It is Done

So November 30th was the last day of NaNoWriMo and I was able to relax the whole day because I finished my novel at about 2 A.M. that morning.  I have since recovered from the intensive writing that is 50,000 words in 30days.  I will admit that there were days when it seemed as if I may not succeed, but I pushed through and finished with about 50,300 words.  My story was complete and now begins the real work of making sure that it's good.  It's easy to write 50,000 words, but it is not easy to make sure that those words tell a good and a complete story.  For those in my life that felt the pain of watching me struggle to put words to keyboard for a month I appreciate your sacrifice and hopefully it will be worth while.  Now I can take and 11 month break until next year.  Speaking of next year I just found out that my daughter, who will be 13 by then, is planning on doing NaNo next year also.  Should be fun.

NaNo Day 3 and all is Well

So it is Day 3 of NaNoWriMo and I am ahead of schedule on my novel.  That is a relief because I was afraid that I would quickly get behind the 8-Ball and spend the rest of the month catching up.  My concern right now is not so much can I write 50,000 words, but will 50,000 words tell the story I am trying to tell.  If not, how many words will it take and am I going to have enough November to finish it? I am also starting a new short story project and have been trying to find some new fiction material to post here so be sure to look for those soon.  Thank you so much for taking this journey with me and I look forward to posting on here again in a few days.

Important NaNoWriMo Decision: Where to Begin

     I know that I have not posted any new fictional material recently, but with the beginning of NaNoWriMo approaching I have had a bigger project on my mind.  The novel that I am going to be starting is something that I have had buried in my brain for sometime and have finally decided that it has aged enough to become a full length project.  The thing that I have been struggling the most with, however, is where to begin.  That, I have found, is one of the major differences between short fiction and novel length fiction, where you start is crucial to how successful you will be with the project. 
     In a short story, because you are dealing with a smaller piece, it is easier to overcome starting in the wrong place in your story.  As soon as you realize your error you can make the adjustments necessary, but with a novel you may not realize until much further down the road that you have misjudged the start point. That has probably been the undoing of many of my larger projects.  I begin writing and am highly motivated, but then I get to a point where I realize that I have used too much flashback or have had to skip too far ahead to progress the story and feel like maybe I will have lost my reader along the way.  So, for me, along with outlining my writing project I spend a lot of time determining the best place to begin my story.
     Which brings me to the reason for this entry.  After much deliberation and not a small amount of second guessing I have come to a decision as to where my novel will begin.  This is exciting for me because until I reach that crucial point I don't feel comfortable really sinking my teeth into the writing, but now, mere days before I am to begin, I have finally broken through my novel's defenses and am ready to make a full-on frontal assault.  I hope that now that I have peace of mind knowing where I want to begin and the direction that I expect the story to take me I will be able to put some time into rediscovering some old pieces that I have laying around in various notebooks, folders, and binders as well as putting pen to paper (so to speak) on some new pieces to share with all of you.  Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope it gives you some insight into not only myself as a writer, but also the struggles that I sometimes endure.

The Countdown Begins

     NaNoWriMo is less than a week away and though there is nothing but my pride at stake I must admit I am a little nervous.  As a writer I would say the one little creature of fear that is always scuttling around in the darkness and gnawing at the edges of my being is the fear of failure.  As a writer you have to take chances.  You sit down in front of a computer or with a notebook on your lap and you begin to create.  For a little while you keep that creation all to yourself and this is safe.  It is safe because as long as nobody knows what you're writing or even if you're writing then there are no expectations. 
     Once you announce that you are working on something all of a sudden people begin to have expectations.  They ask you questions like 'How's the writing going?' or 'Can I read some of what you wrote?'.  The problem is that you can only hold them off for so long before they begin to realize that things are not going well.  That is my fear.  I have never in all of my life written 175 pages on one project.  The closest that I came was a novel I was writing for an independent study class in college and that was in the neighborhood of 125 to 130 pages.  And that was hard.  It was a struggle.  each week I had to face my professor with a new chapter for her to read and for her to give back the previous week's assignment with her notes.
     So that, in a nutshell, is why I am a bit nervous about November the 1st.  If I were simply writing something on my own there would be little or no pressure.  After announcing my intention to participate in NaNoWriMo, however, I now feel that all eyes are on me.  There will be success or there will be failure.  I'm hoping for the former.

Brains: A Love Story The Conclusion

Tanya opened her eyes.  The pillow was still over her face, but she’d rolled onto her back.  She could feel the dampness on the pillow’s case where her tears had soaked in.

