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CarlHoliday

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Blog Entries posted by CarlHoliday

  1. CarlHoliday

    Drat!

    By CarlHoliday,

    Don't you hate it ... You're busily typing along, working on a key chapter and you finally have it, only it's at least 1,000 words too short.
  2. CarlHoliday

    Another week

    By CarlHoliday,

    Well, another week at the shelter is in the basket.
     
    Got a new roommate yesterday. Seems nice. He used to be a trucker until his employer gave him a breathalyzer test one morning and his reading was over 0.04, which is way above the zero tolerance trucking companies usually expect. Needless to say, his world has gone from okie-dokie to oh-f**k-this-isn’t-good. The only negative aspect of our new relationship is his radio or rather the station his radio is tuned to. I guess it’s rock of some sort or maybe it’s alternative of some sort. Either way, a lot of it is noise I can do without. Interminable repetition is not one of my favorite forms of music. If there is going to words along with the music, I prefer lyrics that at least tell some sort of story (even if it’s only minimally recognizable as a story) rather than have one phrase that is repeated over and over, ad infinitum. Other than that we get along okay.
     
    Went to see the shrink today. He told me I should’ve come into the clinic when I was feeling low last month, or gone to the emergency room to see a mental health specialist, or called the crisis line. I guess just talking to someone about how shitty my life was going would’ve done a great deal toward a quicker, tidier recovery. I'll definitely do that next time because I know there will be a next time. Bipolar works like that, up down, the blahs, down up, the blahs, over and over. It's a life. Up until late 2005 I dealt with it by using alcohol as a damper, which wasn't good. Now, I use the meds. One chemical or the other, it seems. He did change my sleeping med from Ambien to Trazedone, which I hope will help me getting to sleep. Also, we had a fairly good session, the interpersonal chemistry is finally working and I hope future sessions will be as productive as today’s.
     
    I’m slowly working on Chapter 14 of Remembering Tim. The stuff Sharon sent me from 2008 occurs about six chapters in the future from where Geoff is right now, considering a lot of what Geoff has been going through this time around is original stuff. So I have a lot of new stuff to write to do to get from here to there, though when I do get to that point the journey definitely will not be as it was back in 2008 when I originally wrote Tim and the Corsair. I can’t give a time when Chapter 14 will be ready to post, but I hope it will be before next month. It all depends on my mood, which is good today, but tomorrow may be in the crapper.
  3. CarlHoliday

    Standing at the door

    By CarlHoliday,

    All the pieces still pulling at their knots come undone tomorrow.
     
    All the loose ends totally, completely unravel.
     
    My final piece of the puzzel will be put in place, soon.
     
    I think I saw the exit sign up ahead.
     
    I have my final destination.
     
    All I need is my boarding pass.
     
    is not looking forward to the darker days ahead.
  4. CarlHoliday

    A or B

    By CarlHoliday,

    It can get only so deep before you have to climb out of the cesspool.
     
    I am not looking for anything better, only peace.
     
    In earlier times I may have gone on a pilgrimage. Today I can only seek inner solace.
     
    It comes down to a choice, really.
     
    And, I've always been a coward when it comes to choices.
     
    I can only hold up my end so long without help. If you offer nothing except hindrance, I'll eventually drop my end.
     
    I cannot do it alone. I've tried, and failed. I've tried, again, and failed. I keep trying, and failing. You offer no help.
     
    Now, my life is unravelling and I can't find the ends to tie them back together.
     
    You can throw shit on me for only so long before I have to step out of the way.
     
    It will be the incorrect choice, it always is the incorrect choice, but I have to chose. I'm sorry, but you're not my final choice.
     
    The plan is set.
     
    I can only await the crack of the starter's pistol.
     
    There is still a slight chance it will be Option B, but it is so slight as to be impossible to imagine coming true.
     
    is ready to throw off the schackels
  5. CarlHoliday

    Peculiar

    By CarlHoliday,

    Spending a few hours in Peculiar, MO, and you'd think with a town named Peculiar I could think up some peculiar things to say about Peculiar, MO, but I can't so this is all you get.
     
