Lack of testamentary capacity

Utah law clearly stipulates that the testator must be of a sound mind at the time of writing and signing a will. The will is only valid when the testator:

– Is aware that he is making a will and knows the consequences of the will

– Knows the actual value of his estate which he intends to distribute among the named beneficiaries

– Knows the repercussions of including some beneficiaries in the will and leaving out others

– Is free from any medical condition that may cause him to make irrational decisions

This is normally the first port of call whenever you think of contesting a will. Ask yourself, “Did the testator have testamentary capacity?” If the answer is No, you are good to go on with the contest.

Lack of valid execution

There are a number of legal requirements that a will must meet in order for it to be legally binding. Some of the requirements concern the testator while others concern the will itself. If a will does not meet any of these requirements, it is said to lack due execution and thus can be legally contested. Below is an outline of some of the legal requirements that the will must meet.

– The testator must identify it as a will

– The testator must revoke all previous wills and codicils

– The will must be in writing

– The will must be signed by the testator, or in the event that the testator is unable to append his signature, he may direct some other person to sign on their behalf, provided that the testator is present as the will is being signed.

– The will must be signed by two witnesses. These witnesses should be present as the testator or his representative signs the will.

– The testator should appoint a guardian where minor children are involved.

– The testator must provide a formula for sharing the estate.

– The testator must be over 18 years of age.

Allow me not to get into the finer details of who can or cannot act as a witness to a will. I find it worthwhile to mention at this juncture something about revoking a will.

The testator, while alive, has the option to revoke a valid will. This can be done in a number of ways. The most obvious is changing the contents or adding to the contents of the will before passing on. This is possible provided the testator is still mentally capable of doing so. The change here does not imply crossing out details on the original will and scribbling in new ones. The testator has to follow all the legal procedures as was required in the original will. Another option is to write a whole new will. In such a case, every page of the old will has to be signed “revoked”. The revoked will should be kept as such so that nobody later on mistakes it as a lost will. A more interesting method involves tearing up the old will in front of the lawyer and signing the new will. So make sure the will you want to contest is not a revoked will.

Lack of knowledge and approval

The testator must understand the contents of the will and approve them. In case you have doubts about whether the testator really understood the contents of the will, you can go ahead and dispute the will. Be prepared to prove that the testator did not fully comprehend the contents of the will. You can also object the will if you sense that it was prepared under suspicious circumstances. Take for instance a situation where the person who drafted the will has awarded himself a generous share of the estate. It might be that the testator signed without full knowledge of what was contained therein.

Undue influence

You may rightfully suspect that the testator was unduly influenced when making the will. If you have facts on the exact culprit who wrongly influenced the testator, you can choose to contest the will in court. Note that this is a tricky ground for contesting a will. You must have concrete evidence that such and such a person coerced the testator to distribute his wealth as he did. There should be no other way of explaining why the wealth was distributed in such a manner.

Fraudulent wills and forged wills

Fraud takes many forms. One of the sons of the deceased may prepare a will and forge the signature of the deceased. The contents will almost definitely be in favor of the fraudster. Such a will may be contested if you have concrete evidence of the forgery claims.

Rectification and construction claims

There are instances when the person drafting the will may have made errors. This may be as a result of not grasping the intentions of the testator. If you detect such errors, you may contest the will on the grounds of professional negligence.

In this sense, you may also request the court to reconstruct the will in case the words used therein are ambiguous.

With any of the above-mentioned reasons, you may now move on to the process of contesting the will. I will outline below the three basic steps you should follow. One more thing to put into consideration is the case of no-contest wills.

Steps of contesting a will

You first have to file a petition with the probate court, requesting an official testacy proceeding. You have two options here – you can either request the court to do away with an informal probate which has already been closed or request them to put a halt to a probate that is in process until you air your objections. The petition must include the objections.

After filing the petition, you have to notify all the interested parties that you have filed a petition to reopen or block the probate. You can check more details of all the persons to notify in Title 75 Section 3-403 of the Utah Legislative Code. In a nutshell, the most common persons are the spouse and children of the deceased, followed by close and distant relatives. The aim here is to inform all those persons who would have fallen heir to the estate of the deceased had he died without writing a will, the beneficiaries specified in the will and the administrator of the estate.

