A long time ago, I wrote a story. I’ve published it here, on it’s own page.
It’s based on real incidents, and people. Enjoy.
To Blog or not to Blog
That’s the question. I am trying to decide whether to delete two of my blogs or not. First one is Digitally challenged, the blog story I have been writing and which has sort of come to an end. The other is one I am thinking of re-purposing. I just have not had the time to update either of them and so have been rethinking them.
Digitally Challenged, I want to turn into a story in book form. However, I need to have it easier to edit, hence the taking it off the blogsphere.
Anyone out there have an opinion?
Meanwhile, Adventures has run it’s course in a different way. Not sure what to do with that one. A friend of mine is doing a story a day thing and I am thinking of trying that with this site. Sort of like DC, only a different theme. Still thinking on that one.
Then there is Pagan Way. Dan and I share that one and it is due to be moved to a website. Once again, similar purpose, but more coverage/access needed.
Lots of thinking…. Sorry for the sound of grinding gears and smoke.
Today was a lazy day otherwise. I got the front porch straight so I can do some more sewing. Wheee!!!! The weather is warming up at last and I will be able to sit out there without freezing.
Ian went to bed early and Dan is playing video first person kill’um games. I think I will work on that pair of socks that needs the heel turned.
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.
Parade of Lights and more Snow!
Oh gods! Woke up this morning at around 6am to discover it was snowing! Cold too! So, I crawled back into bed for a few hours. My shoulder was hurting too, so I relished a bit of a sleep in.
Once I did get up, there was a bunch of stuff to do. Lunch of course was left over pizza. :> I went off to do some shopping. One stop was at Edla’s Yarns. It’s our local yarn shop. Got some lovely wool and needles to make a hat. Yellow, orange and red wool. Yummm! Then I went off to the Family Dollar to buy wrapping paper, ribbons and a hat for the bucket truck. Reason being that tonight was the Parade of Lights, and we were dressing up the bucket truck to put in the parade. Little Morgan gave us a hand. I did the paper on the sides while Dan worked on the electrics. Granted, they were giving him fits. The inverter didn’t want to put out the power we needed. sigh…. So, we ran the penguin and not the lights. After we got the truck ready, we went to Carl’s for a bit of dinner and then went to line up for the parade.
We must have sat in line for 90 minutes. It was cold! It snowed, and we waited while everyone got in line. Little Morgan and I sat in the back of the bucket truck on cushions and under a quilt with a huge box of candy next to us. The parade finally got underway, and we were tossing handfuls out to people standing by the road. One of the best shots we managed was a guy who complained that Dan was too cheap to buy candy, and we hit him with a double handful right after he shut his mouth! Oh, and we nailed the cops standing at the crossroads with candy too. teeheehee……
After the parade, we stopped by the Huerfano Journal for their open house. Chatted with Gretchen and her dad, Sig. I’m going to write a cooking article for the paper too. My great-grandma made this cake called a depression cake which was a chocolate cake made with mayonnaise instead of eggs and oil. That’s what I’m going to put in the paper. Plus, Dan is doing weekly Tech articles. I might even do one from the “ladies” point of view.
In a bit, we are going to watch a movie and then head to bed. I am looking forward to sleeping in!
Literary Ramble
I have been editing various stories I have worked on over the last 5-6 years. Some of them are very vanilla, and “family” acceptable reading. Others delve into those shades of adult reading and items best left to places like Literotica.
What I find interesting is how things have changed. I’ve gotten much better at dialog. Especially the punctuation. Oh gods was it messed up before… I’ve also gotten more comfortable describing realities. I can even write a sex scene that the FCC wouldn’t get too overheated about and still have it make sense. (woohoo!) Not that I really care to, but it is a necessary skill at times.
Hardest part I find though with my writings are the jumps in genre and the cases of “how the hell do I finish this!” The one story I did finish, got comments of “Good!”, “I like it”, and “When are you writing more of it?” sigh…. In fact the single biggest comment was that it was too short. The skips in genre are frustrating in their own way. My mind gets set on a path and then all of a sudden my brain says, “Look at the Kitty!” and off I go on another story that just has to be written on right then and there. Fickle muse! I have tried to “be good” and stick to the story I am on, but often I find myself stuck until I go back and finish the bit my brain has cooked up. It’s like trying to get a song out of your head that has gotten stuck there. You either have to sing the whole damned song, or totally distract yourself. I’m obviously not so good at it, because I have five incomplete stories and a bunch of ‘finished’ stories that are really chapters of a book I’ve yet to write all the bits connecting it together.
I keep promising myself I’ll get my writing organized. (all of you who know me can stop laughing any time now) I guess that will have to go into that same category of dreams about organizing my house, sewing, crafts and life in general.
I even tried using a notebook where I could write down all the tantalizing bits that generate stories in my head. However, that didn’t work very well. It just sort of coagulated the stories more firmly in my head instead of making it possible for me to ignore things until I finished something. Also, lots of what inspires me are visual clues. Pictures, phrases I read or things I see on my daily travels.
This picture of Dan on a rock inspired a work that is now 150+ pages. And, from what is in my head, it is only about 1/4th of the way written. Another story was inspired by a dream. Others are products of dares and creative competition. All in all, it is a rather random way to be inspired, but it works. Now if I could only get things finished.
Time to go type!