    Now, isn't that peculiar.
     
    peculiar
    noun
    1562
    :someting exempt from ordinary jurisdiction; especially :a church or parish exempt from the jurisdiction of the ordinary in whose territory it lies
     
    peculiar
    adjective
    15th Century
    1 :characteristic of only one person, group, or thing :DISTINCTIVE
    2 :different from the usual or normal: a:SPECIAL, PARTICULAR b:ODD, CURIOUS c:ECCENTRIC, QUEER
     
    not only can I be queer, I can also be distinctive, special, particular, curious, and eccentric; besides being peculiar.
     
    is incredibly sad; pharmacology advances; wonders never cease; the spiral tightens
  8. CarlHoliday

    On the edge, again

    By CarlHoliday,

    Because I had two accidents last month, I had to come to HQ today to do a road evaluation. The good news is I passed the range evaluation, which is moving the big truck and trailer through a series of very tight spots, do a straight line back, and negotiate an incredibly tight right turn.
     
    The bad news is I failed the road evaluation. I didn't constantly move my eyes from left mirror to right mirror to straight ahead to dash to left mirror to right mirror to straight ahead to dash to et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Plus, I didn't do three-point, three-stage traffic checks when making turns, changing lanes, or just generally moving the truck from here to there.
     
    The good news is I get to try again in the morning.
     
    The bad news is I don't care. I'm at the point where I might just quit this circus because the clown suit doesn't fit like it used to. Things have changed. The hole is so deep I can't tell if I'm digging myself out or deeper in.
     
    The only thing keeping me going is the two writing projects. The Tim rewrite is going beautifully. The Schtickist is moving into a new phase and there's fun galore. Guess who is going to become King of the Schtickists? Guess who doesn't want to be a queen, but is more than willing to be a princess.
     
    "What is this and why do I have to wear it the to Grand Ball?"
     
    "It's called a jockstrap and you have to wear it because you're going to be my princess."
     
    "Don't I get to wear underwear with it?"
     
    "No! That's the whole point."
     
    "This is a joke, right?"
     
    "Of course it is, it's a Schtickist Ball."
     
    "And I have to wear this hat, too, right?"
     
    "It's a Schtickist party hat, everyone will be wearing one."
     
    "It's a big rubber dick!"
     
    "Do you want to wear the big rubber tit?"
     
    "Well, I am going to be a princess and speaking of being a princess, why can't I wear my ballerina outfit to the Ball."
     
    "Because you're wearing that to the coronation!"
     
    "The glass slippers don't fit. My feet are to big."
     
    "Then get bigger slippers."
     
    "They'll look silly."
     
    "And, what is your problem with that?"
     
    "Well, what are you wearing to the coronation?"
     
    "Nothing! The king has no clothes!"
     
    "You Schtickists are weird."
     
    Or, something along those lines.
     
    is languorous, never lackadaisical!
  9. CarlHoliday

    Back, again

    By CarlHoliday,

    Been in roamingland for the past few days. I could get online, but could only do one site at a time before being forgotten. It says you're connected, but you can't connect. The only solution is to pull the card, get the software to stop thinking it's still connected (end of process in Task Manager seems to do the trick), and start over, all the time hoping the software has actually acknowledged that it was disconnected and isn't thinking it still is, or worse, suddenly decides it's going to try to establish a 4G connection when you're literally in the bushes.
     
    Okay, I'm pissed.
     
    When I was in Lordsburg, NM, I almost had service. My carrier could just about connect with itself, but not enough to carry a signal. Couldn't call out, couldn't get calls in, because it said it was in its territory, but wasn't. Suddenly, roaming pops up and I have 3 bars. Quick, dial that number. Better yet, use speed call. It's trying to make the connection. It's going to work. It's ringing, ringing, ringing, "hello ...", BEEP BEEP BEEP. What the f**k! Damn it's trying to find itself, again. It broke the roaming connection so it can go look for itself. Oh, look! It's found itself, but doesn't have enough signal to make a connection.
     