In addition to direct contact, the law also requires you to publish a notice in the local newspapers so that your intentions to contest the will may reach anyone with rights to the estate but whose contacts you do not have.

The court will contact you and give you the specific date and time you should appear at the court. Prepare very well beforehand so as to convince the judge that your petition is valid. It is always advisable to hire an attorney to guide you through this process. An experienced attorney has probably handled several such cases and is well equipped to put meaning into your claims. As an individual, you may not have the wording and convincing abilities required to state your case.

Some clauses in the will also require expert advice. Take for example a testator who specifies in his will that any beneficiary who contests the will and loses should receive nothing at all. This is called the no-contest clause. Some no contest clauses also specify that the beneficiary who files a petition to contest the will and loses will have to pay the attorney’s fees and all the costs for the two sides of the case. How do you go about this? Do you cower and abandon your intention to contest? This is where an attorney comes in.

It is worthwhile to note that the other party will most definitely appear in court with his attorney.

Costs to contest a will

No litigation is cheap. No litigation comes without cost implications. Be ready to spend some generous amounts on legal fees and such. What more, will contest can really drain you financially because of the number and nature of investigations required. They are generally more expensive than other forms of litigation.

Remember that the costs will greatly be determined by the court. The loser(s) of the contest may be required to pay the winner(s) the costs involved in the case.

Do not fall prey to the misconception that the costs will be covered by the estate under contest. This is not true. Be ready to foot the costs from your pocket. You will only get the payback when you win the contest. This general rule has the following two major exceptions:

1. In case the testator or the interested persons are the cause of the contest, the costs will be funded from the estate in case the contest is lost.

2. In case the contest necessitated investigations regarding the will, the costs incurred by the two parties will be covered by those who incurred them.

The worst scenario comes when the costs involved in the contest are higher than the value of the estate. This outrightly means that you lose big. It is therefore in order to really weigh the costs versus returns before setting out to contest.

Remember the contest is not a 1 day thing, nor a 1-week or a 1 month thing. Contests normally run for up to one or one-and-a-half years. You may, therefore, incur thousands of pounds in this process.

Utah statistics have it that only about 5% of cases filed proceed to trial. The other 95% of cases end in mutual agreement by both the parties.

After the hearing of the case, the judge may rule that the will is entirely invalid or partly invalid. In such a case, the property of the deceased is distributed according to the intestacy laws. Generally, the wealth is distributed to the spouse and children. In case they are not there, the court may consider the close relatives, and finally the distant relatives. Succeeding to contest a will is such relief. After the months of hard work, it is only good you get the portion of the estate you deserve.

Will Contest Lawyer Free Consultation

When you need legal help fighting about a will in court, please call Ascent Law LLC (801) 676-5506 for your Free Consultation. We can help you with Probate Law. Will Contests. Estate Planning. And Much More. We want to help you.

Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506

Ascent Law LLC

4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews

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Source: https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/how-do-i-contest-a-will-in-utah/

[mayarosa47]

How Do I Contest A Will In Utah?

I will define a will contest as a lawful challenge to the authenticity of an estate plan. It is not uncommon for beneficiaries of the estate of a deceased person to disagree with the purported wishes of their mother or father. The disgruntled person is usually the one who feels what has been allocated to him is less than he should have. If he manages to contest successfully, he will receive a bigger portion of the estate than what was originally assigned to him. Remember that you should stage a will contest only after the owner of the estate passes on. Read on for deeper insight into who is eligible to contest a will, legal grounds for contesting a will, the procedure to follow when contesting a will, and the cost implications of contesting a will.

Who may challenge

Of course, not every Tom, Dick and Harry has the right to contest a will. To do so, you must be an interested party in the estate plan. In other words, a portion of the estate under contest must have been allocated to you. You are contesting because you are likely to lose something if the will is executed as written. Statistics have it that spouses of the deceased are the ones most commonly involved in will contests. Children, parents, and relatives of the deceased have also been involved in will contests.