“I must’ve fallen asleep,” she thought as she tossed the pillow to the floor.

She sat up in the bed and looked around, rubbing her eye with her palm.  She looked at the clock, it had only been about an hour and half and she still felt tired.  She looked around the room for any sign of what had woken her.  Then she heard it again, the small tick of a pebble on glass.  She crossed the room to her window and looked out.  Michael was standing in the grass dangerously close to her mother’s tulips.  She opened the window.

“What are you doing here? I thought I told you to call when you had a way to fix this.  To fix us.”

“I know, but this is important.  Can I come in?” he asked his agitation evident in his voice.

Tanya sighed audibly. 

“Go to the front.  I’ll unlock it.”

She closed the window and checked herself in the mirror.  Her eyes were red and puffy from her tears.  She tried her best to put on a smile and went down the stairs.  She unlocked the front door and let Michael in.  He grabbed the door from her hands, slammed it shut, and bolted it.

“What the hell, Michael? You’re scaring me.”

“Scaring you?” Michael said.  “I’m the last thing you should be scared of right now.”

With that he ran to the window and looked out then pulled down the blind.  He turned back to her.

“Are all the windows closed and locked?” he asked, moving quickly from fear to panic.

“I…” Tanya started, “I think so.  Why?”

“We need to be sure,” he said and ran from window to window, locking them, and pulling blinds.  “Stay there!” he yelled from some other part of the house.

“Michael, what’s going on? You’re really scaring me right now?”

At that moment she heard a thump at the front door.  She jumped.

“Don’t open that door!” Michael called again and she heard him running down the hallway toward the stairs.

Tanya looked out the peephole in the front door, but didn’t see anyone.  She heard another bang this one at a window and a muffled voice speaking, but she couldn’t understand what was being said.

“Is this your idea of a joke, Michael?” she asked as he appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

“What? A joke? Hell no!”

“Because if this is your way of showing that you can protect me I think it’s kind of sweet, but it’s also really freaky.”

He didn’t respond.  Instead he took her hand and led her into the living room and turned on the television.

“It’s not on the national stations yet,” he said as he changed the channel from CNN to a local all news channel.

The woman speaking on the television had a frightened expression on her face and was speaking in serious tones.

“No one is sure what the object is yet, but people that have come into contact with it or any of the noxious fumes that it is putting off are turning into what can only be called zombies.”

Tanya turned to Michael and opened her mouth to speak, but words didn’t come out.

“I know this sounds crazy, but I saw the helicopters over the woods.  My neighborhood seemed so eerily quiet that I went next door to talk to Mr. Jacobs to see if he knew anything, but he was dead.  Well, he was and he wasn’t.  It’s kind of hard to explain.  Okay not really hard just unbelievable.  It is just like in the movies except they’re not slow.  Not at all.  I had to haul ass to keep him from attacking me.”

Tanya had regained the ability to speak, but wasn’t even sure how to respond.

“What are we going to do? How far is the effect?”

“They don’t seem to have answers to that yet, but I thought we could drive to my grandparents’ camp.  I have a full tank of gas and the MapQuest directions in my car.  We have to leave now though.”

She was frozen in place.  Not sure of what to do.

“What about school on Monday?”

“If this is anything like the movies I don’t think we’ll have to worry about school,” he said and held out the keys, shaking them in front of her face.

The sound of more banging at the outside of the house made her decision clear.

“Alright, let’s go.  You drive,” she said and grabbed her purse from the couch.  “Wait!”

Michael had had his hand on the doorknob ready to unlock the door and run.  Tanya grabbed a couple of knives from the butcher-block knife holder by the stove.  She handed one to Michael and kept one for herself.  They threw open the door and ran down the steps toward Michael’s car, but it was already surrounded by the creatures.  They’d dented the hood and one of the doors and a spider web crack filled the entire windshield.

“Look out!” Michael yelled, pushing her aside. 

She fell to the ground, scraping one knee and losing the knife in the process, but she looked up to see her boyfriend grappling with one of the blood thirsty creatures.  He slashed several times with his knife, severing an arm before lopping off its head.  The body continued to move around, flailing its one good arm like a chicken that is too dumb to realize that it’s dead, before finally crumpling to the lush green grass.  More of them came from the back of the house and charged toward Michael.

“Run!” he said and then turned back to the monsters, sunlight glinting off the knife’s now bloody blade as he hacked at them.