    If I didn't owe these people a lot of money and wasn't going to be able to get a discount because my employer is one of the corporate partners, I go somewhere else.
     
    So, it's been almost service and one task at a time service. The pissy thing is this is supposed to be a national carrier. They pride themselves on being everywhere, but mostly they're only where the money is.
     
    And, do not even think about using them in Wyoming. They are not in Wyoming. They decided they didn't have to be everywhere and one of the big nowheres is Wyoming. It's roamingland bigtime, but mostly there just isn't any internet access at all. Parts of New Mexico are in the toilet, too.
     
    When I'm in Nogales, Arizona, my carrier sometimes gets a better signal from across the border, but then you have to have international service enabled on your profile to make a call or use the internet.
     
    Sometimes, I wonder life would be better if I was just a bit crazier. Life does seem better when I'm running above the troughs, but I don't want to do that anymore. You get bad things when you're up there too long. The air is thinner and your brain is starved of healthy sustenance.
     
    I'm rapid cycling right now. I think it's called Cyclothymia, but my lows might be too low to fit the definition; one of the things I'll have to discuss with the shrink, if I can get an appointment. One hour I'm up feeling good and the next I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum. Right now, at this very moment, I sinking fast, but I know that in a few hours I'll be sailing high, again, so who cares if they feel bad/sad for a little bit. I do, but nobody seems to be listening.
     
    Yesterday, while in Little America, Wyoming, and not having enough roaming bars to get internet access (one-step variety), I was pumping endorphins and wrote a whole new chapter in Remember Tim. I wish I could tell you about it, but you'll have to wait. Probably until the pre-burgers come home, the way things are going, now.
     
    is down.
  11. CarlHoliday

    Higher than an elk

    By CarlHoliday,

    Something occurred last night that quite possibly will have a very, very negative effect upon my person in the near future.
     
    I know I should feel bad and I did feel bad when this thing happened, but since I
  12. CarlHoliday
    My student, who shouldn't be a student because he's been through three trainers already, was doing very good, up until today.
     
    I've been considering keeping him on after his 36 days are up because he's been doing so well.
     
    I suppose it wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't heading back down hill, again.
     
    I HATE being depressed.
     
    It takes all the fun out of life.
     
    Not that life is a bowl of cherries. You know there's a pit in there. You know it!
     
    When I was a kid my mother canned Bing cherries, like she canned a lot of other fruit. She never pitted the cherries before canning them. You had to chew off the meat and spit out the pit. After dessert, there were all those pits in everyone's bowl. GROSS!
     
    If you didn't notice before, I'm rewritting the Tim story. It's going well. Very good in fact. So good, in fact, that I've found it detracts from the Schticky story. But I am forcing myself to work on that, too.
     
    It's just, well, you see, I'm getting depressed, again.
     
    And, I'm starting to have those thoughts, again.
     
    We won't say what those thoughts are, but they're the same thoughts Geoff had on more than one occasion. Maybe, that's why I'm going back to that story. Don't know.
     
    Do know my student pissed me off this morning, twice already. I had such high hopes. F**k!
     
    Sorry for dumping.
  14. CarlHoliday

    Sinking fast

    By CarlHoliday,

    I hate this depression shit.
     
    I'm sinking fast and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it.
     
    I take my medicine and it works, too, almost all the of the time.
     
    I don't want to have to go back on the mood stabilizer because I can't drive a truck and be sleepy all the time.
     
    So, I have to accept the cyclical nature of my condition.
     
    Overly happy to down so far sad seems like a good mood.
     
    I wrote a whole bunch of stuff after this, but I deleted it. It made me feel worse.
     
    You know, I shouldn't complain so much about this because I've been suffering with this shit since 2003. Seven years seems like such a long time and it is.
     
    Oh, don't send me any happy faces or sad ones, either, thinking they might make me feel good because they won't.
     
    It's raining here in Rio Rico. I have to pick up some tomatoes and drive into the night.
     
    I need to get home, but I can't get there. I don't really want to go there, but I have to.
     
