Nano day Twelve: Yikes

I tried so hard to reach 30,000 yesterday, but my fingers gave up at 29,200 something something.  I'm a little bummed, but who can blame me.  I have the 300 hours of Skyrim sitting in my bedroom that I felt the need to get started on.

I decided to be a breton, though they are pretty much useless with a sword.  In skyrim you can't pick and choose your skill sets, you start with a few and then grow from there so I though "WTF mate" lets go with the magic humanoid and train her to do both well.  And may I say that I have a nack for making beautiful characters.

I also introduced a new character into JAMES last night.  I really enjoyed my "adam and eve" intro with Lily and James, so I decided to keep the Genesis themes going and gave my book a talking snake that kind of sets up the idea that the fairies are bad.  He lives in a fruit tree near an oasis.  So today I'll write over 5,000 if I can stand it, get myself to 35,000 so that I'll only have 15,000 left to go, which will hopefully mean I finish my the end of next weekend. =)

Nano Day Twelve: Short, Sweet, To the Point

I have 4,000 words to write today, and Skyrim sitting next to my xbox - lets get it the FREAK on

Nano Day Eleven: Make a Wish

Today is 11.11.11 - it's time to make a wish.  I always wish on the clock at 11:11, so why can I wish on a day.

I am going to wish that my re-write is better than my draft.  This is getting more and more painful each time I re-read a section.

I am going to wish that the rest of my paycheck comes in today.

I am going to wish that my boyfriend does something overly sweet for me since he's off today.

I am going to wish for Teriyaki Chicken Bowls from costco (and then go make that wish come true)

I am going to wish that agents and publishers like my book just as much as the people who took the time to send me a message on nanowrimo - I love them <3

I am going to wish that I get another good idea, preferably for a book series.

I am also going to wish for a peppermint mocha latte, because I'm broke and I probably won't get it but I want one

Nano day Ten: I'm a slacker

I only wrote 1,000 words last night, despite my vow to do 2,000 a night.  It was nice to have a semi-break though and enjoy some TV with the boyfriend.  I needed a night like last night.  Back to the grind stone today, however, with a 3,000 word minimum before I can move on to some rest and relaxation.

I've decided I will certainly seek publication in the near future.  I am tempted to just think of something easy to write and sellable to get my name out there, however my loving boyfriend won't let me sell myself short.  I'm glad he's here for that, because with out him I'd be writing something crappier than twilight and selling out like crazy.  So we decided to lay an egg and hatch it together about a virus plague.  Also, we decided to write it backwards so book one will drop you into this world and by book whatever you'll understand how you got there.

I also stumbled upon this today

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PeterPan

It's every overused element that is found in Peter Pan, and some character development points that I need to use.  Thankfully, I nailed about 1/2 on the head, the rest are nonexistent.  So...shit.... lets edit some earlier chapters.

Nano Day Nine: Prosperous

I got a fortune cookie that read "This is a very prosperous time in life for you."

My check was almost 500 dollars short -_-

I've decided I need to be an author for a living, I can't handle this job.  I also need to get my teaching stuff finished, because when I'm sitting at a desk all day looking at boobs and putting email addresses into our computer, I don't feel like I'm making much difference in the world.  Not that I hate my work, but this isn't what I want to do

So I've come to this conclusion today (I think I did anyway, my mind can still be changed).  I am going to publish a few ebooks while I wait for James to be perfect and traditionally published.  Romance books, YA scifi books are easy for me to push out.  I'll publish my romance under another name just for the bucks, build my name with my YA books and then BAM! when james comes out, My name is already out there a bit

Naturally, that's assuming I write good books.  I don't like to brag or sound vain, and i'm sure these books will suck the first time round, you know.

Boyfriend and I came up with a good premise that could really turn into something.  Tonight at dinner I will be slowly steering the conversation in that direction.

Nano Day 8 - the first week officially over

So want to know a fun fact?  My counts total this at the end of the first seven days

Total Words Written: 17,064
Words to Go: 32,963
Finish Date: 11/25/2011

My very first nano, it took me the full 30 days to write as much as I have in one week.  My first nano was my pathetic attempt at Harry Potter Fan Fiction.  I was desperate for the next book, so impatient that I decided to write my own instead of wait for it to come out.  I planned each word very carefully, though my sentences and paragraphs through.  It was the first book type of thing I had ever wrote outside of a school assignment.  I am, to this day, proud of it despite how terrible it is.

