A Muse by Any other Name…

Would have shot me a long time ago. Why? Because I have so many stories just hanging there waiting to be finished. I don’t so much get stuck or blocked, but simply run out of time to work on a story. So, I let it sit… ferment as you might say. Then, the inevitable happens…. another story pops into my head and I start to work on it because it is screaming in my head so loud I can’t not write.

Really must figure out how to get some of these published. Publishing = money= more time to write…. hmmm…. I understand that part of it is fear. Where? How? Why? etc…. Oh, and rejection. Basic issue, is that I simply don’t know where to start on that bit.

Not to mention that I have some stories only fit for certain markets. Fairy Light is a children’s story that needs illustration. Sheeple, Sweetwater, In the Arms of Fenris… Adult market, ala LKH’s books. Then there is Chase, the latest stream of words…. Spy guy/werewolf/sex all rolled into one. Oh, and set literally in my own backyard. This one is only 23 pages in, but at least reads good so far. I’m picking Dan’s brain for the technical bits. Right now, I’m in the middle of a bear attack scene.  This story is called The Chase. It is about a team of marines that is going in to pick up a “vet who has lost his mind”.  The vet is not off is rocker, but has a secret that the military wants. So, he runs up into the mountains he knows like the back of his hand. The marines follow, and chaos ensues. Nerys is the main female character. A Navy nurse stationed at 29 Palms.  Here is an excert. She has just had to deal with a drunk ex-boyfriend who is also on this retrival team.

Nerys breathed a sigh of relief and turned down the bed to climb in. Before she had a chance, there was a knock at the door. Opening it, she found Gunnery Sgt. White and the LT standing there.

“Sorry about that,” she said.

“Ma’am, you weren’t the problem. We put him back to bed though.” said Sgt. White, making a fist pounding gesture.

Nerys smiled. “You can call me Betty. Want to come in? Or just stand on my doorstep?”

“We’ll just stand here if you don’t mind Betty,” said the LT. “If you don’t mind me asking, what the hell is between you two?”

“Nothing now, and that is his problem.”
“Oh?” the two men asked at the same time.

“We use to date, but when he decided that he liked playing mind games more than fun and games, I said enough and kicked his ass out.”

“Ma’am, umm… Betty, sorry, but this old Sargent just can’t see what attracted you to him.”

“Sargent, every sailor or marine gets drunk and does something stupid. I got real drunk one night, took home a pretty thing from the bar and when I woke up in the morning, thought I’d at least give it a try sober. However, sometimes the strays you bring home have bad habits. He has plenty, and after a while, I just couldn’t cope any longer. So I tossed his ass out. Been holdin’ a grudge ever since.” Nerys leaned back and took a deep breath. The air up here was thinner than she’d ever experienced.

Both men laughed. Sgt. White smiled and nodded with a knowing look to his face. “Well, I’ll see to it that the ‘stray’ stays out of your way.”

“Thank you Sargent, you are a gentleman.”

“Oh no ma’am,.. Betty. I’m a Marine,” he said with a big smile.

Nerys smiled. “Have to admit that if I’d known that this little flight had him on it, I probably would have found myself a weekend to enjoy at the psych ward. Didn’t know until I got on the bird.”

“No wonder you went from smiles to growling in about thirty seconds,” said Charlie. “And is it me, or is this about the weirdest mission you’ve ever been on? Eighteen people just to pick up one man?”

More later …. maybe…

Then, there is my college class. English Comp II. Seems like it might actually be a decent class. I’ve picked a rather touchy subject for my essay, but I do hope she lets me keep it. Otherwise, I’ll probably pick another thorny issue. Not into writing boooooooooring stuff. The Guardian Newspaper is so good for edgy articles. Being bored during the last class about had me ready to quit.

Well, I think I’ll pull up Chase and write more on the bear slaughtering soldiers.