    I apologize for disturbing you.
     
    If this does disturb you, do us both a favor and don't read any of my stuff in the future. There's no need in both of us feeling bad.
  15. CarlHoliday

    In Rio Rico, again!

    By CarlHoliday,

    I'm sitting in the Pilot at exit 12 on I-19. It's interesting to note that the exit numbers on I-19 are in kilometers, not miles. It doesn't matter all that much to me since I'm only concerned with exits 4, 8, and 12.
     
    I'm here because I delivered my load yesterday off of exit 4, in Nogales. It was seven barrels of paint going to the Ford plant in Hermosillo. Those seven barrels weighed a little over 38,000 lbs. They weren't your ordinary barrel.
     
    If I was going to our yard in Nogales, I would take exit 8, but that exit is closed until 2011, so I have to use exit 4. I don't exactly know where are yard is because the Pilot is so much better and they don't lock the gate when they go home at night.
     
    I am sitting here because my dispatcher is trying to find me a load going to Washington State, where I live. I'm supposed to be home now, but there seems to be a problem finding a load going to Washington from anywhere. When I was in Sioux Falls last week picking up cut up dead pigs. I was supposed to deliver that load yesterday morning, but over the weekend it was decided I would not be able to deliver on time so I swapped the dead pig meat for auto paint. Interestingly, I delivered the paint at the same time I should have been delivering the dead pigs.
     
    So, I sit in Rio Rico wondering why there are no loads going to Washington. Have they closed the border? Maybe it's just trucks from our company that aren't welcome. I don't know.
     
    All I know is that I'm in Rio Rico, again, and I want to go home.
     
    I kind of wish I hand ruby slippers, but I don't want to go to Kansas, either. I was in Kansas Saturday night. I had Chinese food in Dodge City. No, I didn't see Matt Dillon or Miss Kitty. There was an east wind Saturday afternoon. The aroma from the feedlot east of town filled the air with the pungent odor of cow shit and piss. A west wind brings in the aroma of the feedlot west of town. A south wind brings the aroma of the two slaughter houses south of town. North it's just a lot of wheat, which doesn't stink.
     
    Early Sunday morning (early as in the sun wasn't up), as I was driving down US-54 out of Dalhart, Texas, I was able to experience one of the biggest feedlots I've ever encountered in my travels across America. I don't know what is worse, the smell of the shit or the smell of the piss. All I know is for about a mile the air reeked of contented beef.
     
    Oh, an interesting thing happened while I was driving along I-70 Saturday afternoon. I was just minding my own business when the air conditioner started spewing the eye-watering odor of feedlots, but all around me there wasn't a single beef. Soybeans, yes. Milo, yes. Wheat, yes (well, harvested wheat). But, no squatting beef doing number one or two on their supper. Then, suddenly, a beef hauler passed me. I smelled the truck coming up behind me. That's gross!
     
    Did you know a beef will stand in a pond of water drinking that water while pissing or shitting
    in it? I've seen them drinking from a pond when one of their compatriots is no more than two feet away doing a number two in the same water. For something we eat regularly, beef have horrible toilet habits.
     
    I think it's going to rain, again. Yesterday evening it rained. The desert is green.
     
    I wish I didn't have to be in Rio Rico wondering if it was going to rain.
     
    I wish I didn't have to wonder what I was going to eat at the Wendy's in the Pilot tonight. Last night I had a chicken sandwich and a side salad. Maybe tonight I'll have some ground up dead beef on a bun. I hope I'm not here tonight.
     
    I sent my dispatcher a message saying I had been captured my aliens and was held against my will in Rio Rico. He sent a message saying he sent the aliens to talk to me.
     
    I want out of here!
     
    Now!
  16. CarlHoliday

    Still in Rio Rico

    By CarlHoliday,

    Still in Rio Rico
     
    Still waiting for the customer to open so they can load me with whatever it is they keep in their warehouse.
     
    Another driver from our company is in the same boat, but he called the customer when someone showed up to do something inside. He said that someone said no one will be here until nine o
  17. CarlHoliday
    Delivered my first load for the new company.
     
