02.29.08
Posted in Writing, Photography, Sea of Dreams, Second Chances at 3:22 pm by Bryan
Yeah, I know. I tease you into thinking that I’m going to start keeping up with the blog and then I disappear again. Well, I’m back, and I’ll try to do better.
I’ve been working quite a bit at getting the photography business up and running, as well as writing when I need a change of pace. I just started up a new site for online photo sales. Getting that started was a huge hassle since it was done under severe time pressures. I had to have things ready by this weekend. I just made it. I’m doing the photo upload even as I write to you now (and will be for another two hours).
It is not ready for “public” sales yet, just existing clients, but it will be soon. You can find it at http://bjwcreations.lifepics.com/ though at the moment you need an event code to access any photos. The nice thing about this site is that I can sort the images by client, giving each client access to only their photos, and I can accept orders and payments, the images are automatically transfered to my photo lab when the order is submitted, confirmation e-mails are automatically sent to my client when the order is placed, printed, and shipped (though at the moment I don’t have the shipping option ready). Eventually, if I wanted to, I could do a photographic road trip and be able to get images to clients around the country with very little hassle.
Other than the photography, I’ve been doing some writing… though not on “Sea of Dreams”. I’ve been working on “Second Chances” instead. I’m not sure why, other than it seems to be the one that is coming through easier. I actually have a complete story outline now and am working on replacing notes like “stuff happens here” with actual stuff. With “Sea of Dreams” I’m still not sure about where things are going… especially with Gabby. My main problem is that Gabby doesn’t really have much of an arc other than her adjustment to living without Steve. She’s fairly well put together and her adjustment is remarkably easy, which helps her deal with Ian’s issues but makes you wonder about how real she really is.
So, until I figure out how to screw her up without ruining her, I’ve put it on the back burner.
There you have it.
There it is.
I’ll try not to make you wait so long until the next update.
One hour twenty-nine minutes left. I guess I’ll go read the news.
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01.11.08
Posted in Writing, Photography at 10:30 am by Bryan
I’ve been on an extended hiatus. Not intentionally, mind you, but life has been conspiring, conspiring I say, to make the creative process as difficult as humanly possible. Stress had begun to build as long ago as September, and by the end of October it seemed that everything had fallen apart. November was mired in a depression that managed to kill every creative instinct I had. Life has kicked me in the balls and driven off every hope that I’d managed to build in the last four years.
Or has it?
Is it just possible that I’ve had an opportunity given to me. I actually have time to do what I’ve wanted to do for a very long while. Admittedly, my lifestyle has undergone yet another downsizing, even more than it had before, and truthfully, for the most part, I’m pretty boring now, but it’s made me realize just how lean I can live. And that in turn has suggested just how do-able my dreams might be.
Twelve weddings. That’s it. Twelve weddings a year could maintain me in the manner to which I’ve newly become accustomed. Twelve. In a year. One a month. That’s do-able, right? Everything else is gravy.
And time. Time to write. Time to create. Time to work on the website (which by the way is about half redesigned).
Cursed? Or blessed? Is it a sign? Well, if it is a sign, I would have much preferred a winning lottery ticket and a phone call from the photography department of Victoria’s Secret. But who am I to judge.
I think it’s time to get busy… to treat this opportunity with the passion with which I would have greeted it had it come at a time of my choosing.
I may not have money. But I do have time.
And desire.
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09.19.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:51 pm by Bryan
Afore I be forgettin’, it’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day, so, go forth and hug a Pirate. Just be careful not to get stuck on his hook.
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09.13.07
Posted in Writing, Mallory at 2:34 pm by Bryan
So here’s my conundrum: everybody likes Mallory. People think Mallory should get more of my attention. Apparently, Mallory needs a book of his own.
Why is this an issue? Well, because Mallory wasn’t intended to be a story. He was invented so that Ian wouldn’t pick his nose. If Mallory is to get a real story, it means I need to actually sit down and figure out where I’m going with this. To this point in the tale, there are several unknowns. Is Tab being truthful about her parents? Will Mallory listen to his head, or will his hormones win out and get him involved with a much younger woman? If his hormones win, who will it be; Tab or Chloe? Or both? Is his heart involved in the decision at all? How is Danny involved in this and what risk is Chloe in now? What the hell is going on in the larger story?
See, the benefit of not really taking him seriously is that I can let the story write itself, and not worry about things like does a Cessna 172 have enough fuel to fly from Miami to St. Vincent or did he need to stop somewhere else along the way? and How expensive would it have been to fly Chloe there, and who paid for it? You know, little things like that.
Oh, and the big drawback, if I write this as a book, you all realize that Mallory won’t be featured here anymore unless it’s a scene I cut, right?
Plus, it would mean I have five active manuscripts. That’s 25% more than I have now!
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09.11.07
Posted in Writing at 9:52 am by Bryan
The winning entry for the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest has been announced.
Gerald began–but was interrupted by a piercing whistle which cost him ten percent of his hearing permanently, as it did everyone else in a ten-mile radius of the eruption, not that it mattered much because for them “permanently” meant the next ten minutes or so until buried by searing lava or suffocated by choking ash–to pee.
Jim Gleeson
Madison, WI
You can see all of the results here.
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09.06.07
Posted in Writing, Samples, Mallory at 6:45 pm by Bryan
Yeah, yeah. It’s way past time. I know.
First of all, all that stuff in the comments? Didn’t happen.
Second of all, I very nearly sat down to write this while I was in Dayton but I figured awing you all with my ability to compose it on the fly would have been far outweighed by the sight of me bashing my skull against the keyboard, not to mention the anti-social message that would have sent at breakfast. Besides, I think DDD was wanting to update her MySpace page.
