Writing

I think, perhaps, that I have always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with creative writing.

When I was in grade school there was a "Young Authors" creative writing program. One could write a story, and it would be turned over to high school students to be proofread and typed. The finished pages, along with a couple of blank pages, would be returned, and in a "workshop" supervised by volunteers the pages would be stitched together. The outer blank pages served as end papers, glued to cardboard stock that had been covered with the fabric of the author's choice, with the final product being a book. In the early days some students were fortunate to have their pieces selected to have a second copy made and placed in the library along with a cassette audio book.

My first foray into this was nothing special, a plagiaristic mash-up of Voltron and the Transformers when I was in second grade. It won no accolades, but I had written a book.

By third grade I had come up with more original material, inspired by my own imaginative play to write stories about aliens from other planets and some sort of rescue mission during an interplanetary war. It was as well received as my first attempt, but I found the amount of freedom allowed by creating my own characters to be very liberating.

In fourth grade I tried to expand on my aliens with little success. Scheduled creating writing time during class wasn't helpful to me, and I often sat there writing little if anything. There was no book for me that year.

The next year, however, I found the right formula, the inspiration coming from a creative writing prompt to create a superhero. I took no efforts to conceal identities, basing my title character on my own sister. However, my work was well-received, earning an award that year, and I was suddenly hooked.

It probably helped that I read -- a lot. Most of what I read then, and still do, was fantasy and science fiction. By the time I was in junior high, through the gifted and talented program, I set out to write a play. It was inspired by the fantasy novels that I read, and the characters obviously inspired by me and my friends. I never completed the play, but the characters could be worked into a new story.

Those characters are still with me, brimming with personalities and problems of their own, and the protagonists of a novel manuscript now topping 150,000 words. I don't know if I'll ever by truly satisfied with the novel, but those I have shared it with have enjoyed it and would like to see it published. I would too.

Mood: Thoughtful
Music: Elton John: "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding"

Generations

I was recently notified of the passing of my great aunt Leona, a passing which truly marks the end of a generation. Aunt Leona was my paternal grandfather Lloyd's sister. There were ten siblings in all, eight boys and two girls, and while Aunt Leona was one of the oldest of the siblings, she was the last to pass. It's difficult to fathom that they are now all gone, and that a great deal of their numerous offspring are gone, including my father and his cousins Daniel and Gary.

Mood: Thoughtful
Music: Led Zeppelin: "Rock and Roll"

Cockatrice

Anyone familiar with the mythical beast known as a cockatrice, sometimes also called a basilisk, may also know that these creatures were supposedly hatched from eggs laid by roosters and incubated on a dunghill by a toad.

While there is of course a problem with expecting an exothermic animal like a toad to not only sit still but incubate an egg, there's the question of how to get an egg laid by a rooster.

Well, after reading about it in Ripley's Believe It or Not, I went and found this.

Mood: Thoughtful
Music: The Guess Who: "No Sugar Tonight"

Two wrongs...

There seems to be no shortage these days of Web sites whereby you can look up song lyrics. However, they all seem to be plagued by the same problem: if one site has the wrong lyrics, they all have the wrong lyrics.

Mood: Disappointed
Music: Coverdale/Page: "Easy Does It"

Births

Today would have been my dad's 63rd birthday.

Dad considered himself politically independent. He was more liberal than most of his close friends, but voted for Republican candidates as well as Democratic. He believed in personal freedom, liberty, and allowing people to make their own choices and decisions; but he also believed we have a responsibility to help one another and make the world a better place for others.

I wonder, then, how he would have felt about the health care reform bill that recently passed. Would he have supported it for providing health care to those who need it, and extending care for everyone? Or would he have opposed it for taking choices away from people, potentially raising the cost of health care, and for potentially socializing health care?

Mood: Thoughtful
Music: The Beatles: "Yer Blues"

New Year

Here is the first post of the New Year, a year already filled with change.

Relatively recent events made me come to the realization that one of the parts of truly becoming an adult is observing the relationship changes among one's peers. It is even more meaningful when those peers are considered one's friends. It is wonderful to share the joy and happiness as a friend embarks on a new chapter of their lives by becoming engaged or married. It is equally sad and poignant when seeing the relationships of people one considers friends falter or even fail and fall apart.

Maryanne and I spent a great deal of conversation on it. We want our friends to be happy, but it can be troubling when people you like and expect to be together aren't together anymore. It seems the New Year has already brought with it many unexpected changes.

Mood: Thoughtful
Music: Todd Rundgren: "Hello It's Me"