Mission 44

The creature in the above image is a Bantha.  It is an easily domesticated beast of burden found on the planet Tatooine.  Banthas are known for producing blue milk and being led by the strongest female in their herd.  And if you could put a ladder up to its rear end and climb into its butthole, you'd have some idea of what it was like to spend time in the college apartment of my friends Chris and Dave. I first experienced their apartment shortly after moving to Savannah.  I had just transferred to art school from an overcrowded state university in Orlando.  Chris and Dave have been friends of mine since seventh grade and I didn't know anyone else in town, so naturally I did my very best to make a general nuisance of myself by hanging around their place as much as possible. Being great friends, they helped me with my classes anytime I needed it.  I was coming into art school with little in the way of an artistic background so I would stop by their a...

 Just finished cooking up something good!  Love that sweet smell of accomplishment. When I was fifteen, I traveled across the southern part of the United States with a busload of other boys.  We were on our way to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico.  Our journey had begun in Tampa and it would take six anticipation-filled days to get to Philmont.  Following the bus ride, we were to begin a twelve-mile trek that stretched for fifty-three miles through the mountains of New Mexico.  The hike was brutal in parts and tested our will to continue.  In other places we found great enjoyment in the experience.  There was one place on the trail where we were scheduled to stay a second overnight and made no progress in distance or days.  In another place, we completed a hike that seemed impossible for miles uphill, hauling gallons of extra water to a campsite where we would find none. At one point in our trek, we got to a point near...

I haven't posted on this blog in nine days, and I haven't decided yet if that is a good thing. NaNoWriMo has become a huge part of my life, and I'm actually enjoying the abuse that completing this novel has inflicted on me.  The commitment and challenge were much needed.  My blogging has suffered, unfortunately, as has my fitness level, and I'm nervous about my yearly physical exam tomorrow.  Wrapping up a novel during October and writing a new one during November has not left a lot of time or motivation to follow any type of regular fitness schedule and I feel like crap.  I'm sure my physical will reflect that! I have started a post about one of my favorite teachers which I plan to finish and publish tomorrow.  I also challenged one of my writing buddies to a race to the 50,000 word mark.  The loser has to write a blog post about the sheer awesomeness of the winner. I'm looking forward to writing it. My main character is tormenting me less these da...

Friday morning, 4:30 a.m. "Hey, wake up!" Me: "What?" Main character: "I need to tell you something!" Me: "No, damn you!  You made me eat Diet Coke and brownie mix !  Leave me alone!" Main character:  "I'm only going to say it once, so go get a piece of paper and take notes." I groaned, then got up, found one of my daughter's many "spy notepads" in the dark, felt around for a pencil, and began listening to one of the saddest and most tragic stories anyone has ever told me.  I took notes for a good hour before she finally let me go back to sleep at 5:30.  One of many things I have learned the hard way during these first three months as a full-time writer:  When the muse speaks to you, you write it down, because if you don't you will kick yourself later as ghosts of the idea evaporate faster than you can type. At 6:00 I was up again, getting everyone ready and off to school, and at 7:00 she returned a...

This strange November has compelled me to do even stranger things.  One example would be the writing of a 50,000 word novel in just 30 days.  Another example is the takeover of my brain by my main character.  Being that she's in a desperate situation with no options other than to fend for herself, she has discovered that her survival depends completely on her ability to be resourceful.  There are very few food items that she's been able to find, and during the course of the story she has put these ingredients together to make unique meals to get her through the ordeal.  To give you an idea of how far cuisine has devolved, here's how one of her experiences reads in the story. I already loaded up my mom’s car with all of the soda that’s left, along with a tub full of a new recipe that I invented.   Check it out: Chocolate Survival Pudding Ingredients: One box of Triple Chunk brownie mix Half of a can of Diet Coke Directions: ...

This NaNoWriMo thing is encouraging my mind to take me places I never envisioned I'd go as a writer. For example: I don't like writing in first person, but I'm doing it. I vowed to never write a book in journal format, but it's happening. I couldn't have predicted I'd be writing from the perspective of a teenage girl, but I so went there. I spent a couple of hours on the outline during the last week in October, did a little bit of research to make sure the story was tight, and spent a lot of time coaxing this little voice out of the lineup of characters who tend to come and go through the revolving door of my imagination.  As soon as I grabbed hold of her, she started talking to me, shy at first, and a little scared of the situation I put her in, and then, suddenly, she rose to the occasion.  Now this girl never shuts up.  She's kind, but she's willing to take punishing action when necessary, and she's finding strength that neither she nor ...

Today began the greatest challenge of my writing life.  My commitment:  A fifty-thousand word novel in 30 days.  My reward:  A winner's certificate and a first draft.  My reasoning: Because it's there, baby. Because it's there. I had heard of National Novel Writing Month before last week.  I'm not sure where, and I'm not sure why I had never entered before, but I had a little bit of NaNo stuck to the bottom of the seat of my memory.  When I saw it mentioned by someone on Twitter it stirred something in the deep downs, and my curiosity took control and followed the link to see where it led.  Reading about NaNoWriMo gave me those cold, heavy feet that tend to drag me down to the bottom of my ocean of excuses anytime I encounter something that seems challenging.  I balked, but the very next day I got an email from Donna Gephart and she suggested that I look into it.  I promised her that I would, which had me at the ledge, and s...