A while back in a dazzling epiphany I got this idea for an epic, but alas I doubt very highly if I should have the time to write it. I'm busy with other, more important literary projects. However, if I find enough interested parties, I'm sure I could find the time to take it in shifts with them to write this. In other words, I'm asking you, my adoring fans harsh critics gullible followers dear friends, if you would like to partake with me in telling a new tale. Now, I admit it's not th
For the past few weeks, cradled gently in the center of a modest web, an arachnid has hung in my writing window. I have watched him, day after day, week after week, setting upon the prey that flies unwittingly into his net, or rocking in the breeze. I have seen the dew drops hang from each glistening strand in the growing sunlight. I have watched the great care with which he tends his home, strengthening and expanding it diurnally with fresh threads of silk, or carefully cutting loose fallen lea
Inanities aside, let's get on to things that really matter, huh? . . . Books! Reviews for three I have recently read. The Film Mystery by Arthur B. Reeve Let me just say . . . yelch. Though it was a well-plotted mystery, the revelation and the solution itself were awful. And there's certainly nothing in his writing style, in its own right a bit hard to swallow at times, to make a bad mystery worth suffering. That's the first, and last, that I'll read of his novels. So I won't
I'm a writer, after all, and a writer writes. This title is no misnomer. And I figure this will be safer here than in the black hole of Completely Off Topic. So I present, without further ado . . . Guardian Angel I see a sun-bathed field strewn with children, laughing, screaming, running. I see one tag another and backpedal. The new It takes off like a shot. As I watch, two of them give up the game. While the others continue, they sequester themselves in the embrace of a watchful oak
(The title is longer than the entry.) For those who aren't aware of it, Hahli Husky is currently hosting the second BZPower Library Summer Olympics. The short story competitions, with a branch each in COT and the Library, are now open for entry, lasting until the 24th of August. I strongly encourage you--yes, you, right there, and don't you think that I don't know who you are--to enter, because sadly this contest has been pretty quiet, nothing like the last. And after all, I can't win witho
As the cover lifts off the precious pages, among the first things you see in any book are the various credits. It is only fair, therefore, as a first order of business to give credit where it is due. For my Premier Membership I owe my thanks entirely to GSR and his giveaway. The drawing ended, as GSR explained to me, with my name in the fourth slot, and there were only three prizes. However, after over two weeks of inactivity and failure to claim his prize, one of the winners was disqualified, a
I don't watch much television, and this year has held little broadcast significance for me. However, those ways in which television was meaningful to me were especially meaningful, so I will make note of them. This year I was introduced by my best friend to The Legend of Korra, with which I immediately fell in love. I began watching Avatar: The Last Airbender posthaste, and well before Korra had run its whole season I had beheld the grand spectacle that was the Last Airbender finale. This is a
And now, my friends, the time has come to ponder what this past year has been to my life. It has been one of the longest years of my life, and one of the most difficult, but I cannot call it the worst. Nor can I call it the best. It was not bad, and it was not great, but it was good. There are many things upon which I can look back with joy, and those which I can look back upon with remorse, as well. That's life, though. I've changed so much in the past year. I guess that's what happens in t
And now that my reflections are over, how better for a writer to end a year than with a story? This is, in a way, a sequel to Polychromatic Frowns; it can be called such, at any rate, because it is of the same style. And so here it is, the last words I shall pen in 2012: Sanguine Goodbyes I lost the only girl I ever truly cared about today. I gave her everything. I gave her all the time I could spare and all the help I could offer and all the love I could give. But it wasn't enough fo
You make lemonade. Opportunities are funny things; they call them chances because, indeed, opportunity relies a little upon chance. At times they'll come when you least want them, at others they won't come when you do. And they always say when an opportunity presents itself, seize it; I say, present yourself to an opportunity and let it seize you. As an example, the other night I was toying with a dismembered Phantoka Makuta body and observed non-sequitur to my brother, "Has it ever happened