Grounds for contesting a will

We shall look at six legal grounds for contesting a will. These include:

1. Lack of testamentary capacity

2. Lack of valid execution

3. Lack of knowledge and approval

4. Undue influence

5. Fraudulent or forged wills

6. Rectification and construction claims

Lack of testamentary capacity

Utah law clearly stipulates that the testator must be of a sound mind at the time of writing and signing a will. The will is only valid when the testator:

– Is aware that he is making a will and knows the consequences of the will

– Knows the actual value of his estate which he intends to distribute among the named beneficiaries

– Knows the repercussions of including some beneficiaries in the will and leaving out others

– Is free from any medical condition that may cause him to make irrational decisions

This is normally the first port of call whenever you think of contesting a will. Ask yourself, “Did the testator have testamentary capacity?” If the answer is No, you are good to go on with the contest.

Lack of valid execution

There are a number of legal requirements that a will must meet in order for it to be legally binding. Some of the requirements concern the testator while others concern the will itself. If a will does not meet any of these requirements, it is said to lack due execution and thus can be legally contested. Below is an outline of some of the legal requirements that the will must meet.

– The testator must identify it as a will

– The testator must revoke all previous wills and codicils

– The will must be in writing

– The will must be signed by the testator, or in the event that the testator is unable to append his signature, he may direct some other person to sign on their behalf, provided that the testator is present as the will is being signed.

– The will must be signed by two witnesses. These witnesses should be present as the testator or his representative signs the will.

– The testator should appoint a guardian where minor children are involved.

– The testator must provide a formula for sharing the estate.

– The testator must be over 18 years of age.

Allow me not to get into the finer details of who can or cannot act as a witness to a will. I find it worthwhile to mention at this juncture something about revoking a will.

The testator, while alive, has the option to revoke a valid will. This can be done in a number of ways. The most obvious is changing the contents or adding to the contents of the will before passing on. This is possible provided the testator is still mentally capable of doing so. The change here does not imply crossing out details on the original will and scribbling in new ones. The testator has to follow all the legal procedures as was required in the original will. Another option is to write a whole new will. In such a case, every page of the old will has to be signed “revoked”. The revoked will should be kept as such so that nobody later on mistakes it as a lost will. A more interesting method involves tearing up the old will in front of the lawyer and signing the new will. So make sure the will you want to contest is not a revoked will.

Lack of knowledge and approval

The testator must understand the contents of the will and approve them. In case you have doubts about whether the testator really understood the contents of the will, you can go ahead and dispute the will. Be prepared to prove that the testator did not fully comprehend the contents of the will. You can also object the will if you sense that it was prepared under suspicious circumstances. Take for instance a situation where the person who drafted the will has awarded himself a generous share of the estate. It might be that the testator signed without full knowledge of what was contained therein.

Undue influence

You may rightfully suspect that the testator was unduly influenced when making the will. If you have facts on the exact culprit who wrongly influenced the testator, you can choose to contest the will in court. Note that this is a tricky ground for contesting a will. You must have concrete evidence that such and such a person coerced the testator to distribute his wealth as he did. There should be no other way of explaining why the wealth was distributed in such a manner.

Fraudulent wills and forged wills

Fraud takes many forms. One of the sons of the deceased may prepare a will and forge the signature of the deceased. The contents will almost definitely be in favor of the fraudster. Such a will may be contested if you have concrete evidence of the forgery claims.

Rectification and construction claims

There are instances when the person drafting the will may have made errors. This may be as a result of not grasping the intentions of the testator. If you detect such errors, you may contest the will on the grounds of professional negligence.

In this sense, you may also request the court to reconstruct the will in case the words used therein are ambiguous.

With any of the above-mentioned reasons, you may now move on to the process of contesting the will. I will outline below the three basic steps you should follow. One more thing to put into consideration is the case of no-contest wills.

Steps of contesting a will

You first have to file a petition with the probate court, requesting an official testacy proceeding. You have two options here – you can either request the court to do away with an informal probate which has already been closed or request them to put a halt to a probate that is in process until you air your objections. The petition must include the objections.