Maybe today is a good day to kind of go into my history as a writer =)

I won my first award for writing when I was 5 years old.  I wrote a story in my kindergarten class, I told it out loud while my teacher typed it out.  I won the Gamma Kappa Delta and had my picture in the paper. True story.  Maybe when I get home I'll scan my picture in the paper.  Anyway, that's how I knew that I should probably look into story telling as a career.  I thought about writing more seriously when I was about 11 years old and a friend of mine introduced me to role playing games online, where you write out the actions of your character.  I took refuged in these while also completing my first nano.  I won another short story competition in high school, my sophomore year.  Again, another publication for a grade.  Nothing huge happened until my freshman year of college.  I was introduced to a group of English teachers working on publishing a text book, where three of my essays now lie for people to read as examples.  (I looked into it, they are good examples)

My plans for the future?  Do what I love, make people happy, and stay sane =)

Just a Taste

Then again, just as the night before, he heard a loud TICK TOCK come from behind the beach.  Suddenly he knew what he could do to feel more at peace tonight.  He headed back towards his room, quietly but much more quickly than the time before he made he way there to grab the pocket watch he was unable to open before.  It sat there still on his shelf closed.  James grabbed it and made his way out of the room again, and once he was out of the underground house he began to ran up to the cliff side to look at the large clock. 


When he got there he felt goosebumps run down his back.  The two loud noises were indeed the clock moving just a bit.  The hand which used to lie between the two and three was now two notches closer to the three than before.  He started at them, his fingers moving around the watch as though it was on fire in his hand.  Softly he touched it to the larger grandfather clock and nothing happened, he tapped it harder and still it would not open.  Finally, it a moment of ange and rage he rammed it into the wood of the clock, and with another loud TICK TOCK the pocket watched opened.


Out of sheer surprise, James dropped the watch and let it fall into the earth open, it’s time mirroring the time on the larger grandfather clock.  The watch did not tick, nor did it tock, it’s hands lay on it’s face still and unmoving.  As though it might spring up at him, James moved back towards the pocket watch slowly and, as soon as he remember that no inanimate objects can hurt even on a magic island, he picked it up again.  He shut it’s little pocket watch door and was able to open it again with ease, the time remaining the same each time.  As his eyes flickered back and forth between clocks, the sun began to rise as it always does in the same timely fashion.  Perhaps it was a sign, that clocks can say whatever they want, but the sun will always rise and a new day will always come no matter what.

Here's a nice long version of my book

So it has come to my attention that I should post a full plot summary of "James" somewhere, since I feel like the shorter version on my nano profile kind of sucks.  So here it is, in case you're curious

James was the first little boy to wind up on neverland.  Like all the toys and left foot socks, he had been lost and found himself on the island that time has forgotten about.  Slowly, other children find themselves lost here too, all accompanied by a little fairy.  They band together, keeping strong in groups of children and fairies.  A girl, Lily, seems to have been here the longest, but is rather silent and doesn't speak much. Two boys, Starkey and Smee, become the closest friends James has.


The three boys and their little fairies decide that it would be best for the group of kids if they ventured away from their beach and underground home to make a map of the island.  While out they encounter some strange things that neverland holds, giant bugs and monsters, pirate skeletons and the most curious of all is a large clock that sometimes, when your feeling a particularly strong emotion, will go TICK TOCK in the night.


On the same day two strange people arrive on neverland.  Anita is a childhood friend of James and when he see's her memories of his life before neverland come back.  The other strange coming is a child called Peter, who is barely a toddler and can fly unlike any of the other children there.  With new memories emerging, and the clock TICK TOCKING more often, James can feel himself grow taller and older.  The baby also grows and tells everyone he longs for a mother.  Anita takes care of him from time to time, but she is not the mother he needs


Once Peter has grown to a boy who looks about 10, he asks a favor of James.  He wants to return to London to see his family, see what as become of them.  James agrees and the two of them fly back to see their families.  Peter's has moved on, they have another little baby and seemed to have forgotten him.  James' mother still mourns the loss of her son in a big beautiful house that he could have lived in
with a little sister he could have loved.  


They return to neverland and James is filed with anger towards his fairy, who had lied to him about what life in London was like, she said it was awful and she saved him.  James began to confide everything to Anita, and the two grew found of each other, aging into puberty together.  They kissed one night and were seen by her fairy.  Soon after, Anita was banish from the island and was told to swim away forever. When she entered the water, the fairies cast a spell on her to turn her into a fish, however, Anita screamed that she didn't believe in their magic over and over again, slowly the fairies began to die and only half of Anita was fish, the other half was her.  