She scrambled to her feet and tried for the knife before giving up and running back into the house.  As she closed and locked the door behind her she heard him yell one more time.

“Find some place safe! I’ll come back for you!”

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

Tanya wasn’t sure how long it was that she sat huddled in the farthest corner of the attic, but it had seemed like a very long time.  Her arms and legs were still sore from her climb up.  She could have used a chair, but that would risk giving away her hiding spot and she was afraid of what might happen if they found her up here.  There were no windows so it was dark and no air conditioning so it was hot.  Her mouth was bone dry and her skin was wet with sweat.  She giggled deliriously at the irony of that.  There had been many noises far below, but they had long since silenced and she was tempted to open the small plywood panel that covered the entrance to the attic.

“I can’t do that,” she said, comforted by the sound of her own voice.  At least it was a sound and a friendly one.  “If I do and they’re here they’ll know where I am.”

“But if I don’t,” she argued with herself.  “I’ll never know when it’s safe and I may die up here.”

“He said that he’d come back for me,” she replied.  “And that’s final.”

After another ten minutes or so curiosity had nearly gotten the better of her.  She had crossed to the panel and was about to remove the heavy old television off from it when she heard a bang from underneath.  It was hard enough to nearly topple the television and allow whomever it was access.

“See,” she said to herself.  “That could be one of them.”

“Yes, it could, but it could be Michael.  Did you think about that?”

Exasperated with herself she used the rest of her waning strength to move the dinosaur of a television aside and grasped the cast iron skillet she’d snagged on her way through the kitchen in one hand.  She pulled the plywood aside and was horrified to see that it was indeed Michael looking up at her, but his eyes were cloudy and his face was a mask of drying blood.  There was a nasty looking gash on one side of his head and his neck looked as if it had been ravaged by a wild animal.  He reached up at her with one hand, but kept the other concealed behind his back.

“Tanya,” he said and started to pull the hand from its hiding spot.

Before he could get his hand, and the knife clear, she swung the pan which vibrated in her hand as it collided with his skull.  He fell backward off the chair that he’d been standing on.  He landed in a heap on the carpeted floor of the upstairs hallway.  His shoes and jeans were covered in soil from the flower garden.  Horrified at what she’d just had to do she stepped down onto the chair.  She dropped to the floor beside what had once been her boyfriend.  She rolled him over, but instead of the knife as she’d expected to find she saw the he had tulips clutched in his right hand.

“Oh, my God,” she said and began to cry again.

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

It had taken about a week for life to get back to normal in the small town of Westhaven, Maine just outside of Augusta.  The National Guard had been activated from as far north as Presque Isle and as far south as Portland.  The people who had not been changed by the mysterious device that had landed in the forest that Saturday were taken to shelters in Lewiston and Waterville.  Those that had not been so lucky were rounded up.  Most were killed, their bodies burned.  A memorial would be set up in a local cemetery in honor of them, but many families still paid for a plot and a stone for their loved ones.  Some were taken by scientists to be studied in hopes that insight could be gained into exactly what had transformed normal people into crazed creatures hungering for human flesh. 

Tanya had chosen not to go to a shelter.  She had instead managed to tie Michael up securely and drive his now battered Chevy Cobalt to his grandparents’ camp in Hodgdon, Maine.  When they arrived there were no signs of his parents which indicated that they’d never made it out of Augusta before the occurrences of that awful April day.

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

Michael was sitting on the couch staring at the television.  Tanya was never sure that he knew what he was watching, but he seemed less agitated when it was on.  She came from the kitchen with a steaming bowl in her hand.

“Brains?” Michael asked as he reached for the bowl eyes lighting up.

“No.  Chicken soup.  It’s good for you,” Tanya responded, handing him the bowl. 

He may be a monster, she thought, but he’s still my boyfriend.  She sat down in a chair opposite the couch and grabbed the remote. 

NaNoWriMo Breaking News

As some of you may be aware November has been deemed National Novel Writing Month.  The idea is that around the world starting on November 1st people will begin writing their own novels with the goal that by November 30th they have written a 175 page novel or about 50,000 words.  I heard about NaNoWriMo about two years ago, but had never decided (read had the guts) to actually take the plunge.  That ends now! Starting on November 1st, 2010 I will be actually participating in the event in hopes that I will be one of those that actually achieves my goal.  I am hoping that I will have the support of any fans that I develop between now and then.  For any aspiring writers or even those who have never thought about writing, but would like to give this a try you can get more information by visiting the NaNoWriMo website at nanowrimo.org.  I hope to see you there.