After filing the petition, you have to notify all the interested parties that you have filed a petition to reopen or block the probate. You can check more details of all the persons to notify in Title 75 Section 3-403 of the Utah Legislative Code. In a nutshell, the most common persons are the spouse and children of the deceased, followed by close and distant relatives. The aim here is to inform all those persons who would have fallen heir to the estate of the deceased had he died without writing a will, the beneficiaries specified in the will and the administrator of the estate.

In addition to direct contact, the law also requires you to publish a notice in the local newspapers so that your intentions to contest the will may reach anyone with rights to the estate but whose contacts you do not have.

The court will contact you and give you the specific date and time you should appear at the court. Prepare very well beforehand so as to convince the judge that your petition is valid. It is always advisable to hire an attorney to guide you through this process. An experienced attorney has probably handled several such cases and is well equipped to put meaning into your claims. As an individual, you may not have the wording and convincing abilities required to state your case.

Some clauses in the will also require expert advice. Take for example a testator who specifies in his will that any beneficiary who contests the will and loses should receive nothing at all. This is called the no-contest clause. Some no contest clauses also specify that the beneficiary who files a petition to contest the will and loses will have to pay the attorney’s fees and all the costs for the two sides of the case. How do you go about this? Do you cower and abandon your intention to contest? This is where an attorney comes in.

It is worthwhile to note that the other party will most definitely appear in court with his attorney.

Costs to contest a will

No litigation is cheap. No litigation comes without cost implications. Be ready to spend some generous amounts on legal fees and such. What more, will contest can really drain you financially because of the number and nature of investigations required. They are generally more expensive than other forms of litigation.

Remember that the costs will greatly be determined by the court. The loser(s) of the contest may be required to pay the winner(s) the costs involved in the case.

Do not fall prey to the misconception that the costs will be covered by the estate under contest. This is not true. Be ready to foot the costs from your pocket. You will only get the payback when you win the contest. This general rule has the following two major exceptions:

1. In case the testator or the interested persons are the cause of the contest, the costs will be funded from the estate in case the contest is lost.

2. In case the contest necessitated investigations regarding the will, the costs incurred by the two parties will be covered by those who incurred them.

The worst scenario comes when the costs involved in the contest are higher than the value of the estate. This outrightly means that you lose big. It is therefore in order to really weigh the costs versus returns before setting out to contest.

Remember the contest is not a 1 day thing, nor a 1-week or a 1 month thing. Contests normally run for up to one or one-and-a-half years. You may, therefore, incur thousands of pounds in this process.

Utah statistics have it that only about 5% of cases filed proceed to trial. The other 95% of cases end in mutual agreement by both the parties.

After the hearing of the case, the judge may rule that the will is entirely invalid or partly invalid. In such a case, the property of the deceased is distributed according to the intestacy laws. Generally, the wealth is distributed to the spouse and children. In case they are not there, the court may consider the close relatives, and finally the distant relatives. Succeeding to contest a will is such relief. After the months of hard work, it is only good you get the portion of the estate you deserve.

Will Contest Lawyer Free Consultation

When you need legal help fighting about a will in court, please call Ascent Law LLC (801) 676-5506 for your Free Consultation. We can help you with Probate Law. Will Contests. Estate Planning. And Much More. We want to help you.

Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506

Ascent Law LLC

4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews

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from Criminal Defense Lawyer West Jordan Utah - Blog http://criminaldefenselawyerwestjordanutah.weebly.com/blog/how-do-i-contest-a-will-in-utah

[asafeatherwould]

How Do I Contest A Will In Utah?

I will define a will contest as a lawful challenge to the authenticity of an estate plan. It is not uncommon for beneficiaries of the estate of a deceased person to disagree with the purported wishes of their mother or father. The disgruntled person is usually the one who feels what has been allocated to him is less than he should have. If he manages to contest successfully, he will receive a bigger portion of the estate than what was originally assigned to him. Remember that you should stage a will contest only after the owner of the estate passes on. Read on for deeper insight into who is eligible to contest a will, legal grounds for contesting a will, the procedure to follow when contesting a will, and the cost implications of contesting a will.