James then instructed the other children to never go near the lagoon, for Anita's wrath will drag them in and turn them into fish children too.  Peter, however, questioned his leadership and told everyone to play with the mermaids as long as they like.  Peter's cocky attitude about himself had finally hit James last never and the two got into a verbal fight.  After their fight, James had an argument with Flare, his fairy, about everything and killed her in cold blood by looking straight into her eyes and saying "I don't believe in you."


After Flare's death, James begins to age more rapidly.  Suddenly the children of neverland are decided, some who side with James who has been their leader, the younger ones side with Peter and everyone left in the middle leaves with Lily to the Plateau to become the leader of the "indians."  Things escalade with Peter and James until they get into a sword fight, Peter at an advantage since he can fly and it all leads up to James having his hand chopped off.  Peter tosses it over his shoulder and into the open mouth of a crocodile.


From there, you know how it goes ;)

Nano Day 7 - rethinking my goals

So last month I posted about the goals I was going to accomplish during nano and for the rest of the year. Now that we have come to day seven and I haven't really met any of them I think it's time to draft a new set of them.  So here's the things I have been doing, and what i plan to do for the year

1. I have been writing 2,000 words during the work week, and 4,000 over the weekend.  I will continue that.
2. I have been very good about a post a day on the blog, whether it's a prompt or not (which so far it's been not) so I will continue to let my feelings out once a day
3. I still promise to have James finished my April
4. I still promise to have a handful of short stories by the end of the year

And for the rest of these, after nano that is, this will be my writing schedule
1. Monday is short story day
2. Tuesday and Wednesday are devoted to James
3. Thursday will be devoted to a different novel, something new and fresher
4. Friday is reserved for taking a break all together, enjoying my boyfriend or the tv or something.
5. I promise to never take a weekend long break unless I have already made up for it during the week.

And last but least
I promise to keep these promises to myself.  When I introduce myself to people in public, I associate myself as a writer, and until I have a book in my hands that will surely not be true.

I also wanted to use this blog post to say thank you to my boyfriend, who was my rock this weekend and pushed me to write 8,000 words in two days <3 I love you darling.

Nano Day Six: Whats the delete button

I almost did it again this morning.

I have a nasty habit of deleting the parts of my book that I hate and I almost erased my entire first chapter because I thought of a way to expand it into two different chapter.  I might still write them both out today, and once I wrote it out replace it, but I can't delete everything before I do that.

I finally feel like I am over the "boring hump" of my book.  You know that part that you need to have in there but it's not at all exciting to write about.  For me, that's the first few chapters of getting to know the kids on the island.  This morning I finished chapter three, which is their first "adventure" so to say.  Today I plan to push out Chapter Four which is where they meet skelleton pirates who give hook a sword and a hat.

Yesterday was like a dream come true, to see my cover and stuff life that.  I also got a lot of praise through nano mail and I took the time to thank every person for their kind words.  I really do appreciate it.  It also gave me the opportunity to read other synopsis out there and there are some amazing stories.  Maybe I'm just self centered but that is one thing I never took the time to do before; just see what everyone else is writing.

I started today at 10117 and I hope to reach 15000 before work tomorrow.

HAPPY SUNDAY!

Nano Day 5: What's wrong with me

I have the ideal setting to write today

1. clean bed sheets
2. some time alone
3. a beautiful cover to look at for inspiration

So then why can't I get anything out?
Damn you iron chef america, for being so addicting.
my other big problem is that I keep looking at the nanowrimo blog to stare at my cover

Oh well, I'm at 8,000 at this moment and about to move 3,000 words before my boyfriend comes home.

Remember Remember the 5th of november

http://blog.lettersandlight.org/post/12375341368

That link, right there, takes you to the most glorious internet page of all time.

My book was chosen for a cover.

Nano Day Four: Something with more body

My blogs have been pathetic lately.  Seriously, just a word or two so that I can say "look I wrote today."  So for now, lets try something with a little bit more body.

