Reading the signs

 Mid-autumn 1981 photography class assignment

Signs:

• Robins feeding until almost dark; sure sign of migration time
• Robins are no longer singing
  
• Should soon be plenty of mushrooms in the woods; they are always good photo subjects
• The lawn is half covered with brown and yellow leaves
• Squirrels are infested with warbels; some severely
  
• NFL "pre-season" football has begun
• Allergies; sinus; headaches
• Each foggy August morning will bring a snow in winter
  

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I've placed my longest short-story on the Brasstacks44 blog. It is one draft away from being final as I see some errors and it has not been fully spell checked or checked for clarity. I feel it is also my best story and I will leave it posted for a few days. An earlier draft of it was accepted for for publication in a prestigious regional magazine but we could not reach agreement on payment and terms as they wanted it with all rights for very little money. All rights means the story will no longer belong to me; ever; period. I will not sell my babies! Rent them out I surely will. If you have time to read it and if you like, dislike, or are ambivalent to it please take a moment to let me know your honest opinion. If you do not care for it, I will feel much like the following quote from the story: "I didn’t feel particularly uneasy about the situation–if there really was one. At age 70, I felt there was little harm that could be done to a man whose timeworn and now lonely life isn’t worth much anyway."
Thank you, my friends.
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Also, thank you for the clicks on my Google ads.
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Have a wonderful weekend!

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Reading, writing, and DC arithimetic

Gulf Fritillary on Zinnia


It appears to me that the Obama mortgage rescue plan talks big and does little. Unlike the Wall Street giveaway, it has so many strings attached that most people who participate will probably wish they had not done so. Not all lenders are willing to use it, and many homeowners who need it most will not be eligible for it.
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I finished another paragraph of the short story I was writing and posted here a few weeks back. I know where I want to go with it, but I am still uncertain how far to go. I ask myself should I keep it as a short story or expand it into a book length story? Should I make it an event driven story where the plot supersedes the characters, or character driven where people control events. For me, it is much easier to write the former and then cause the characters to fit the events. I will have to decide before going much farther, and I am leaning toward keeping it short, mostly due to all the crap going on around me that keeps stealing my attention.

Characters are very hard for me. Some successful writers slowly develop the characters over many pages as it is the recommended way and allows the reader to grow into the plot along with the characters. Others do a character description in a paragraph or two and it is up to the reader to remember the important things. This works well with very good writing, because the reader tends to read more at one time and becomes familiar with the characters. Knowing when to quit describing and not become soap opera-ish is the key. Other good writers simply give the reader a name and a basic fact or two and go on with the story, but it needs to be a very good story.

I will decide in the next few days and go from there.
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I placed a few more photos on Loose Pics.
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I didn't sleep well last night, but at least I did that well. On such nights, I have visions—not like the the ones Jerry Falwell had—of concepts and words; worlds of concepts and galaxies of words. I don't necessarily think of things to blog, but mostly erratic pieces of the work of real authors whose work I have read, and pieces of stories I need to write. Therein lies a problem; I am not a gifted writer. I am an old electrician and ne'er do well whom tries to over achieve. Sometimes though, a gem of an idea will form as words and concepts momentarily align in front of my mind's insatiable eye. Part of an idea for a story, or maybe even a poem if I'm lucky, came to me like a head rush sometime during the early morning.

As usual, it is based on a part of my past life, but not so far gone this time; in fact it concerns some happenings in my life over the past year or so. I've wanted to try my hand at a detective story, a whodunnit type thing, and I believe this will be the perfect plot for me. As of now, it is till a concept and pitifully shy of words. But, the seed has been sown and we shall see if I am a good enough thinker and writer to nurture it and eventually reap the reward of acceptable prose. If I do pull it off, it should be adequate to finally have a full book of short stories. A small publisher has already agreed to commit a book into print if I can put enough stories, quality essays, and poems together.
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As for ideas to use for this blog, it is usually written on a spur of the moment thing. That's one reason it most times makes little sense. Sometimes I go back and read stuff I wrote here a year or more ago, and it is embarrassing, and even more nonsensical than the stuff I write now. I should have stayed with pulling wires through conduits!
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Bonne nuit, y'all!