Irony

I had two challenge tests to take for college. One English, one math. I’m horrid at math, so I decided to do it first. English should be easy, right? So, I sit down, start the math test and panic. It was all Business Math, and “story” problems. Dan walked by and saw me glaze over. So, he gave me a few words of encouragement and reminded me that I could do this. Lots of blood, sweat and tears later, I passed. I was amazed.

I took a break, had some lunch and then in the afternoon, I tackled the English test. Now, the advisor had said that the test had a few questions about APA in it. (apa is the style of writing a paper the college requires) I studied a bit and figured that I’d be ok. (insert laugh track) The test wasn’t an English test. It was an APA citation test. A good 2/3rds if not 3/4ths of the test was about APA. Sigh… I failed.

Couldn’t believe it. Oh well. Class wise, I am making straight A’s with no points lost. This is an easy class though. All on how to take an online class. Not sure what’s next besides English.

I’ve been playing on Facebook a lot. Its been fun. I’m finding all sorts of people that I haven’t heard from in years.

It might as well be winter!!! Brrrrr…..

Yesterday, it was almost 55 degrees. And let’s not forget the rain…. Lots of it. With more to come. Makes me wonder if it would be prudent to build an ark…. Oh, and of course there was snow on the Spanish Peaks this morning. It warmed up briefly, but…. I’m still running around in a long skirt, denim shirt and wool socks with my sandals! Brrrrrr.

All jokes aside, it is wet, with more rain due later in the week. Not our normal end of May weather. In some ways, this is good, because I have been indoors doing college work. I have my first class in mid session and I think I’m doing alright. Even learned how to do power point programs yesterday. I have one to do for class next week.

Right now though, I think I’ll curl up with a book, a blanket and a cup of tea.

Summertime, and life gets hectic!!!

Here I am thinking about how I won’t have to get up at the crack of dawn for three months to drive Morgan to school. Then I got to thinking about all the garden work (two houses, community garden bed and the vet’s nursing home beds), house repairs, LoboSavvy, college and maybe, just maybe… I might get a job. Damn! There went my free time. Oh well. Not that I really had any to begin with.

My day so far…

  • 6am. Alarm went off, I got dressed, made sure the kids got up, threw a load in the washer, folded the load in the dryer.
  • 6:30am. Drove to Badito, dropped off Morgan, drove home.
  • 7:30am. Showered, got dressed, and grabbed the garden gloves and tools. Oh, and shuffled more laundry. Worked on the front yard and side yard dead heading all the plants that needed it, pruned the Russian sage and some of the roses, cleaned some of the beds and totally cleaned the herb bed.
  • 9am. Went to the office. tea, breakfast and then started on stuff for LoboSavvy and my college classes.
  • 4:30pm, decided to take a break.

Now, I still have dinner to make, dishes to wash, more laundry to do and start all over again at 6am. Last day of school. Then I can sleep until 7am. Wheeee!!!

We have another pregnant cat. Lyra the one tabby. We moved Shadow over to 520 in hopes that she isn’t preggers. I’m not betting on that one. Not sure what we are going to do with all the kittens. Stella had 4 and one is spoken for. And when it comes to stupid animal tricks, my dog Blanca howls every time the train whistle blows. Not fun as there are an average of 30 trains a day… And Blanca is afraid of thunder and lightning. (can I go home now???)

I’ve had to get use to dual booting my machine. Not happy about it. Really not happy about using Windows, but… CTU only supports Windows. grrr… Probably would have had to do it anyway. Dan wants to do training and that means we need to be able to work in all computer operating systems. sigh.  I now run Windows XP and Ubuntu 9.04.

Last but not least, the library is having it’s grand opening June 25-27th. As John is assistant director, that means I get to put on fancy dress clothes. Haven’t decided if this is a good thing or not. What it does involve is me hauling out dress patterns and making myself a nice Formal style outfit. Hmmm…. maybe that velveteen and chinese silk print might have a use after all.