Something Stinks

We've been in this house about nine years now. When we bought it, the developer had obtained a large area for further construction, but our street was on the very edge of the group of finished homes. The developer didn't seem to be in any great hurry to fill in all that empty space and it seemed like it wasn't long before the housing market nose dived. So for the better part of five or six years, our street was on the very edge of a large vacant area - just paved streets and lots for later expansion. It was a great area to walk dogs and get away from the house for a bit. Slowly, over the last few years, houses have been built in this large area, gradually filling it in. Alas, it seems that somewhere in that time that it stood empty, a clan of skunks decided to homestead and when those pesky humans came along and started moving the dirt around with big machines, pouring concrete and slapping up pieces of wood, they got just a wee bit...upset. About three times a week, the pungent aroma of skunk is wafting through the neighborhood and there is nothing subtle about it. I walked outside the other night to throw something in the garbage and the smell hit me like a brick wall. I hope the construction crews and the skunks can come to an agreement quite soon, cuz my nose just cannot take many more nights of the skunkpocalyspe.

Private Practice

So I actually started writing again tonight. Not on any specific project, but just as an exercise. I picked a scene out of thin air: two people in a fantasy world returning to town after something major has happened. What had happened? I had no idea, but the pair - a young man and woman - began talking of the future. In the course of this conversation, I learned that a killer had recently arrived in the vicinity had begun terrorizing the locals. The young man - Kell - pushed this wacko off a cliff after a desperate confrontation that ultimately saved more lives than just his own. He's now planning on getting back to life as he knows it,working at an inn, but his female companion is pointing out that people like the deceased killer don't come poking around small communities and asking the unusual  questions he did without someone having sent him. Indeed, going back to life as it had been may not be possible. Someone may come looking for the missing killer and have issue with the youth responsible for disposing of him.

So what happens next? I sure as hell don't know. I just started writing and let the flow take me. Tomorrow I may pick that scene back up or begin an entirely new one. The point is for me to write and get accustomed to doing it again everyday. I'm still turning over numerous ideas in my head for stories, but until one really gels just right, I'll mostly be writing for practice.

The Lost Ninja Turtle

Tonight we had pizza for dinner. Suffice it to say, I love pizza. I can eat it all the time. While my favorite topping by far is pepperoni, I can handle almost anything with the exception of pineapple and anchovies...and vegetarian pizzas. Seriously, I'll have a salad if I want veggies.

I cannot even begin to count how many pizza's I've eat over the years (probably somewhere between 1500 and 2000). Twenty years ago, my (ex) fiancee noted that the local pizza place should have had a frequent buyer program because I ordered delivery so much. That itself stemmed from my mother's attitude toward cooking. See, mom had me later in life, at age 43, so by the time I was in my late teens, she was pushing 60 and had pretty much grown tired of cooking meals everyday. She figured thirty years of cooking was enough. It helped that my sisters were gone and I was the only one still at home. My dad worked odd hours and usually prepared his own meals, so mom left it up it up to me to fend for myself much of the time. This led to me ordering a pizza for delivery at least once a week.

25-ish years later, and I still eat pizza at least once a week, often times more than once. This week we've had it twice so far. For the wife and I, the main reason we go that route is because at the end of the day, we're both so wiped out from our jobs that neither of us really want to cook, and since I drive for a living and spend all day behind the wheel, the last thing I want to do at dinner time is go out...so we order pizza.

Cowabunga.

Beware The Blog

So...15 months later...

It's funny how one can make a decision to do something and keep telling themselves to do it, but never get around to doing it. I am a chronic procrastinator and more times than I can recall have put off something for later and then never actually done it. Maybe this time I can actually kick myself in the ass to do the things I want to do...like post in this blog on a regular basis.

I have so many interests and not enough time to devote to them all. Reading? Yes, I have hundreds of books on my to-read-list and I am constantly adding more with frequent trips to the book store. Lately I have begun to realize that many of those books I may never get to. Life is only so long.

B-movie reviewing? Yes. One of my passions is my website, Shadow's B-Movie Graveyard. I love writing up the reviews there, but as fans of that site have noticed, it's been over a year since the last review and even then, they were rather sporadic. I keep watching such films and even began writing my next review, but got sidetracked. I still want to work on that site regularly.

Writing? Another yes. In 2009 I really poured a lot of time and effort into my writing after years and years of talking about it. I managed to sell about three dozen short stories and saw them in print online and in small press books and magazines. Then I abruptly stopped. To this day I still don't understand why. Yes, I got sidetracked by the same thing that curtailed my movie reviews, but I always told myself that it was just a temporary thing. Well, here it is, 2013 and I have done little writing since early 2010.

Of course, I know why some of those things got pushed aside. I got heavily into the wargaming hobby and spent a lot (The Other Half says it was too much) of money on miniatures and paints and other such hobby supplies. Is it fun? Well, I certainly enjoy it and aim to continue, but it never really brought as much satisfaction as my writing, whether it was for the movie site or my own fiction.

So here it is, the beginning of a new year and I thought it would be a great time to get back into the swing of things and return to my writing. It will be slow going at first, as I try to work the kinks out these atrophied writing muscles. Plus, I will need to set and maintain a schedule that allows me time for all my pursuits, but I aim to keep at it this time.