Is it your purpose to express yourself? Do you want to bring form to thought? Or are you just bored? Then why not pit your pencil against your fellow writers (or become a fellow writer if you are not!) and join the second Ambage Fortnightly Flash Fiction Contest? Come create with us, and discover meaning in experience! To dispense with the infomercial talk, the theme is "Pathfinding." Personally I have several ideas, and one of them may just involve a young boy wandering in the woods with
The detritus of an Ambage write-off isn't always pretty. The theme was "pathfinding," a forecast of the contest. I this day wrote my two entries and submitted them. Though by the rules of the contest I am permitted a third, I rejected this story due to a lack of love for it that, if you read it, will be understandable. That said, I did in a small way enjoy writing it; though it was a bittersweet feeling as would accompany any writing taking place in the constraints of fifteen minutes is wont t
Is it January 12th yet? All right, well, there were formatting issues that delayed matters. Amazon recently altered their system without updating their guides, and that led to complications. But all is well now; and The Second Death is now for sale! It can be purchased here. It is for sale exclusively through Amazon right now, and for Kindle alone; which means that if you don't have a Kindle or an iDevice with a Kindle application, you won't be able to read it--yet. But it will be available
One of my favorite quotes from the novel: Writing requires understanding, if not comprehension; to feel if not to know; and that most important faculty of the human mind, born of understanding and comprehension and feeling and knowledge and experience and intuition and much else: great judgment--but better to say, prudence. I don't know if I would say that writing requires genius; granted there are many geniuses in the history of literature, no doubt. The only requirement, however, is clev
The Book of the Dead The fading sunlight imbued the upper reaches of the bland gray stone with a gold tincture. The shadows stretched away from my window, as if running away from me. I felt like shooting the sun. But I knew even I couldn’t make that shot. Besides, it was behind me. I was peering across the crowded street to the rooftop garden where a young man lounged in his undergarments, reading a book. I hoped, for his sake, it was a good one, worthy of his final moments. As I took
Here I've compiled my list of achievements: Into the Sky(pe)! - Participate in a Skype Write Off (5 Points) Passion Manuscript Kiddie Pool - Post a short story. (10 Points) In the Jungle I Bet You Think You're Funny - Post a comedy. (10 Points) A Game of Ponies The Typewriter is Dead - Post a compiled total of 10 works across all forums. (25 Points) In the Jungle, Karzahni's Locker, Stellar Quest: The Black Gate Opens, Gold and Silver Remembrances, Jungle Beauty, Jungle Rhythm, Lhii and
To get the former out of the way first, The Second Death will be yours free forever if you download it between January 26th (two days to go!) and January 30th. Now then, I would like to discuss the issue of whether 'tis nobler to say something, or to utter it, or perhaps to state it. Is it better to ask or to inquire? Bring adverbs into the equation, and the field becomes open to even greater argument. The simple fact is that every writer and every reader, too, has their own opinion about it
This is the result of my first Ambage Write-off. Just managed to finish in the fifteen minutes allotted. Theme: Passion Twinkle, Twinkle The fading sunlight shimmered on her dancing hair, turning her raven-black head to an aureole to frame her cordate, angelic face. I swung my short legs off the edge of the bench as we leaned back, laughing at the joke I had just told. “Patt,” she giggled, “you’re such a dork.” I grinned. “But I’m an amusing dork.” She tossed her head, and the
My second entry and I'm already logging inanities? But this caught my eye, and I just had to share it. Looks rather familiar, does it not? Sincerely, Nuile: Lunatic Wordsmith
So I had the song from Disney's Mulan stuck in my head, and suddenly in place of "how could I make a man out of you?" I started singing "how could I love any one but you?" And so the irresistible urge to rewrite the whole song to suit these lyrics struck me, and so here it is. . . . I really have no excuse to give. I've got news to tell you So lend me your ears Remember all the things That I told you dear You're the prettiest girl I ever met You're so sweet And charming
That's Buddy, Sally and Mel from The Dick Van Dyke Show, not to mention a bit appearance by Alan Brady. Danny Thomas also appears, and later Granny from The Beverly Hillbillies. Okay, but how was the movie? Without giving anything away, it's about Charlie (Morey Amsterdam) and two female co-workers going into the book business, and getting mixed up in an espionage intrigue and a bank robbery. Basically, this is what they did before animated talking-animal movies came into vogue, only better