Who may challenge

Of course, not every Tom, Dick and Harry has the right to contest a will. To do so, you must be an interested party in the estate plan. In other words, a portion of the estate under contest must have been allocated to you. You are contesting because you are likely to lose something if the will is executed as written. Statistics have it that spouses of the deceased are the ones most commonly involved in will contests. Children, parents, and relatives of the deceased have also been involved in will contests.

Grounds for contesting a will

We shall look at six legal grounds for contesting a will. These include:

1. Lack of testamentary capacity

2. Lack of valid execution

3. Lack of knowledge and approval

4. Undue influence

5. Fraudulent or forged wills

6. Rectification and construction claims

Lack of testamentary capacity

Utah law clearly stipulates that the testator must be of a sound mind at the time of writing and signing a will. The will is only valid when the testator:

– Is aware that he is making a will and knows the consequences of the will

– Knows the actual value of his estate which he intends to distribute among the named beneficiaries

– Knows the repercussions of including some beneficiaries in the will and leaving out others

– Is free from any medical condition that may cause him to make irrational decisions

This is normally the first port of call whenever you think of contesting a will. Ask yourself, “Did the testator have testamentary capacity?” If the answer is No, you are good to go on with the contest.

Lack of valid execution

There are a number of legal requirements that a will must meet in order for it to be legally binding. Some of the requirements concern the testator while others concern the will itself. If a will does not meet any of these requirements, it is said to lack due execution and thus can be legally contested. Below is an outline of some of the legal requirements that the will must meet.

– The testator must identify it as a will

– The testator must revoke all previous wills and codicils

– The will must be in writing

– The will must be signed by the testator, or in the event that the testator is unable to append his signature, he may direct some other person to sign on their behalf, provided that the testator is present as the will is being signed.

– The will must be signed by two witnesses. These witnesses should be present as the testator or his representative signs the will.

– The testator should appoint a guardian where minor children are involved.

– The testator must provide a formula for sharing the estate.

– The testator must be over 18 years of age.

Allow me not to get into the finer details of who can or cannot act as a witness to a will. I find it worthwhile to mention at this juncture something about revoking a will.

The testator, while alive, has the option to revoke a valid will. This can be done in a number of ways. The most obvious is changing the contents or adding to the contents of the will before passing on. This is possible provided the testator is still mentally capable of doing so. The change here does not imply crossing out details on the original will and scribbling in new ones. The testator has to follow all the legal procedures as was required in the original will. Another option is to write a whole new will. In such a case, every page of the old will has to be signed “revoked”. The revoked will should be kept as such so that nobody later on mistakes it as a lost will. A more interesting method involves tearing up the old will in front of the lawyer and signing the new will. So make sure the will you want to contest is not a revoked will.

Lack of knowledge and approval

The testator must understand the contents of the will and approve them. In case you have doubts about whether the testator really understood the contents of the will, you can go ahead and dispute the will. Be prepared to prove that the testator did not fully comprehend the contents of the will. You can also object the will if you sense that it was prepared under suspicious circumstances. Take for instance a situation where the person who drafted the will has awarded himself a generous share of the estate. It might be that the testator signed without full knowledge of what was contained therein.

Undue influence

You may rightfully suspect that the testator was unduly influenced when making the will. If you have facts on the exact culprit who wrongly influenced the testator, you can choose to contest the will in court. Note that this is a tricky ground for contesting a will. You must have concrete evidence that such and such a person coerced the testator to distribute his wealth as he did. There should be no other way of explaining why the wealth was distributed in such a manner.

Fraudulent wills and forged wills

Fraud takes many forms. One of the sons of the deceased may prepare a will and forge the signature of the deceased. The contents will almost definitely be in favor of the fraudster. Such a will may be contested if you have concrete evidence of the forgery claims.

Rectification and construction claims

There are instances when the person drafting the will may have made errors. This may be as a result of not grasping the intentions of the testator. If you detect such errors, you may contest the will on the grounds of professional negligence.

In this sense, you may also request the court to reconstruct the will in case the words used therein are ambiguous.

With any of the above-mentioned reasons, you may now move on to the process of contesting the will. I will outline below the three basic steps you should follow. One more thing to put into consideration is the case of no-contest wills.