    I've had a HazMat endorsement on my CDL for nearly 5 years and this is the first time I had the opportunity to placard a trailer. It was not fun driving down the Interstates with four red placards stating quite clearly what was in my trailer. "Flammable Gas"! That's right, nothing that could leak, but it sure would've made a terrific BOOM if some dummy used one of the placards for target practice.
     
    Actually, it was quite harmless. Just 5 tons of those gas containers you use on your camping stove. And, yes, I have to assume they were full of the stuff that makes pork 'n beans hot and yummy.
     
    When I get home in two weeks will take some pictures of the truck. I might be in one of them, but don't count on it.
     
    Guess the Schticky story is quite a hit. I'm certainly having fun with it. I'd love to throw out a spoiler or two, but won't. Let's just say that things are going to get weirder and weirder. Oh, yes, somebody is going to die soon, but you won't see it. As much as I like blood and guts splattering on the wall, this death was rather tame.
     
    As deaths go, it was very painless, especially considering it happened when it wasn't expected. It could be seen as something similar to the way we euthanize criminals, except the person who died didn't see or feel the needle. But, then, it wasn't a needle that killed. It was something more futuristic.
     
    The only problem I have at the moment is I'm publishing faster than I'm writing. Of course, considering the time I have available for writing, it surprising I can write anything at all. Plus, dealing with, uh, you know, aliens and such, and the other stuff that I haven't published yet, but it is coming soon, maybe sooner than I want.
     
    I've always been a fan of Monty Python and, well, Chapter 4 will certainly live up to "and now for something completely different."
     
    How about for a tickler: extraterrestrial physiology?
     
    Well, sure, they've got the same bits, but what do they do with them?
     
    Of course, I blame everything on Hurl, many breasted, hog-headed mother god of Argotte, who hacked up a wad of phlegm and when she spat the wad spun out and became the universe wherein lies Argotte, Belenda, L'nthdre, Orcol, and Gurd.
     
    It takes a weird imagination to come up with things like:
     
    3 Hurl -495
  18. CarlHoliday

    Fourth of July

    By CarlHoliday,

    I hope all of you got your gift requests out in time.
     
    Tomorrow, Uncle Sam will be distributing gifts and putting them under the flag poles of all the patriotic boys and girls across the good ol' U S of A.
     
    Unfortunately, I'm still in SCal relearning how to be a trucker so I won't be home to put out the brats and beer Uncle Sam enjoys so much. I know the wife won't do it because she's not as patriotic as the rest of us. She kind of takes everything with a grain of salt. Plus, she totally does not believe in Uncle Sam. She doesn't even believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Great Pumpkin, or, surprisingly, the Thanksgiving Turkey. Talk about a party pooper!
     
    Our next door neighbors, on the other hand, will be celebrating in earnest as he recently returned from Iraq protecting us from the evil scourge bent on destroying our interests on top of the Middle East oil reserves. They always proudly display the Stars and Stripes and I'm certain they'll will gather at dawn to sing numerous patriotic songs in hopes Uncle Sam will shower gifts upon their worthy heads as he flies over in his converted B-52.
     
    Then tomorrow evening the neighborhood will gather at the house across the street for a barbecue and fireworks display once daylight flickers out. I wish I could be there this year, but I think it's highly unlikely I'll be there next year either.
     
    On the writing side, The Incident at Red Bridge came the inevitable END and the last chapter was posted. The first chapter of Josh's Blog has been sent out for proofing and should be available soon. Since I'm not certain of my available computer time after a week from next Thursday, I'm not certain the chapters will be posted on a regular basis. Once I get my own truck, sometime around the end of September or beginning of October, my life should stabilize enough for me to return to posting on a regular basis. On the other hand, my immediate future might not be full of dire prospects and I'll be able to post on a fairly reliable schedule. We'll see.
     