50,000 words or bust!

Brains: A Love Story Part 1

                Michael and Tanya were seemingly the perfect couple.  They’d met in high school.  She was a cheerleader and he was captain of the basketball team.  They had started dating during their sophomore year and were now seniors.  After a long hard winter, one of the worst on record, the spring had come and thawed the frozen wasteland that was Maine.  With the spring renewal came the knowledge that in a few short months they would be graduating.  It was a prospect that held both extreme excitement and intense fear for the both of them.  Theirs was still a very young love, though they’d been dating for two years they had never really faced any challenges in their relationship.  They went to the same school and shared most of the same classes, but now they were going to be heading to college.  Michael had been offered scholarships to play basketball at several schools including Vermont and Michigan, but had decided on the University of Connecticut.  It was a great program that still kept him relatively close to home and to Tanya who had chosen to attend Johnson and Wales where she was planning to enter their Bachelor’s Degree program for Culinary Arts.  The closest campus was in Providence, Rhode Island. It was a good school which would give her a leg up in the competitive world of food services.

                It was a warm Saturday morning in April with only a few fluffy clouds overhead.  The chances of rain were low and the couple was lying on a blanket near the river.  Michael was propped up on his elbows looking down at the water.  A canoe with what appeared to be a father and son passed them by and on the far bank a man was sitting in a chair fishing and drinking.  Mostly he was drinking.

                “So what do you want to do today?” he asked, stealing a glance at the beauty that was his girlfriend.

                “I don’t know.  My brother has something with his Tae Kwon Do class and my parents want me to go with them,” she sighed.

                “What time is that?”

                “About four.”

                “Well, that gives us,” Michael glanced at his watch.  “About six hours.”

                He rolled over onto his side and placed his hand on her thigh.

                “That gives us plenty of time,” he smiled slyly.

                She put her hand on his in either a gesture of love or in an attempt to prevent his hand from roaming too far from its current location.

                “Did you have something in mind?” she asked, knowing exactly what he was thinking, but wanting to hear him say it anyway.

                “Well, my parents are out of town this weekend.  They went up to my grandparents’ camp in “The County” to get away.  So we could always go back to my place.  Who knows, maybe they left the liquor cabinet unlocked.”

                “You know I can’t drink today.  I’m going to be with my parents later and I’m sure they wouldn’t appreciate it if I showed up reeking of booze.”

                They were startled by a sudden noise in the bushes behind them.  They both leaped to their feet, Michael slightly behind Tanya as a large dog burst through the shrubs.  His tail was wagging and his tongue was hanging out of his mouth as he came running up to the frightened couple.  Michael started to laugh and began to pet the seemingly friendly dog.

                “How’s it going, boy?” he said to the dog and then turned to Tanya.  “The way we reacted you would’ve thought this was Cujo.”

                One look at Tanya showed that she was not in the least bit amused by the situation.  Michael stopped laughing.

                “What’s wrong, Hon?” he asked.

                “Seriously? You don’t know?”

                He shook his head.  “No, I guess I don’t.  Care to enlighten me?”

                “It could’ve been anything coming out of those bushes and where were you? You looked like you were about the jump in the river and leave me here to fend for myself.  What if it had been a rabid dog or an escapee from Shady Acres?”

                “Ok, so now I know.   The next time a rabid golden retriever or a drooling schizo from the mental hospital comes chasing us down by the river I’ll make sure that I jump in front of you.  Is that what you want to hear? Now, come on.  Let’s just go back to my place before you have to go to your brother’s stupid Tae Bo thing.”

                He reached over and grabbed her arm just above the elbow.  She yanked her arm away and turned her back to him. 

                “I know this is some big joke to you, but it’s not to me.  Starting this fall we’re going to be going to different schools in different states.  If I can’t trust you to protect me from something while we’re standing side by side how can I trust you to make the right choices when we’re not?”

                “Is that seriously what this is about? Come on, Tan, I love you!  You know I love you!  I’m going to come visit you every weekend at school!”

                “You say that now, but then some weekend there’s going to be a frat party or something and you’ll put it off for a week and next thing you know you’re sleeping with a sorority girl who’s trying to make it with the whole basketball team.”

She folded her arms over her chest in a protective gesture.  Tears were already forming in her eyes.  She knew she was being childish, but these feelings had been building up and she felt that if she didn’t express them they were going to begin to fester and cause irreparable damage to their still blossoming romance.

“Come on! I won’t even be a starter freshman year!”