Steps of contesting a will

You first have to file a petition with the probate court, requesting an official testacy proceeding. You have two options here – you can either request the court to do away with an informal probate which has already been closed or request them to put a halt to a probate that is in process until you air your objections. The petition must include the objections.

After filing the petition, you have to notify all the interested parties that you have filed a petition to reopen or block the probate. You can check more details of all the persons to notify in Title 75 Section 3-403 of the Utah Legislative Code. In a nutshell, the most common persons are the spouse and children of the deceased, followed by close and distant relatives. The aim here is to inform all those persons who would have fallen heir to the estate of the deceased had he died without writing a will, the beneficiaries specified in the will and the administrator of the estate.

In addition to direct contact, the law also requires you to publish a notice in the local newspapers so that your intentions to contest the will may reach anyone with rights to the estate but whose contacts you do not have.

The court will contact you and give you the specific date and time you should appear at the court. Prepare very well beforehand so as to convince the judge that your petition is valid. It is always advisable to hire an attorney to guide you through this process. An experienced attorney has probably handled several such cases and is well equipped to put meaning into your claims. As an individual, you may not have the wording and convincing abilities required to state your case.

Some clauses in the will also require expert advice. Take for example a testator who specifies in his will that any beneficiary who contests the will and loses should receive nothing at all. This is called the no-contest clause. Some no contest clauses also specify that the beneficiary who files a petition to contest the will and loses will have to pay the attorney’s fees and all the costs for the two sides of the case. How do you go about this? Do you cower and abandon your intention to contest? This is where an attorney comes in.

It is worthwhile to note that the other party will most definitely appear in court with his attorney.

Costs to contest a will

No litigation is cheap. No litigation comes without cost implications. Be ready to spend some generous amounts on legal fees and such. What more, will contest can really drain you financially because of the number and nature of investigations required. They are generally more expensive than other forms of litigation.

Remember that the costs will greatly be determined by the court. The loser(s) of the contest may be required to pay the winner(s) the costs involved in the case.

Do not fall prey to the misconception that the costs will be covered by the estate under contest. This is not true. Be ready to foot the costs from your pocket. You will only get the payback when you win the contest. This general rule has the following two major exceptions:

1. In case the testator or the interested persons are the cause of the contest, the costs will be funded from the estate in case the contest is lost.

2. In case the contest necessitated investigations regarding the will, the costs incurred by the two parties will be covered by those who incurred them.

The worst scenario comes when the costs involved in the contest are higher than the value of the estate. This outrightly means that you lose big. It is therefore in order to really weigh the costs versus returns before setting out to contest.

Remember the contest is not a 1 day thing, nor a 1-week or a 1 month thing. Contests normally run for up to one or one-and-a-half years. You may, therefore, incur thousands of pounds in this process.

Utah statistics have it that only about 5% of cases filed proceed to trial. The other 95% of cases end in mutual agreement by both the parties.

After the hearing of the case, the judge may rule that the will is entirely invalid or partly invalid. In such a case, the property of the deceased is distributed according to the intestacy laws. Generally, the wealth is distributed to the spouse and children. In case they are not there, the court may consider the close relatives, and finally the distant relatives. Succeeding to contest a will is such relief. After the months of hard work, it is only good you get the portion of the estate you deserve.

Will Contest Lawyer Free Consultation

When you need legal help fighting about a will in court, please call Ascent Law LLC (801) 676-5506 for your Free Consultation. We can help you with Probate Law. Will Contests. Estate Planning. And Much More. We want to help you.

Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506

Ascent Law LLC

4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews

Recent Posts

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Criminal Defense Lawyer Alpine Utah

Tax Deductions For Doctors

Fencing Law

Did Divorce Get Canceled?

Probate Lawyer Draper Utah

Source: https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/how-do-i-contest-a-will-in-utah/

[gonnagoandrunwiththehorses]

How Do I Contest A Will In Utah?

