I’ve been watching what’s going on with the California fires very closely and praying for all who were affected by it. When I was working with the US Fish & Wildlife Department I got my certification to fight wild-land fires, but I was never able to go to the front lines before my certification expired. The closest thing I ever did to that kind of work was a controlled burn in Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains. But I heard the horror stories about fires and the dangers inherent in wild-fires.

It takes incredible courage to do what firefighters do and I applaud them! They are true heroes!
 

At long last the Fall season has come to South Texas. The humid temperatures have been in the 80s and 90s. Today the temperature dropped 30 degrees and Halloween is in the air.

I lost a filling today. I was eating cereal when I bit down on something hard. The filling in my tooth came out. It doesn’t really bother me at all. If I have to set-up a dental appointment I’ll have to wait until the 1st of November though. But by then I’ll be totally focused on NaNoWriMo.

I’ve been concerned about the fires in California. As I write it’s on the news right now, people evacuating their homes and historical buildings being destroyed. When I hear of deaths my heart goes out. I have family and friends all through that area. My prayers are for them.

 

I did another 2,000 words today in preparation. I'm getting myself used to the pace so come November 1st I'm set to go! Everybody has their own pace, but last year I learned that setting a pace of no less than 2,000 words a day will enable you to finish with a few days to spare. Once the word flow gets going then the word count isn't a problem. The challenge is just getting the words to flow.

For all my friends that are taking up the challenge...I'm cheering for you!

Write on! Write on! Write on!
 

Isn't it supposed to be October. I'm not complaining, because I don't like frigid winters. We had one back in the 1980s and it wiped out the citrus industry. Many farmers went out of business. The same thing happened a couple of years ago, a frigid winter caused a loss for local farmers causing them to give up farming. I don't mind warm weather. Warm - not hot and humid as South Texas in July and August.

While some of the country is enjoying the cooler weather and the Fll foliage, it is 90 degrees in South Texas. It's like summer in October. I remember a couple of years ago taking a correspondence writing course and I began my story by writing:

"It was a cold night, unusually cold for October."

My instructor didn't understand what I meant. Wasn't it supposed to be cool in October? He obviously didn't know South Texas weather.

When I did NaNoWriMo last year I set a pace of no less than 2,000 words a day and completed the first draft of my novel in 24 days. Unfortunately I got out of the practice of writing so many words. A thousand maybe, but not two thousand.

Tonight I just started writing and got the words flowing again and before I knew it I crossed the 2,000 word line. I'm getting ready for NaNoWriMo, so I'm getting back into the practice. For an analogy think of an athlete training for a long distance race. Is it any wonder that the logo for NaNoWriMo is a runner with a pencil.


Give me the right word and the right accent, and I will move the world. ~Joseph Conrad

NaNoWrimo is here and I was grasping for novel ideas. Thousands of jumbled ideas were going through my head, but nothing solidified. First I would have ideas, and then I would have a mind blank. I went through excitement. I went through fear. I questioned on whether I was ready to do it this year. I had doubts. Then yesterday it came to me. The idea wasn’t new. It’s been in my mind for the past few years but has never found it’s way into story form. Actually it started as a poem that I published in WILD’s The Writer’s Block Strange Romance issue.

***********************************************

AN ANGEL & A DEMON FELL IN LOVE

An angel and a demon fell in love.
Impossible you may say.
Not really.

God is omnipresent,
And God is love.
God created angels.
Demons are fallen angels.

This was before Eden
Before the Fall
That would rip
Their star-crossed love in twain.

One was cast out.
One remained.
But love is forever.
Love doesn’t die.
Neither forgot.

I will follow.
She said.
Wherever you go.

I will not let you.
He said.
My fate is reserved
For pain and suffering.

Fire and Brimstone
Are my punishment.
That is my sentence.
Not for you.

But I love you.
She said.

And I you.
He said.
But it was not
Meant to be.

I was deceived
Down a path of no return,
And I cannot allow
You to follow.

But why?

Because I love you.
I cannot allow you
To suffer my fate.

I would.

I can’t let you.
Love can’t go
Where I am going.
Stay here. Stay free.

Remain in His love,
His favor and grace.
I will miss it,
As I will miss you.

But I love you.

And I you,
So I won’t
Drag you down
With me
To the pit.

But I want too.

I will follow.

No.
I will not let you.
Where I go
I cannot give you
What you want.

I cannot give you
What I want.
As you remain
So a part of me remains.

If you follow,
You fall with me,
And all of me falls.

Remain in His love,
His favor and grace,
And part of me
Will always be with you.

I will remain,
But part of me goes with you.

That part I will take
Freely and gratefully,
My only comfort
Where I go now.

I will miss you.

And I you.
He kissed her.
I must go now.

He kissed her, and he fell.
There are no tears in Heaven they say.
But a few tears were shed
In Heaven and Hell that day.