When your sad and bored on the city train, your mind tends to wander.  So today I made up a lovely story about two people who were sitting within my line of sight.  As I was entering the train, there was a man in front of me reading the paper.  He had long hair, chin length, a scraggly beard and a brown leather jacket. Naturally, I didn't say anything to him but we both boarded the train next to each other.  He took a sideways facing seat, and I took a forward facing one.  Normally, the train is totally empty but today there was one guy sleeping with his legs up across the seat next to him.  I sat directly behind him silently judging him for not having a home and taking up so much space so that no one else could sit there.  His entire face was covered by a beanie, a turtle neck and his blue hoodie.

And because I have an over active imagination, this is their story.

The guy in a leather jacket was CLEARLY some kind of supernatural creature hunter and he knew something would be on that train today.  However, he also knew that the creature would sense him if he showed up being his hunter self, so he read the paper instead.  After I sat down behind the guy in the hoodie, he turned into the creature, removing his hoodie and turtle neck and beanie to show me his gruesome face and sharp teeth.  Because I'm a girl and this is my day dream, he naturally came to attack me and the hunter killed him with a cross bow (how else would he do it?!?).


And that's how to pass the time on the train during a Los Angeles Rain Storm.

P.S. I caught up last night, with the help of my wonderful motivational boyfriend who refused to be around me or kiss me until I finished my word count.  I love him <3  So today I need to get my minimum and then some finished.  Good luck my fellow nanoers!

the end.

Nano Day three: Why it rocks to fall behind

I am behind, this morning I was behind by over 2,000 words

now I'm behind by about 800 but I'll be caught up before midnight.

And guess what, when I do catch up people will cheer my name in the streets.  They'll say "That's amazing, she caught up." and it will be so good.

Nano Day Two: never enough coffee

It's a really good thing I work better under stress and pressure.  I feel like once the pressure is on, I can match the intensity in my work for a while and do a better job with it.  Naturally, I can't work like that all the time, but trying to write my novel during my 2 busiest work days has helped get me to a great start.  Not to mention the thrill of knowing I could get in trouble at any moment adds to the danger and excitement.

Yesterday I met a woman who walked into the office talking about a writing contest.  Turns out she's a nano-goer too.  It was awesome to connect with a perfect stranger, and that deserves a short story when the competition is over.  The complete stranger then proceeded to ask a 22 year old girl if she used botox.

I also have a good friend who is doing the competition with me, though I don't think she understood that you can't get a head start in order to balance your schedule better, that you need to start on the 1st and if you don't make 50,000 it's not the end of the world.  Love her to death, but she broke my heart a little.

i'm at 2,292 right now, aiming for over to 4,000 by the end of the work day.

My other big thing today

I came up with another idea *sigh*

I was listening to Hotel California by the eagles, and this is my plan

A man is tracking across country and is driving late at night due to lack of available hotel rooms. He's tired and sleepy and comes across a resort with rooms for the night.  He meets a beautiful woman in the lobby and ends up deciding to stay for a while at the resort.  While he's there he can hear the voice of his wife calling to him, making it hard to cheat, and he can hear the voice of his children.  Once his week is over he tries to leave but he can't.

Because he crashed when he was tired and is in a coma....

However, I can't do anything with this right now until nano is over.

Day one - Too much steam for the boat

I love the first of November - all the enthusiasm I have for the coming month, the plans and the outlines and everything like that.

Now if I can just put this feeling into a bottle and save it for the rest of the month, drink a shot at a time.

Goal #1 - don't loose all the steam before you reach your destination.

Welp, so much for THAT book

Here's my story.  Last week I wrote my plot summary for my les mis in space book.  However, it doesn't look like I will be writing that one anymore.

On the nano website, I posted a book title and plot for my WIP baby novel that will hopefully be kind of the twilight-hunger games-harry potter-ect. of my career.  James, or the boy who eventually grew up.  I entered my baby in the "30 covers, 30 days" contest and it has been selected as a finalist!

Hip Hip Hooray

So looks like I'll be drafting that again this year, starting from page one and working through 50,000 words. I did my first draft last year for nano and spent the year editing it.  I wanted to do a second draft anyway, this is a great opportunity to do it =)

And my nano story is...