I will define a will contest as a lawful challenge to the authenticity of an estate plan. It is not uncommon for beneficiaries of the estate of a deceased person to disagree with the purported wishes of their mother or father. The disgruntled person is usually the one who feels what has been allocated to him is less than he should have. If he manages to contest successfully, he will receive a bigger portion of the estate than what was originally assigned to him. Remember that you should stage a will contest only after the owner of the estate passes on. Read on for deeper insight into who is eligible to contest a will, legal grounds for contesting a will, the procedure to follow when contesting a will, and the cost implications of contesting a will.

Who may challenge

Of course, not every Tom, Dick and Harry has the right to contest a will. To do so, you must be an interested party in the estate plan. In other words, a portion of the estate under contest must have been allocated to you. You are contesting because you are likely to lose something if the will is executed as written. Statistics have it that spouses of the deceased are the ones most commonly involved in will contests. Children, parents, and relatives of the deceased have also been involved in will contests.

Grounds for contesting a will

We shall look at six legal grounds for contesting a will. These include:

1. Lack of testamentary capacity

2. Lack of valid execution

3. Lack of knowledge and approval

4. Undue influence

5. Fraudulent or forged wills

6. Rectification and construction claims

Lack of testamentary capacity

Utah law clearly stipulates that the testator must be of a sound mind at the time of writing and signing a will. The will is only valid when the testator:

– Is aware that he is making a will and knows the consequences of the will

– Knows the actual value of his estate which he intends to distribute among the named beneficiaries

– Knows the repercussions of including some beneficiaries in the will and leaving out others

– Is free from any medical condition that may cause him to make irrational decisions

This is normally the first port of call whenever you think of contesting a will. Ask yourself, “Did the testator have testamentary capacity?” If the answer is No, you are good to go on with the contest.

Lack of valid execution

There are a number of legal requirements that a will must meet in order for it to be legally binding. Some of the requirements concern the testator while others concern the will itself. If a will does not meet any of these requirements, it is said to lack due execution and thus can be legally contested. Below is an outline of some of the legal requirements that the will must meet.

– The testator must identify it as a will

– The testator must revoke all previous wills and codicils

– The will must be in writing

– The will must be signed by the testator, or in the event that the testator is unable to append his signature, he may direct some other person to sign on their behalf, provided that the testator is present as the will is being signed.

– The will must be signed by two witnesses. These witnesses should be present as the testator or his representative signs the will.

– The testator should appoint a guardian where minor children are involved.

– The testator must provide a formula for sharing the estate.

– The testator must be over 18 years of age.

Allow me not to get into the finer details of who can or cannot act as a witness to a will. I find it worthwhile to mention at this juncture something about revoking a will.

The testator, while alive, has the option to revoke a valid will. This can be done in a number of ways. The most obvious is changing the contents or adding to the contents of the will before passing on. This is possible provided the testator is still mentally capable of doing so. The change here does not imply crossing out details on the original will and scribbling in new ones. The testator has to follow all the legal procedures as was required in the original will. Another option is to write a whole new will. In such a case, every page of the old will has to be signed “revoked”. The revoked will should be kept as such so that nobody later on mistakes it as a lost will. A more interesting method involves tearing up the old will in front of the lawyer and signing the new will. So make sure the will you want to contest is not a revoked will.

Lack of knowledge and approval

The testator must understand the contents of the will and approve them. In case you have doubts about whether the testator really understood the contents of the will, you can go ahead and dispute the will. Be prepared to prove that the testator did not fully comprehend the contents of the will. You can also object the will if you sense that it was prepared under suspicious circumstances. Take for instance a situation where the person who drafted the will has awarded himself a generous share of the estate. It might be that the testator signed without full knowledge of what was contained therein.

Undue influence

You may rightfully suspect that the testator was unduly influenced when making the will. If you have facts on the exact culprit who wrongly influenced the testator, you can choose to contest the will in court. Note that this is a tricky ground for contesting a will. You must have concrete evidence that such and such a person coerced the testator to distribute his wealth as he did. There should be no other way of explaining why the wealth was distributed in such a manner.

Fraudulent wills and forged wills

Fraud takes many forms. One of the sons of the deceased may prepare a will and forge the signature of the deceased. The contents will almost definitely be in favor of the fraudster. Such a will may be contested if you have concrete evidence of the forgery claims.

