“The brightest light casts the darkest shadow.”
― Matthew Woodring Stover
writing
A Writing Life – Back on Track 11-1-2022
As I contemplate my writer’s life, I have to admit things have gone off track. Around two years ago, I started losing mobility due to severe arthritis damage in my left hip. The loss not only plagued my mobility, but my entire life. I felt lost, as if I would never be mobile again and it turned off the writer in my brain. The world closed down to a tiny sliver of what I had once been and I lived in that tiny piece of me until I had a total hip replacement in October.
Now that I have had the surgery and am regaining my mobility, I can feel the world opening up around me once again. One of my biggest regrets is losing track of this blog, but being unable to write, I found facing my blog on a regular basis too hard.
My goals at the moment are twofold. One, to get this blog back up and running and two) to get my writing back on track. I debated doing NANOWRMO but I have three manuscripts waiting for editing and revisions and so I am going to use November to edit and revise the first manuscript.
Thanks to all those who have hung in there with me for all this time.
Friday Fictioneers 6-18-2021
PHOTO PROMPT © Alicia Jamtaas
“Nobody lives there.”
“The Little People do.”
“Why would they live in a Big Person house?”
“They drove out the Big People.”
“You are so full of it.”
“You don’t believe me, go look inside.”
“I’m not looking inside.”
“Chicken.”
“Damn right. I bet there are snakes in there.”
“No snakes.”
“Then you look.”
“I don’t need to look.”
“Are you sure? No snakes?”
“I promise.”
“Come with me and I will.”
“Okay.”
They snuck up on the building, circling around to the far side where a wood door hung partially open. Peeked inside……
“Surprise!” shouted all her friends.
Friday Fictioneers 6-11-2021
PHOTO PROMPT © Dale Rogerson
“That’s just…..”
“Big.”
“And orange.”
“And…..”
They both fell silent.
“Let’s see if it is open.”
“Really?”
“Sure? Why not?”
“It’s just so…. Orange.”
Kerry started towards the ordering window. “That’s why I love America. Such wacky things you guys have here.”
“Huh. Unlike Wales, I guess.”
“Definitely unlike Wales,” Kerry laughed.
Reaching the window, he said, “I’d like a Big Orange Burger.” He looked at Jay. “You?”
Jay wasn’t sure he wanted a Big Orange Burger, but he was used to America’s fast food. Kerry was still fascinated by the scope and variety.
“Come on, where else are you going to get a Big Orange Burger?”
“Nowhere, hopefully,” Jay responded, then, “Sure, why not, make it two.”
Friday Fictioneers 6-4-2021
“This,” Jay said matter-of-factly, “has to take the cake.”
“What? The wall jumped me.”
“Well, there you go, but it looks like you jumped the wall.”
“Twist everything around as always.”
“Look, Chris, you have a habit of destroying cars. Luckily, you haven’t destroyed yourself right along with them.” Truth was, he knew, Chris was trying to destroy himself. Pushing the limits, driving fast, but this didn’t look like his normal attempts. This looked like an accident.
“It was an accident,” Chris said.
“I know, but, boy, you have a way with cars.”
They both laughed. Anytime they could laugh was a good day.
Friday Fictioneers 5-28-2021
“Don’t jump, Harold!”
Harold flipped red wings.
Spencer swung his way up, shooting out a sticky strand of web which wrapped around Harold.
“Oh, for creatures sake,” Harold said, attempting to flick his glued-down wings, “Spencer!”
The spider turned around. “What?”
“I wasn’t going to jump. I was going to fly!”
“Thank goodness, I saved you!”
“What? I have wings, Spencer. I’m a flying bug!”
“What? Oh…I forgot.”
He always forgot.
Spencer looked so ashamed, however, Harold relented – as always. “It’s all right. Just get this sticky web off me.”
Retro Thursday 5-13-2021
When is it acceptable, if ever, to break the law?
I am not a law-breaker. That doesn’t mean that sometimes, in the darkest recesses of my heart, I don’t want to break the law. There are times the law is ridiculous. There are times when it would be so much easier not to abide by the law, but regardless, I was raised to know right from wrong.
To be totally truthful, I do break a couple minor laws. I drive 5-10 miles over the speed limit, mostly just to keep from being the slowest car on the road. Sometimes, I jay-walk. And, once or twice, I haven’t picked up my dog’s poop during a walk. In my defense, the poop was not on the sidewalk or anybody’s yard. It was in some brush on a strip of undeveloped land. So, I didn’t. Turn me in if you must!
I wouldn’t be a good criminal. I don’t like confrontation and I don’t do well in stressful, strange situations. This isn’t why I don’t break the law, but it helps.
As started above, some laws can be strange. Mostly because these are outdated laws which no longer fit into the reality of the modern world. For instance, in Alaska, it is illegal to wake a sleeping bear to take a photo. In California, a frog which dies in a frog-jumping competition cannot be legally eaten. In Florida, if you tie an elephant to a parking meter, you must pay the meter the same as you would for a car.
Silly, right? Definitely. These laws make me wonder about the sanity of some lawmakers in those days of old. How many elephants were wandering around Florida? And if you woke up that sleeping bear in Alaska, you wouldn’t need to worry about being arrested or fined. As for the frog, I guess competition frogs needs to be buried with honors or some such thing. Duty to the nation of Frogs.