I have had about a thousand ideas bounce through my head over the past month trying to find something I would enjoy enough to stick with throughout the month of nano.  My biggest problem the past few years is that i'm really enthusiastic about an idea and then after the first week of nano is over, i'm over my story and ready to start a different one.  So I am going to try and plan a daily writing schedule for this one, so I know exactly what part to write on what day, what plot moment to start at and what plot moment I'll finish at.  I'll write my schedule some other day, but for now I thought you might be interested in what I chose to do.  About a week ago I posted about cool prompt Ideas, well I developed one pretty fully and I hope I can push it through.  You might find this plot is similar to "Les Miserables" Only in outer space and with robots ;)

In the year 2013 scientists made a discovery.  We would use all of our resources, all of them, by the year 2145.  It was then that they began to work on developing means to leave the planet in hopes of finding a new one.  They worked vigorously on various metals that would survive more than 10,000 years in space, but nothing seemed to be working.  Then, in the year 2067, the history books changed when Alien life form landed on earth, actually coming in peace in search of various materials and chemicals their planet has run out of.  Scientists made a trade with them; they may use the soil until it's depleted in exchange for the information to build a lasting space station that human kind may live on.  Humans were in orbit on the S.S. Atlantis by 2130, and the Ullians were left to rebuild the planet. 


In order to gain passage on the space station, each family was put through a vigorous check to make sure that their gene pool was strong enough to be passed through.  The sick, the mental unstable, the criminals and the unintelligent were left with the Ullians on earth and the strongest of our race, only 2 million people, were chosen to board the station.  The wandered the galaxy for 2,000 years before *MAIN CHARACTER* was born.  His ancestors had made passage on Atlantis but just barely.  He was sentenced to live in the slums of the station where people like him belong.  He grew up strong, and smart both in school and on the street.  He was 11 when his father died of an unknown illness that had surfaced once humans began to travel space.  He was left to take care of his smaller sister and mother and hadn't the slightest idea how he would help them.  No one would hire a boy that young to work and his mother had no skill set to get a job herself.  Instead, he stole and swindled people out of their money for three years until he was caught with a loaf of bread in his hands.  Not many people went to jail on the space station and even the pettiest of crimes were punished severely.


*MAIN CHARACTER* served 10 years in jail before he was released.  No one would tell him what became of his family, and no one was going to hire a man with a convicts mark across his chest.  He worked on one of the levels of the station where food was grown for a while and lived with a man who taught verses of the earth bound bible to anyone who would listen.  After a short time, he had enough with the work and decided to make a run for it, stealing the man's valuables as he went.  Swiftly, again, he was caught but the pastor lied to the patrol bots and said he gave him the things.  Once *MAIN CHARACTER* was released the pastor reminded him to never forget the kindness he was shown and to remember that one good deed deserves another; he should do good for the world and enjoy the bounty of pleasure the comes in the kingdom of heaven.  


*MAIN CHARACTER* used the valuable to buy an unused wing of the station and turned it into a factor that made and dyed clothe for clothes.  He made a point to only hired unskilled women, to provide them a usable skill, and to hopefully find his mother or sister.  Among them was an unmarried woman with a child who was about 12.  She worked at the factory by day and was accused of being a whore by the other women.  *MAIN CHARACTER* takes pitty on her, and intends to return the deed of kindness.  When she is run from the factory, he takes her into his now fabulous home, learns that she is sick just as his father was, and agrees to adopt her small daughter and care for her.  That night he buys the girl from a corrupt Child Watcher and takes the girl home.  


Time passes, the girl grows and the women of the factory begin to talk about the revolution their sons and husbands are planning.  Government inside the station has always been corrupt, the rich getting the most and the poor getting nothing.  *MAIN CHARACTER* begins to consider taking a stand when he learns the girl, who is now 18, meets a young revolutionary and falls in love.  Again, doing his good deed to the world, he plans to go out with the revolutionaries in order to keep the young man safe, so that he may live to make his daughter happy.  He finds faith in the earth bible through prayer for the young boy, and the both of them survive a violent and bloody revolution in space.  *MAIN CHARACTER* is captured for his crimes while the young boy escapes to his love.  


*MAIN CHARACTER is set for a trail, exposed as a fraud who lied about his criminal past and opened a business and will be sentenced to a life sentence for not upholding his designated social class.  He evades the court, declares himself the leader of the revolution against the government and runs to lead the rebels.  End of book 1 <3


Inspired by Les Miserables and in quick writing it's almost identical to the musical, however, I plan to expand a second book all about the revolution and then grow it into a series about colonizing a new earth with my jean valjean character as the leader =)  Not that I'm posting for praise or critique, both are welcome though, this is more so to clear it in my mind - edit it and organize it and than kind of stuff