Rectification and construction claims

There are instances when the person drafting the will may have made errors. This may be as a result of not grasping the intentions of the testator. If you detect such errors, you may contest the will on the grounds of professional negligence.

In this sense, you may also request the court to reconstruct the will in case the words used therein are ambiguous.

With any of the above-mentioned reasons, you may now move on to the process of contesting the will. I will outline below the three basic steps you should follow. One more thing to put into consideration is the case of no-contest wills.

Steps of contesting a will

You first have to file a petition with the probate court, requesting an official testacy proceeding. You have two options here – you can either request the court to do away with an informal probate which has already been closed or request them to put a halt to a probate that is in process until you air your objections. The petition must include the objections.

After filing the petition, you have to notify all the interested parties that you have filed a petition to reopen or block the probate. You can check more details of all the persons to notify in Title 75 Section 3-403 of the Utah Legislative Code. In a nutshell, the most common persons are the spouse and children of the deceased, followed by close and distant relatives. The aim here is to inform all those persons who would have fallen heir to the estate of the deceased had he died without writing a will, the beneficiaries specified in the will and the administrator of the estate.

In addition to direct contact, the law also requires you to publish a notice in the local newspapers so that your intentions to contest the will may reach anyone with rights to the estate but whose contacts you do not have.

The court will contact you and give you the specific date and time you should appear at the court. Prepare very well beforehand so as to convince the judge that your petition is valid. It is always advisable to hire an attorney to guide you through this process. An experienced attorney has probably handled several such cases and is well equipped to put meaning into your claims. As an individual, you may not have the wording and convincing abilities required to state your case.

Some clauses in the will also require expert advice. Take for example a testator who specifies in his will that any beneficiary who contests the will and loses should receive nothing at all. This is called the no-contest clause. Some no contest clauses also specify that the beneficiary who files a petition to contest the will and loses will have to pay the attorney’s fees and all the costs for the two sides of the case. How do you go about this? Do you cower and abandon your intention to contest? This is where an attorney comes in.

It is worthwhile to note that the other party will most definitely appear in court with his attorney.

Costs to contest a will

No litigation is cheap. No litigation comes without cost implications. Be ready to spend some generous amounts on legal fees and such. What more, will contest can really drain you financially because of the number and nature of investigations required. They are generally more expensive than other forms of litigation.

Remember that the costs will greatly be determined by the court. The loser(s) of the contest may be required to pay the winner(s) the costs involved in the case.

Do not fall prey to the misconception that the costs will be covered by the estate under contest. This is not true. Be ready to foot the costs from your pocket. You will only get the payback when you win the contest. This general rule has the following two major exceptions:

1. In case the testator or the interested persons are the cause of the contest, the costs will be funded from the estate in case the contest is lost.

2. In case the contest necessitated investigations regarding the will, the costs incurred by the two parties will be covered by those who incurred them.

The worst scenario comes when the costs involved in the contest are higher than the value of the estate. This outrightly means that you lose big. It is therefore in order to really weigh the costs versus returns before setting out to contest.

Remember the contest is not a 1 day thing, nor a 1-week or a 1 month thing. Contests normally run for up to one or one-and-a-half years. You may, therefore, incur thousands of pounds in this process.

Utah statistics have it that only about 5% of cases filed proceed to trial. The other 95% of cases end in mutual agreement by both the parties.

After the hearing of the case, the judge may rule that the will is entirely invalid or partly invalid. In such a case, the property of the deceased is distributed according to the intestacy laws. Generally, the wealth is distributed to the spouse and children. In case they are not there, the court may consider the close relatives, and finally the distant relatives. Succeeding to contest a will is such relief. After the months of hard work, it is only good you get the portion of the estate you deserve.

Will Contest Lawyer Free Consultation

When you need legal help fighting about a will in court, please call Ascent Law LLC (801) 676-5506 for your Free Consultation. We can help you with Probate Law. Will Contests. Estate Planning. And Much More. We want to help you.

Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506

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Source: https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/how-do-i-contest-a-will-in-utah/