She whirled on him, a look of fury in her eyes.  The tears were still glittering in them, but sadness had taken a backseat to anger.

“That’s your answer? Forget it! I’m going to the car.  When you get the blanket folded you can drive me home.  I’d rather be there with my family than here with you right now.”

Tanya stormed up the hill without so much as a look back over her shoulder at him.  Michael just stared after her, blindsided by her anger.  He reached down to pickup the blanket, turning as he did so looking out over the river.  The fisherman was still in his chair, fishing pole now set aside.  He seemed to be waving at Michael who waved back and then crumpled the blanket up and tucked it under his arm.

“Hope you enjoyed the show,” he said, not loudly enough for the man to actually hear.

He turned and headed up the hill to where his car was parked.  The man across the river was pulled out of his chair from behind and dragged into the bushes, shielding him from view.  He screamed, but if Michael heard him he gave no indication.  The dog, tail still wagging, looked from the river and then to Michael as he disappeared over the rise.  Realizing that no one was going to give him any attention now he ran back to the bushes from which he’d originally emerged.  He stopped briefly to sniff the remains of his former owner before running off.

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

The drive to Tanya’s house was filled entirely with silence.  Tanya stared out the window, moving her leg when Michael tried to place his hand on it.  When he tried to speak she simply turned on the radio and continued to watch the scenery as it passed by.  When he pulled into her driveway Michael started to get out to open her door.

“Don’t bother!” she snapped, removing her seatbelt and opening the door for herself.

She started to close the door, but then leaned her head back into the car.

“When you think of someway to fix this give me a call.  Until then I don’t want to hear from you.”

She slammed the door and jogged up the walk to the front porch.  Michael watched her go until she vanished inside and the door closed behind her.  He then backed down the driveway and into the road, narrowly missing getting hit by a speeding sedan.

                “Learn to drive! Jerk!” he said and began the drive to his house which would be empty until Sunday evening.  “Who knows? Maybe the liquor cabinet will be open.  I could use a drink.”

As Michael drove down the shady side streets that would take him to the large house that his parents owned on the outskirts of town he was surprised at the lack of people.  Normally there would be a few cars driving slowly through town heading to the golf course, or the grocery store, or even the movie theater in Augusta.  He didn’t see any kids outside tossing a baseball around or any dad’s in the backyard starting a grill for lunch.  There were no girls rolling in the lush green grass or any mothers taking advantage of the bright sunlight to work in their flower gardens.  The town seemed lifeless.

“Creepy,” he said to himself and changed the radio from the bubblegum pop station that Tanya had it set to.  “It’s like a George Romero movie.”

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

“Mom? Dad?” Tanya called as she entered the foyer of the small split level where she lived. 

The windows on both sides of the front door let in a flood of light, but the curtains must have been drawn in the rest of the house because it was filled with darkness.  The smell of that morning’s coffee still hung in the air as she entered the kitchen and opened the fridge.  She grabbed a cold diet soda and closed the fridge behind her.  She walked to the island in the center of the kitchen and opened the top of the drink, taking a long sip before noticing the note in her mother’s neat handwriting.  She picked the note up after setting the drink down on the counter and read it.

Tanya,

We know you weren’t very interested in going this afternoon and probably had plans with Mike.  So we decided to take Charlie out to lunch and then a movie before going to his belt ceremony.  We’re going to see that new animated 3D movie.  He’s wanted to see it and we thought you wouldn’t mind.  There’s stuff that you can microwave for lunch and we should be home in time for dinner.  Love you.  See you tonight.

                                                                Love,

                                                      Mom and Dad

Tanya crumpled the note and threw it in the garbage, fresh tears now in her eyes.  She wiped them with the back of her hand and picked up the soda before heading up the stairs and into her room.  She closed the door behind her and set the drink down on her nightstand before collapsing, face down, on her bed.  She pulled the pillow over her head and began to cry.  So much for a perfect Saturday with her boyfriend.

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

Michael was a short way from his house when he heard a chopper overhead.  He tried to look up at it out the window as he drove, but couldn’t spot it.  He pulled over on the soft gravel shoulder of the road, leaving the car running, and got out.  He shielded his eyes against the bright sun and found the low flying helicopter as it circled a forested area a few miles from his home.  There were others that were also making their way to the area.  A few of them appeared to be news helicopters, but at least two were military.

“That’s weird,” he said.  “I wonder what’s going on over there.”