    Keep your wheels on the pavement, the sun out of your eyes, and remember to have fun. A smile goes a long, long way to making everyone happy.
  19. CarlHoliday
    One thing about not having any money is I can't buy all the prescriptions I supposed to be taking.
     
    No, I am not going to suddenly die.
     
    But, I am finding out that maybe it's time for me to get off the Welbutrin crutch. I should be really, really depressed right now, but I'm not. In fact, I don't feel any different now than when I was taking that shit. Sooooo, maybe I don't need it.
     
    Of course, not taking Welbutrin has to be combined with not taking Depakote, which will be running out in a day or two, since Depakote tends to dull all my emotions.
     
    If this works out, I could be just as crazy as everybody else around here.
     
    Now, all I have to do it get a job and get some money.
     
    Oh, I did figure something out.
     
    Remember that old proverb, A friend in need, is a friend indeed?
     
    Well, today's version is, A friend is need, is an ex-friend.
     
    That should be a depressing thought, but for some strange reason it isn't.
  20. CarlHoliday
    The good news is The Valley of the Dwarfs is moving right along. Closing in on the final chapters in a week or two.
     
    Other good news is the next story will be starting before Valley ends. This one is titled Incident at Red Bridge. It
  21. CarlHoliday

    Progress

    By CarlHoliday,

    Ben has been published
     
    Valley of the Dwarfs is out for editing and will start posting soon.
     
    Have started a new story tentatively titled The Killer of Men. It is a post-apocalyptic kind of story. Most of the Earth's human population is dead (the Great Plagues) or gone (the Great Exoduses), leaving small pockets of people out in the countryside or in what remains of cities. Jesse is twelve, going on thirteen, when the story starts. He is a member of the Red Men of the Blue Knoll clan and yearns to be blooded to prove his worthiness to his village. To do that, he much travel many days to the nearest city and take trophies (the penises of men (death), the ears of boys (wounding), or when he's older and blooded simply taking heads), but no one will guide him other than his older brother Arlen. He is captured and sent to a human retraining facility (prison camp) operated by robots. Robots rule Earth now. They have a plan to restore Earth to the paradise it was before the advent of Western Civilization by eradicating all independent human groups, but they've run into a problem. Some humans see paradise differently than robots causing anomalies in their plan and some groups of humans are not easily overcome as others. They have determined that the assassins coming out of the clans on the western plains to be a possible solution to their problem. In the course of Jesse's retraining he finds a friend in Tom and they go on to be Killers of Men.
     
    Frankly, if I'm not careful, this could turn into a fully functioning series that has the potential to go on ad infinitum.
     
    The Blog story announced in Sneak Peeks is on hold at the moment. As I was working on it, I hit a patch of extreme depression (luckily wonderfully mollified by Wellbutrin) and had to stop. When I came out of that psychological dip, I couldn't pick up the story line. It'll sit for awhile stewing on a back burner while I work on the new one. It has a life, buy it's gone into hibernation.
     
    Received email today advising one job prospect is still viable. Cross your fingers, I maybe out on the road soon.
     
    Life as I'm currently enjoying it approaching obliteration (for reasons other than impending employment).
  22. CarlHoliday

    One down

    By CarlHoliday,

    Posted the last chapter of "Dreams Can Come True" this morning.
     
    The next fable, "Ben," should be up in a week or so. Although there are 5 chapters, they'll all be posted at the same time. It's probably the closest I've come to a "children's story," but unfortunately, I had to throw in some sex and the cute children's story becomes something entirely different.
     
    The fourth in this series, which just might be longer than the others, has been completed through Chapter 3. Don't have a working title yet other than "Tax Man". Was thinking of how clever it would be to use "The Taxman Cometh," but that's been done too much. There is a possibility of "Just Because You Have an Education Doesn't Make You Smart," but I don't think that'll be it. Anyway, I'm having a lot of fun with it so far. Let's see, there's a bit of S & M (okay, one of the major characters is a sadistic bastard and another character is a simpering masochist, and they get together now and then), there's a bit of priestly sex (NO! No details, just suppositions, innuendos), a bit of priestly sadism (well, there aren't any nuns to do it), arrogant stupidity (the best kind), a eunuch (yes, a real one, from that place where eunuchs come from), the usual nymphs and fairies, dwarfs, and probably a few other things I haven't thought of, yet. (Though I did write about a suicide, no, no, can't tell, don't want to ruin the surprise.)
     
