The Story, Part VIII (The End)

Posted on 11/04/2007 by chick

I needed to finish the story that I started so that I could focus on my novel. So here it is, a very rough draft, with just enough words to complete the story. For the start of the story and links to other installments, see this post.

No, work was exactly where he needed to be. Supposing even for a second that the list had really predicted a death, he needed to get another look at it. There was a name that he needed to find.

It took him all morning to work out a basic plan and he was sweating heavily in spite of the freezing temperatures in his department. He kept remembering scraps of conversation with Dave, who was now dead under strange circumstances. Things had started to make sense in an eerie sort of way. Continue reading →

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Just Write!

Posted on 11/04/2007 by chick

I don’t know which is harder: Writing without a story idea and hoping one will come to you, or writing with a great idea and worrying that you won’t be able to do it justice.

Well, first things first. I need to settle on a story idea. That’s my plan for this afternoon: Keep writing until I know what my novel’s about.

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It’s So Easy

Posted on 11/03/2007 by chick

Once you’ve got a novel on which to procrastinate, blog entries don’t seem so hard, do they?

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Thursday Evening

Posted on 11/03/2007 by chick

When I left the office on Thursday evening, I was so tired and the traffic on I-95 was moving so slowly that I decided to stop for coffee. The best coffee place in town is near where I used to live, so I couldn’t resist driving by my old condo. As I headed toward it, my memories of other times were so strong that I felt like I was simultaneously living in three moments: the present, the day the real estate agent first showed me the condo, and the day I sold it. Weird.

At the coffee place, there was a sign on the window about a missing man. I recognized the picture. It was the guy who worked at the local convenience store. I never before knew his name (Sam) or realized that he was one of my neighbors, only that he seemed like a nice guy who worked hard. He’s been missing for a few weeks. My heart goes out to his family and I hope that he is returned to them.

I still wasn’t quite ready to face the traffic, so next I went hunting for my favorite olive oil. It’s unfiltered and it looks sort of gross because there’s a film of olive bits on the bottom of the bottle, but it’s the best olive oil I’ve ever tasted. I haven’t been able to find it around here and I was hoping my old grocery store still carried it. They did!

So it was a weird, sad, triumphant evening. And long. Though the traffic had cleared by the time I hit the road, it still seemed to take forever to get home.

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Crazy Coworkers

Posted on 11/02/2007 by chick

Yesterday I drove to CT for our annual departmental luncheon. I went both because I felt obligated and because I think that telecommuters need to spend time with their coworkers once in a while. The sad thing is, half of my colleagues couldn’t be bothered to attend, even though most of them live within easy driving distance of the restaurant. Once upon a time, they would all have gone, just as they used to attend the lame company picnic. I guess they no longer care about putting on a show for the bosses. That I can at least understand.

Here’s the part I don’t understand. If you go, you get a free lunch and the remainder of the day off. Why pass that up? I mean, if you really don’t want to talk to your coworkers, just keep your mouth strategically stuffed with food. And if you’re ticked at the company for something, order the most expensive item on the menu and wash it down with a dozen appletinis.

I think my coworkers were crazy to refuse such a golden opportunity.

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It’s in the Cards

Posted on 11/02/2007 by chick

I haven’t come up with an idea for my novel yet, but I remembered something last night that might set me on the path.

I have always thought that it would be fun to write a book based on the Tarot. I don’t believe that Tarot cards tell the future, but I do think that they are a remarkable tool for understanding the human experience. Every card represents a person, situation, action, or emotion, and when they are combined together with a little imagination, they tell stories. Doesn’t that sound like a cool way to generate story ideas?

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Mistaken Identity

Posted on 11/02/2007 by chick

I hate making mistakes and I find it hard to forgive myself for making them. That’s bad. First, it makes me feel like crap. Second, I believe a person’s character is revealed in the way that they deal with their mistakes, and I don’t want people thinking I’m an arrogant, obsessive ass. Last but not least, trying to avoid mistakes often means avoiding risk, and without taking risks, how can you accomplish anything creative?

So I offer myself the following bits of wisdom:

  • Just forget about the trivial stuff.
  • Almost everything is trivial.
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Melon-choly Movie

Posted on 11/02/2007 by chick

Faithful Reader and I recently watched Silent Running, not to be confused with The Running Man, Blade Runner, or Logan’s Run, and certainly not with Cool Runnings.

In this peculiar movie, the last few forests of Earth have been moved to spaceships, where they are kept against the day that someone decides to reforest the planet. The crewmen react with excitement when they are ordered to nuke the forests and return home, all except the tree-hugging character played by Bruce Dern. He refuses to accept the order, and he kills his colleagues rather than destroy his beloved plants.

This is a thoughtful movie, not an action-packed one. Released in 1972, it has a definite dated quality to it. That said, I have to admit that I liked parts of it. I’ll certainly never think about cantaloupe in quite the same way again.

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Out of the Game

Posted on 11/01/2007 by chick

NaNoWriMo is here! I must hoard all my free time for writing. That means I have to temporarily give up playing Spide . . . No, I must not even name it or then I will have to play it. Let’s say instead “the game that must not be named.”

I will not play the game that must not be named!

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Apple Crisp

Posted on 10/31/2007 by chick

Apples usually keep a long time, so I was surprised when I pulled some recently-purchased Cortlands out of the fridge and found that they were all soft. Some of them were definitely bad and I threw those away, but the others seemed OK. Once upon a time I probably would have just thrown the whole lot away, but ever since watching the “1940s House,” I have a hard time tossing produce if I think it may still be usable. I didn’t have enough apples left for my chosen recipe, but apple crisp isn’t exactly rocket science, so I just guesstimated the quantities for the other ingredients.

I’m glad I decided to go ahead with baking. The aroma of cooking apples filled the kitchen. Baking with apples is a time-honored way of celebrating the season, and it made me feel like autumn had finally arrived. The crisp was yummy as a dessert last night and even better as a topping for my oatmeal this morning. It reminded me a little bit of the instant oatmeal that my mom used to feed me when I was a kid. You know, the pouches of powdery oatmeal and dried apples that you dump in a bowl with some hot water. Now I understand what that product was trying to imitate, and boy, did it miss its mark! Real oatmeal topped with real apple crisp is worth the extra cooking time.

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