what's black and white and read all over...

Why, my blog, of course!

I felt like my little blog-verse needed a change. I'm funny that way, always moving stuff around. It used to drive my kids crazy to come home from school and find I'd rearranged the house.

So, in regards to my writing, I wrote a short story the other day. What prompted me was a post on the Absolute Write boards about a science fiction story contest at:

PARSEC: Pittsburgh's Premiere Science Fiction Organization

I read the entry rules, and the theme, and went to watch some TV before I fixed dinner. I mulled over some ideas relating to the theme for a bit, then I got an image of a young man, raggedly dressed, crouching behind a tree watching a group of other people. He had a dog with him, too.

I got the impression that this was a post-apocalyptic scenario, and since that fit with the theme, I thought, Great! I'll think on this some, maybe I can come up with a story.

But the thing is, this young man wouldn't let me rest--or pay attention to the TV--so I finally got up and went to write something down, just enough to get this guy out of my head.

Five hours and 3200 words later, I had the story. I'm letting it rest for a couple of days before I read over it to see what needs to be done with it. But I feel like the story is right as written, maybe a few minor changes. It feels good to me.

So, there is the much-talked-about character that tells his own story thing you may have heard about. This has only happened to me once before this strongly, for a writing assignment in high school. I was watching TV (hey, what is it about the boob tube?), enjoying the well-muscled Ron Ely's protrayal of Tarzan, when I got the entire play "Tarzoom!" in one sitting.

I was thinking about that play, and realized I got my first reviews, written by the members of my group who performed the play for our class assignment. And I have my yearbook to prove it! Sadly, I gave my copy of the play to the student teacher for her portfolio--or whatever it was--otherwise I'd probably post it up here for your enjoyment!

On the novel front, I am gamely moving forward, making some progress, albeit slowly.

Until next time, Gentle Readers.