    I don't know what comes after that. The job situation is still up in the air, but I may have something in the works. Hopefully, it will lead to something involving good money.
     
    On the psychological front, everything is going hunky-dory or as hunky-dory as it can be, though I was a bit suicidal last week. Talked myself out of it until my mood stabilized. Writing the fables seems to help by stuffing a lot of humor into my mind and I have a number of humorous books like "National Lampoon's Truly Tasteless Cartoons." Nothing like looking at a cartoon of by Thomas W. Cheney showing a blind voyeur holding his seeing-eye dog to a window or the Charles Rodrigues cartoon of a man washing his hands in a men's room with a sign on the wall that says, "EMPLOYEES MUST USE TOILET PAPER." They go on and on until I've feeling okie-dokie.
     
    Oh, yes, I also finished reading "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer." That is one very depressing book (and probably had a major impact on my depressed mood). A brilliant man, but in many ways a total dolt. Most of his problems could be explained by his naivete and grating personality. Unfortunately, he had his enemies, too, the FBI being one of the most virulent. Those people are just plain scary.
     
    I'm now reading "Native Son" by Richard Wright, another depressing story, but not as bad as the other.
  23. CarlHoliday

    done

    By CarlHoliday,

    for all my complaints about hypergraphia and sunk under a cloud of melancholy, the gnome fable is finished and in the can.
     
    Let's see, started 3/29, completed 4/7, what's that? 10 days?
     
    Well, it's not that much when you consider it's only 15.4K words.
     
    Next up:
     
    A story about a group of university graduates who setup a winter tourist destination at a time when tourists were mostly people on some kind of pilgrimage to the site of some odd religious relic like the left big toe of Saint What's-his-name. Then they decide that since there is no apparent local government, they should setup one of those, too; and, well, we all know governments don
  24. CarlHoliday

    It's the Gnomes!

    By CarlHoliday,

    Okay, started the new story.
     
    It's sort of a take-off on Sir Terry Pratchett's novel The Wee Free Men which I recently completed. Yes, it's aimed at teens, but if you're a Discworld fan, that doesn't matter.
     
    My story won't have any Nac Mac Feegles, but it will have Gnomes, which are (in my world) evil beings who steal children to be their slaves; and, once the children have grown up, well, they're not useful anymore and are sold to elves (even nastier beings, which appear in my latest story, soon to be published on gayauthors.org). In my story, gnomes, or agents thereof, have stolen a boy.
     
    An expedition is mounted to enter the netherworld and rescue the child. Normally, humans are not permitted to enter the netherworld, but children easily slip in and out because they still have strong imaginations and their brains aren't cluttered up with a lot of logic that says that some place like the netherword shouldn't exist. Since adult humans can't enter the netherworld, there are some serious discussions going on as to who should join the rescue party. Luckily, in my story, there are two humans who might just have the qualifications to slip in unnoticed.
  25. CarlHoliday
    Wow! This wave of creativity just goes and goes. Not waking me up in the middle of the night with plot solutions, since these simple tales are a little skimpy on everything.
     
    The new story, carrying Dreams Can Come True as the title, is finished and chapter 1 has been sent off to the editor.
     
    I don't know what to do next, but I'm kind of thinking about a spin on Sleeping Beauty (sleeing beau), the virgin locked in the tower (could be another quest story with the attendant assorted characters), a twist on Rumplestiltskin (for born son), Cinderfella has already been done so we won't go there, or I might just keep on the same train of thought started with the current series. As this one pretty much takes off from where the first one finishes. That might be easier than trying to come up with too much and getting too frustrated and then coming to complete halt like I've done before. We'll see.
     
    The last chapter of The Words Will Set Us Free will be out early this week (hopefully) and the new story will follow that.
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