Schedule while you write

So I don't think I've talked about my long term plan on this blog.  I've been published before, school essays as examples in a text book.  While the feeling of knowing my work is out there is fantastic, that is not what I want to be known for.  I want to be a fiction author, and I need to start taking steps to make that happen.   I have decided to take on the ultimate challenge of nanowriyear - every month is nanowrimo.  I need to get my fiction work out there.  I have a few short stories already finished, and three different novels in the works as of right now.  My plan, publish as many short stories as I can in a year, finish two of three said books, get a literary agent and get publish <3

Since i plan to do 50,000 words a month for a year, working on various projects in order to be published before the end of 2012 I am going to give myself a strict schedule to write with.  I am going to try to accomplish a few things, almost like new years resolutions except in november.  Allow me to give myself a few commandments

1. I promise to write at least 3,000 words a day in a combined fashion of prompts, short stories and novels
2. I promise to write a prompt each day before I write and put it on this blog
3. I promise that my novel will be finished before my birthday next year
4. I promise that I will have 10 short stories between 3,000 and 8,000 words a piece by the end of the year
5. I promise to devote Mondays to a short story
6. I promise to devote Tuesday and Wednesday night to my novel James
7. I promise to devote Thursday to an easier novel
8. I promise to take a break on Friday night
9. I promise that the weekend will be composed of a lot of writing, and that I will never take a "weekend break" because my work week was too hard
10.  I promise to keep these promises so that I can call myself a publish fiction author in at least a year.

Oh and on a side note I also promise to keep all my writing on google docs, since i've had to deal with a few computer crashes in my day and it's devastating.

The Artist and the Wannabe

Everyone can call themselves an artist - I think everyone should say that they are some form of artist.  I would call my self a word artist, but I'm also a musical artist and an Elder Scrolls video game completer artist.  My boyfriend is a Computer artist, my sister is a cupcake artist and my other sister is a cheer artist.  Homeless people can even call themselves coin artists or sign artists.  I find that calling yourself an artist makes it easier to find inspiration to create your art.  Whenever I talk about playing the piano I want to sit and compose a song, and whenever I talk about my book I want to sit and edit the draft some more.  I become instantly inspired.

The difference I find with some artists and inspiration is that some people can only find inspiration in the things that inspire them.  For instance, the person who wants to write romance after watching a Nicholas Sparks movie.  I am the other kind of inspired, I look at all things in the world and say "what can I create with that vision in mind?  How can I turn that Nicholas Sparks movie into a fantasy adventure tale?"  I love the strange and outlandish and I love to find my muse in everyone I see and hear.  I take public transit to and from work and mostly just stare at the people I encounter there.  People think i'm rude or putting myself above them but the truth is that I am watching them and taking them all in so that I may think and draw upon the vibrant character that they are later in the evening.

And that's my daily rant so that I can now sit and type out something a little less whinny.

Amazing prompt ideas I want to use

The Three Musketeers (Alexandre Dumas) with mutants!
Les Miserables (Victor Hugo) with space stations and giant robots!
Macbeth(Shakespeare) with every science-fiction trope imaginable and artificial intelligences!
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain) with a steampunk world!


And some normal ones
-Girl who works on a ranch farm from the city, love story
-"The Lesbian" about a straight woman who hasn't had a real boyfriend in 5 years tries women out and learns who she is and what makes her happy, and it certainly isn't lesbians <3 hahahaha

the 15 minute prompt

"A character will do laundry. A character is enraged throughout most of the story. The story must have a diadem appear in the middle. The story ends in a graveyard. During the story, someone turns another person in."


Stains all over the brand new clothes she bought him.  Stains everywhere.  Gold from beer, red from food, green from grass, brown from god knows what and some clear stains that remind her of when her kids have boogers, only their at the crotch of his new black suit pants.  He's been cheating for ages, but never left the remains in a place where she could see it.  With her fingers and breath on fire she continues to fold the clothes in the separate room while her children, the 5 year old and 7 year old, run back and forth carrying her youngest daughter's, the 3 year old, toys from one end of the home to the other.  However, their foolish activity can wait.  


Once in half, and in half again the opposite way over the hanger; that's how the pants went up.  The pants that smelled of another woman's private body parts, the parts that he wouldn't recognize if she shoved his face into herself.  She imaged his limbs inside of the shirts she folded, breaking and snapping as they folded in the correct direction.  How could she bring herself to marry the man who got her pregnant on the first day.