He got back into the vehicle and hit seek on his radio trying to find a news station that would let him know what was happening in his small town.  He pulled back out onto the road and sped off toward home.  He didn’t bother to look into his rearview mirror, but if he had he would’ve spotted a man coming out of the woods in a blood stained t-shirt and ripped jeans.  His hair was a mess of blood and the rich soil of the forest floor.  He had an axe in one hand, but it was dragging behind him as if it were an afterthought.

As he pulled into the U-shaped driveway that led up to his house he continued to notice the relative absence of people in his neighborhood.  He saw a dog running off behind a nearby house with something in its mouth, but he hadn’t gotten a good look.  As he exited the vehicle and ran up the front steps he realized that though the sun was still shining more clouds had appeared and some of them had a gray hue.

“Maybe we will get that rain after all,” he said to himself.

Little did he know as he unlocked and opened the front door that a thunderstorm would be the least of his concerns in a few hours.

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

To Be Continued

Innocent Child

     Dave drove slowly down the winding country road.  He was traveling the back way from Bangor to Augusta and was in unfamiliar territory.  Bck roads in Maine tend to have the worst twists and turns of any he'd ever seen.  The speed limit sign he'd just passed proclaimed it safe to drive fifty-five, but he remained steady at ten below that.  He was in no hurry besides there were no other cars in sight.
     "Now entering Waldo County," Dave read aloud as he passed by another sign.  He examined the trees and houses that lined the road.  "Nice place."
     Dave had moved to Maine from Boston hoping to establish a law office in Bangor.  He was looking for a change in scenery, the buildings and bustle of the Massachusetts metropolis no longer held interest for him.
     As he rounded a curve he crossed a small bridge spanning a clear stream.  As he crossed he thought he'd spotted a small child playing in the waters.  Disturbed by the sight of a young girl out by the road alone he pulled over immediately after crossing the bridge.  The gravel shoulder crunched beneath the car's tires as the vehicle slowed.  He leaped from his car and ran down the steep embankment, nearly stumbling twice,but managing to keep his feet beneath him.
     "Hello.  Are you okay?" he asked the girl as he approached.  He noticed that she was shivering and pale.  "Are you lost?"
     He raised his hands as he advanced in an effort to indicate that he meant her no harm.  She didn't respond to his questions, instead turning away and continuing to splash her feet in the cold water of the stream.  Dave moved closer, examining her for any apparent injuries.  He saw none.  So pale, he thought to himself and reached out a hand to grab hold of her arm.  He drew it back after contact as if he'd been stung.  Her arm, he thought, it's like ice.
     "Are you alright/' he asked again.
     Still no response.
     Without any further thought Dave scooped the little girl into his arms and held her close to his body.  It was a warm spring day, but he held her tightly in hopes that he could ease some warmth back into her flesh.  She mumbled something into his ear that he couldn't quite hear.
     "What did you say?" he asked as he began the steep ascent to his car.
     "Thank you," she whispered into his ear again and then sunk her teeth into his neck.
     She continued to drink his warm blood even after he'd slowly crumpled to the ground.

Author's Note: Just to clear up any confusion this was written while I was still in college which would have been sometime between 1994 and 1998 so it draws no inspiration from the Twilight novels or movies in anyway.  If there were anything that inspired this short story it would have been Interview With AVampire when Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt find a young Kirsten Dunst.  Having grown up in Maine and reading a lot of Stephen King I know how freaky that small town Maine can be made to become.  I travelled this particular stretch of road on occasion and there is no telling what surprises it may hold.  I kept this in its original form and look forward to any thoughts.

Introduction

I just wanted to take a few moments to introduce myself and let you know what you can expect to see here. My name is Ed and I currently reside in sunny Florida. I went to college to get a degree in creative writing. Which is to say that I went to school to learn such phrases as "Do you want fries with that?" or "Thank you. Please drive through." Though the next great American novelist thing never panned out for me I have continued to write off and on during the ensuing years. What that means to me as an unpublished author is that I have a lot of material that is cluttering up various binders, shelves, and drawers in my house and is doing me no good. What I will be doing here is taking some of that already written material as well as new material that I come up with and will be posting it here for your enjoyment. Or at least hopefully it is enjoyed. I certainly look forward to any comments no matter how harsh. Don't worry about my feelings. I can take it. I hope. On some ocassions I may also use this as a forum to express ideas that I'm having and the struggles of writing, but that is not the intended purpose so hopefully I can keep that to a minimum. That is what you can expect of me. I'm new at this so we'll see where this wild ride takes us.