*********************************************

I enjoy reading mysteries. I enjoy reading books with a horror/thriller/supernatural taste. So how do I combine those elements – a fallen angel trying to redeem himself becomes a PI to serve society, kind of like that vampire becomes a cop theme on many TV shows nowadays but with a twist. So now where do I put it? Mystery? Horror/thriller? Last year’s novel was a supernatural thriller.

Did I mention the character with the gift/curse to see murders through the victims eyes and is thus able to see everything the victim sees during their last moments, including the face of their killers. Would the murderer consider him a threat?

How do I weave these two characters and their individual plot lines together?

I feel the excitement one feels walking up to the starting line of a race and waiting in anticipation for the pistol to go off.

Write on!


Give me the right word and the right accent, and I will move the world. ~Joseph Conrad

When I was a kid I had a Rubik’s Cube, the puzzle that can frustrate a lot of people and takes some a decade to solve. I had a little secret to solving it in a matter of minutes. I would get frustrated at trying to solve it without success and I wanted it in the same condition I had started in. I would snap the thing apart and then snap it back together in the right order. Sure some may consider it cheating, but no one would ever find out unless I told them like I’m doing right now! :) Besides...I was only 11 years old! To me it wasn’t cheating…it was being resourceful! Lol!
 

Poetry and music. Music and poetry. The two words go together. I have a lot of friends who are musicians and I was pondering how closely related music and poetry are. Consider the book of Psalms in the Bible. The words flow as poetry, and when they were originally written they were accompanied by music. That said, I did a little free-writing today.

Poetry and music
Music and poetry
So alike in form and power
With the rhythm to turn the world
Music, like poetry, can stir the hearts of humanity
Poetry, like music, can help souls find the songs
Sometimes hidden by the pressures of life
Like poetry, music continues echoing in our hearts
Long after the last note of a melody is played
Long after the last note of a song is sung
Like music, poetry can open our eyes, enabling us
To see beyond the physical into the realm of spirit


Give me the right word and the right accent, and I will move the world. ~Joseph Conrad

I remember many years ago sitting in my high school journalism class. It was the Christmas season, and we were getting ready to go off on vacation, so we weren’t really doing anything except sitting around and talking. Rina and Iris were cheerleaders and two of my very best friends. We got around talking about our high-school reunion and they said they could see me coming back as a writer riding around in a limousine. Well…our class reunion is coming up in two weeks, and I am returning as a writer. I’m still a long way from riding around in a limo though.

I don’t like waiting until the very last moment to do something, but finances have been tight. My WDC membership expires at noon on Monday and this weekend I’m going to be a little bit tense until I can send of for my membership renewal.

 

I remember years ago running cross-country races. I wasn't much of a sprinter, but I was an endurance runner. For some unknown reason they would always choose to start the races during the hottest part of the day. Paramedics were usually on-hand in case of emergencies, and there usually were. People would pass out from the Texas heat. I remember that because of the news of the same thing happening in Chicago, news that included the report of one fatality...and it's supposed to be October. It's not unusual for balmy October days in South Texas...but in Chicago...

I'm also a little disturbed because the nearby family supermarket, which has been around for forty years...all my life...is closing Friday. That store is a landmark in my neighborhood. I've walked the two blocks to that store for...well I've lived two blocks from the store most of my life. I know the people. I'm not the only one that's going to miss it being there.
 

I admire J.K. Rowling for what I consider one of the greatest accomplishments anybody could perform. She got thousands of kids to turn off their video games and start reading books.

I’ve talked to some kids of today and they don’t know the name Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, or Mark Twain. They don’t know the characters or the authors that I thought everybody knew. However, they do know J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter.

I was curious at what could turn a single unemployed mother into the multi-billionaire that she is today. I didn’t get caught up in the Harry Potter craze like so many have since the books first came out…at least not at first. I started a little late because I didn’t own any of the books, although my younger brother has all seven, and he took them with him when he got married. I have however watched all the movies multiple times.

A few months back a friend gifted me with Book 6 of the series, The Half-Blood Prince, because I expressed my interest in reading the books and what made them best-sellers. I started reading it two weeks ago and today I finished the last 200 pages. I couldn’t put it down, and now I think I’m hooked.

Now that I’ve read it I can honestly say it reminds me so much of the books I read as a child, the books I fell in love with that inspired me the most. I was hooked on the Oz books by L. Frank Baum. The first novel I ever attempted writing was a fantasy novel. I never completed it and I have no idea what I did with the handwritten pages, but the stories and the words are still in my head waiting to get out…an idea for NaNoWriMo? Perhaps.

My writing usually follows what I'm reading at the time. I just finished reading J.K. Rowling and now I picked up Dean R. Koontz. What does that mean? My NaNoWriMo novel may be fantasy or horror. I won't be certain until I start writing on November 1st.