After slamming every door shut on her way out of the room, she was faced with the china cabinet in the hall.  Laying on the middle shelf was the diadem her great great grand mother's mother wore as princess of a nation that fell in the war.  Shinning gold and bright in the afternoon sun, it reminded her that her life could have been much different if she didn't settle.  She was royal, even if by her own standards, and deserved a man who would be with her.


And without much noise it happened.  She walked into the study where Frank was reading and picked up the jade globe that sat near the entrance.  He didn't even look at her when he asked what it was she needed, his eye were buried deep in the business section of the daily paper.  Four times she hit in on the head before his limp body fell from the chair and her rage followed him onto the ground where she continued to smash until there was a dent in his skull the size of their decorative globe.  In the closet was a suit, brand new still in the garment bag.  Quickly she unzipped the bag off the suit and wrapped her husband's bleeding skull inside of it, carrying him downstairs with a surprising ease, like taking out the laundry. 


She loaded the corpse in her car and took it three block away, where the Smithson Cemetery was.  Their home is large and was a good price due to the amount of graves close by.  She threw his body into the open grave and quietly walked back to her car.  She drove back home and shouted to her children, asking what they wanted for supper.  The only voice that seemed to respond was her oldest, the eleven year old, who said into the telephone "Yes, I think she killed him."

10.18.2011

Gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:23


Nebraska was the most boring state you could possibly imagine.  After you leave the beautiful ever-changing mountains of Colorado, the flat farm land planes of Nebraska are just not enough to keep your mind preoccupied.  Keith told himself that he just had to pass through the midwest before he found his adventure, and that every adventure has a part like Nebraska.  Harry Potter had to stop and focus on school a bit, Frodo had to rest while carrying the ring, even Blade had a moment where he took a breather.  Therefore, Keith had to deal with Nebraska, passing through, in order to move on to bigger and better things.


Off the freeway was a diner, a gas station and a small convince store.  Looking at his gage on his car, he was nearing empty again and could use a quick stop.  Taking a moment to judge the gage in his belly, he also noticed how hungry he was and could use a hot meal.  In one beautiful fluid motion he was off the freeway and parking in front of a gas meter.  He slowly and carefully climbed out of the divers seat of his care, careful not to disturb any of the things packed inside his care; trying to move in one trip was proving easier said than done.  Not only was their hardly any room to breathe in there, but the extra weight was using more gas than expected.  While the pump was working it's magic on the gas whole, Keith let his eyes wander around to see what kind of people would choose to live in a place like Nebraska.


His eyes fell on one man standing outside the convince store.  He was clearly homeless, if the ragged clothes and beard didn't give it away at first, to his right stood a rusted shopping cart that held his life inside of it. In his hands were a sign that read "Hungry.  Thank you and God Bless."  Living in Santa Monica for most of his life, Keith was used to the homeless and their bull shit signs.  Most of the time they claimed to wish you a good day or to just be hungry but try to hand them anything but cold hard cash and they'll shout profanity at you for a good long hour.  Perhaps here in a state that looks like no one chooses to be there, the man really is just hungry.  This place is plain and boring and dull, and maybe a man who claims to be hungry and wishes God to bless those who help him really is all he says he is.


CLICK! The pump shut off when the car was full, totaling $38.96 in gas.  Odd that his car usually took 45 dollars to fill up even at the cheapest of gas stations.  The prices here were not much higher than back home, and yet he came up short.  If that wasn't a sign that he should feed this man than Keith wasn't sure what was.  He put the hose back in the holster, finished his transaction and moved in car into a parking spot near enough to the man that he could shout and close enough to the restaurant that he could get there first.  The homeless did not pay him a second look at first until Keith spoke up in a voice that was two deep for a thin 25 year old.


"Sir!  Excuse me?" He said to him and their eyes locked for a moment.  "Can I buy you lunch?" he asked earnestly as the man's eyes grew wide in disbelief.  Keith could only imagine the surprise he must be feeling, the joy of experiencing a hot meal again, or for the first time, and how appreciative he must feel.


"Thank you son," said the man, not taking a step towards him, "But a family passing through from Pittsburgh bought me breakfast only about an hour ago.  I'm still full."  And he went back to holding his hungry sign.


Keith, unable to believe his ears, stared at the man and his sign, his now false sign.  Instead of a meal, he got his usual cup of coffee and bag of chips and headed back on the road again for NYC.  Perhaps the lesson was good things come to those who wait, or it was that if you live in a small enough town someone is bound to pass through not knowing your story.