Sorry, nothing about the FAA today...

So I want to be a writer... 

All I have to do is rekindle the fire...

For that, I need some matches.  Or a couple of rocks.  That'd be more my style, bang some rocks together until something creative comes out.  Of course, the neighbors will probably look askance if I sit under the willow tree, bashing fist sized quartz cobbles together.  Might be fun, but I'm going to need a scotch or two.  On the rocks (pun intended...)

As long as I'm banging rocks together, let's see what ideas do come out.  Way back when, I outlined a few storylines to work on, eventually I chose Imperfect Hope to work on first.  I did indeed finish the first draft, printed it out, and promised myself a break before getting back into the grind.  I suppose a year and a half is a long enough break.  I've started rereading IH, taking notes on the storyline, and trying to see how much rewrite, as opposed to revision, it's going to need.

I know I touched on it a bit ago, but right off the bat, I can see my opening is weak.  Not so much the writing, but the concept.  What I'd decided way back when I finished the first draft was that I was starting the story as if the readers were already familiar with the protagonists.  In essence, it was as if I was writing the third installment of a three book series, assuming the reader already had "an investment" in the characters.  So...  I did start writing the new origin of the story, untitled and, as yet, without a firm plotline other than a hope to introduce the main characters (and all the background) to the readers in a more involving manner. 

However...  The storyline needs to be developed before I go any further.  So time to get a brainstorm on...

I need a real gully-buster of a brainstorm.  Filled with thunder and lightning, blizzard conditions, maybe a tornado or two...

Hmmm...

More to come...

Clear skies, (except, perhaps, in the new project...)
Jim

7 months to go...

Here we are in september already.  Guess I'll start a countdown, 7 months to retirement.  Barring any surprises, my last day as an air traffic controller will be march 31st, next year.  Guess what...  I'll be ready...

It's silly season again, political ads are spewing filth all over the place.  Despite the fact that almost nothing you see or hear from either side tells you anything useful except what a despicable character the opponent is or makes vague, unattainable promises, there are those who believe what they see and hear as "TRUTH".  Bad enough we get it from paid advertisements on television, worse that our "unlisted" phone gets bombarded with "unknown" recorded messages that bark inanities to our answering machine.  (note to any political's reading this, if the number shows up as unknown or blocked, we don't answer, and chances are the message will be deleted seconds into the recording.  (Oh wait, a political reading...  not gonna happen...))

The latest recorded message to hit our phone, played by both sides, is a fake town hall meeting, where you supposedly get to hear a broadcast of a live town meeting, and perhaps if you're lucky and answer the phone, you can ask the candidate a real question.  Except it's baldly plain it's merely another recording.  What's really annoying about this, however, is that it ties up my phone line for several minutes of some nim-null blathering on about bull****.  It's not easy to get them off your line, either, if you pick up the phone and hang it back up, somehow it remains connected, and minutes later, if you try and use your phone, ta-daa, they're still blathering...

Another exceedingly annoying part of this years campaign are the non-stop "status updates" on facebook.  Okay, it's your right to like either candidate.  I'd really rather not have you re-post political propaganda that I have to then go in and block from showing up on my page.  The problem is, in most cases, it's pure party propaganda, the same unsubstantiated rumor/half-truth/lie that is getting broadcast on TV or spewed into the answering machine of my home phone.  If the info being shared were anything other than leftist or rightist propaganda, I might read it.  I won't read/listen to propaganda from either side.  I don't care if you heard that first lady Michelle Obama has a staff of 22, the most of any first lady (and check out snopes.com to debunk that myth), or that Romney didn't pay taxes for more than 10 years, an unnamed source told me so...(really, an unnamed source?  What about the rumor I heard...  Bleah!)   Junior High School students make up better gossip than that...

Oh the joys of being an independent voter in a battleground state....

Clear skies,
Jim