These laws are so laughable that if I did have an elephant in Florida, I’d tie him to the parking meter and just walk away. What cop is going to stick a ticket on an elephant?
But, how about breaking serious laws, those laws made to safeguard the health, safety, prosperity and lives of the general populace of any country. Would I kill someone?
Maybe. If I was threatened or my children or family were threatened, I might have to step up and break that law. Stealing? If I was homeless and destitute I might consider stealing food. I might consider sleeping someplace safe but against the law.
As much as my wicked side (and/or characters) like to fantasize about breaking the law, being law-abiding is so deeply ingrained that I never would. As for characters, I do have criminals in my worlds. Most of them are not main characters, but a few are. Deanie O’Conner is a Irish Mob Boss during Prohibition. I have some young folks who have done some really stupid things. A detective or two who has stepped over the line for the greater good.
My desire as a writer, and my tendency, is to look for and explore the moments which change a person’s life. Make bad people better, or good people bad. What moment was it that Deanie became, not just a ruthless Mob Boss, but a compassionate man, a family man, a man who cared enough about his children to walk away from his former life. Who tried to make things better for his ’employees’ rather than worse.
When would you break the law, if ever? And do you have any criminal characters for whom breaking the law is just a way of life?
Response – JSW 5-10-2021
The JSW Challenge is open to anybody who wishes to participate. Using the writing prompt, write a flash fiction no longer than 500 words and post to your page. The Challenge starts on Monday and runs through Sunday each week. Please remember to link your story back to this post so everyone can read your entry.
Don’t have many of those any more. Memories, I mean. Got lost somewhere in my mind and they were gone.
Course, my mind is gone, too, so it wasn’t any surprise. But I miss them. Wish I knew what I was like as a six-year old, a twenty-year old, fifty. I’m 101 now, lots of memories gone. Sometimes memories, or the lack of them, are the worst form of torture.
You young folks don’t believe me, I know, but wait until you’re my age. Wish I could remember my wife. Assuming I had one. Maybe I was alone the whole time. If that was the case, I’m glad I don’t remember.
The attendant come up to say it’s time for dinner. I don’t want it. Why eat when you don’t remember it after it’s done?
But I gotta eat otherwise they fuss and fret and threaten. They say I’ve done that before, not eating. Called it a hunger strike, but, course, I don’t remember.
Bet I did some good things in life. Least I hope so. I’d like to be remembered as a good man. Remembered… huh.
Hilarious. Maybe no body else remembers anything either.
“Come on, Mr Connelly, dinner is waiting.” he starts pushing my chair.
Guess my name is Connelly. I wish they call me by my first name. I’d like to know that before I die.
“What were you doing over there, Mr. Connelly?”
“Over where?”
“There, by the window.”
“Nothing.”
“You looked like you were talking to yourself.”
“Phaw…. I ain’t gone that far.”
Retro Thursday 5-6-2021
BY ATHLING2001
How Do you Kill a Monster without Becoming One….
———-
It ain’t easy. That much is for sure. Been a long time since I killed anything but back in the day….. yeah…. back in the day…..
It came for me when I was 15. Thought I was tough then, I did. Big swagger as I walked down the street. Tough words. Angry words. Ugly words. Funny how when you’re young you think those things make you tough. Don’t take me wrong. I was a scrapper. I’d been in any number of street fights. All my life. Thought that made me tough, too. How little I knew.
It came on a Monday. I was home. Had to be. My little sister was there. Didn’t like to leave her alone at night. Not if I could help it. We had day-old hot dogs for dinner. A dented can of baked beans. Marshmellow fluff.
Lived in a series of rooms. Used to be offices when the building was a warehouse. One central room with a hotplate, couple broke-back chairs. A table. A radio. Another room with two mattresses on the floor. A bathroom that worked. Barely. But enough for water to clean and cook. I’d installed locks on the doors. Kept us safe so far. Then again, I wasn’t asleep yet.
Been years now. Too many. Never did find my little sister. I looked for her sometimes. All the times. That face in the crowd. A voice across a street. A dream of before I’d become a monster. But now… now I am old. Haven’t killed in years.
Weren’t killing that’d made me a monster. No. Abandoning her did. Ran when the Government people finally tracked us down. Gonna take us into the system. Foster homes. Schools. The ‘right’ life. Couldn’t take that. And so I ran.
She screamed. Begged. Tears. Never did forget that. Never did forget the sound of tears. Sound rang in my ears the rest of my days. Still there now. But it’s gonna be gone soon.
Soon. Another breath. Two. Another tear. I’ll no longer be a monster.
Question Of The Week 5-5-2021
If you could only have one book for the rest of your life, which would it be?
This is a hard question because as soon as I list one book, I know multiple others will come to mind, each one dear and worthy in its own right. The first book that always comes to mind is The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. However, after more thought, I have to say The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I don’t know how many times I have read The Little Prince, but it makes me cry every single time. It also always reminds me of the important things in life.
If you haven’t read The Little Prince, I whole-heartedly recommend it.
A Writer's Life 
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