Edit ~ for the latecomers to the Mallory tale, if you click on Mallory under Categories in the sidebar, or click on the Mallory tag at the top of this post, you will see a page with only Mallory posts. They are in reverse order, so read from the bottom up.
So, I’m standing there, at the end of the dock, trying to ignore all the little problems that seem to be creeping up during this case. You know, like Chloe thinking I got the hots for Tab even though she knows I never get involved with clients. The little digs she offers… just examples of how imperfect Tab really is. I feel like I’m back in friggin’ gradeschool. Jeez.
Nah, that’s a minor problem. Doesn’t even compare to the fact that Tab’s all but seized up on me and ain’t worth a nickel for information anymore. Killing that punk has really done a number on her. I got half a mind to drop the case right now. And I would, except for the kinda big problem I’m facing at the moment: I know the guy sittin’ on Tab’s parents’ boat. None other than Danny Martinez, Chloe’s boss at the strip joint. Yep, I’m fucked.
Worse than that, Chloe’s gotta get outta here too, ’cause if this hombre is responsible for whatever happened to Tab’s parents, he wouldn’t think twice about makin’ a nosey stripper disappear.
Which means, of course, I gotta think of something right quick because I can see Chloe walking down the dock toward me and there ain’t no way I’m gonna be able to head her off before Danny sees her. I do get a little distracted for a moment, but you can’t really blame me. She’s got one hot, tight body, and that little black bikini really shows it off well. And even just walking it’s like she’s dancing. As I start back toward her, I try to time it so’s we wind up at the transom of Midas’ Touch at the same time.
Danny’s on deck watching me as we approach. Chloe’s watching me, too, a curious look on her face. I’m blowin’ it here. I break into a big grin and open my arms wide. She’s confused for about half a second and then plays along and rushes to me.
“Chloe?”
We break off a kiss that I hadn’t realized we’d started and Chloe turns to the boat.
“Danny! What are you doing here?”
God, I love this kid.
“On vacation. What are you doing here?” Danny looked me up and down, recognizing me but unable to place me.
“I took a week off.” Turning to me, she said, “You remember Mal? He used to come into the club now and then.”
“Right. The bounty hunter, right?”
“No, P.I. Bounty hunting is a bit more dangerous than I’m looking for. It’s worse than being in repo. I handle divorce cases, mostly.”
“Whatcha doing here with my Chloe?”
His possessiveness irritated me. Chloe sensed it and gently squeezed my arm.
“We figured to rent a sailboat for a while.” Danny glared at me. “Look, I know you got a policy, but I ain’t a customer no more, and I haven’t been for a good while now. Chloe and me ran into each other a couple months back. We’re just friends.”
He didn’t look convinced, but I don’t think he was looking to start an argument either.
“Yeah, well, we’ll talk about it when I get back, Chloe. Don’t get in any trouble while your down here.”
“I won’t,” she said with a smile. And then she tugged on my arm and we headed back to shore.
It was when we were walking back arm in arm, with the feeling of her swaying beside me, that I realized Chloe’d slipped me her tongue. Shit, shit, shit. I’m so screwed.
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07.06.07
Posted in Writing at 11:25 am by Bryan
So I was catching up with some blog friends and saw that Crystal Inman had a rating of PG-13 on her blog. Out of curiosity, I ran the utility here. Guess what? I’m “R” rated. Huh? I think more than warning off your kids, I need to warn my Mum.
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06.29.07
Posted in Writing at 3:05 pm by Bryan
Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made. ~ John Godfrey Saxe, 1869
I know that I promised you Mallory, and please trust that though this post is again political in nature it is not going to be a trend, but recent events have concerned me enough that I felt another political post was necessary.
As many of you know, the Senate vote on cloture for S. 1639, variously referred to as “Immigration Reform” and “Amnesty”, failed this week. I don’t wish to discuss the pros and cons of the bill, nor do I wish to debate whether or not the bill would have the desired effects of the various proponents or opponents. I’m less concerned with the content of the bill than the process used to try to pass it.
We have just witnessed something that has never happened in the history of our country. An incomplete bill, with known problems, was put together in closed session with a handful of senators. The incomplete bill was then brought to the full senate, ammended to replace the entire text in what can only be described as a clay pigeon tactic, and when one of the Senators asked for the new text to be read it became necessary to adjourn the Senate because it wasn’t finished yet.
I don’t care which side of the aisle you’re on, or whether you were for or against the eventual law as written (though how you could know what was in 400 pages of law within hours of it’s completion boggles the mind), the process invoked was more disgusting than watching sausage being made.
There is a reason that the government is “of the people, by the people, for the people” and it is not so that our representatives can concoct laws behind closed doors and then pass them with even the majority of the Senators voting on them being in the dark as to the actual contents of the bill.
If you think this is a good idea… if you think the ends justify the means… then you need to seriously reconsider the type of government that you really want, because that is not the one we were founded upon.
This was not a “party line” vote in any respect. Though supporters did lean more in one direction than the other, there were many who crossed party lines in both directions. I have never been more disappointed in my government than I was this week, but I also found some reason for hope.
The issue of illegal immigration still needs to be addressed. Whether or not to grant amnesty to those in this country illegally is a decision that still needs to be made. Whether or not we need to secure the borders is a decision that still needs to be made. Whether or not to enforce the laws of this country as they have been written is a decision that still needs to be made. How to do whatever it is we decide needs to be done is a decision that still needs to be made. But whatever is done needs to be done in the full light of day.
Our representatives have been heading down this road for a long while now. They have shown that they can’t be trusted to act responsibly without supervision. It’s time they realize that they serve at our pleasure. It’s time to watch the sausage makers.
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06.25.07
Posted in Photography at 10:39 am by Bryan
especially since it appears that I’m not updating regularly. Well, just so you know, there is another Mallory installment in the works, but I’ve found myself involved in a lot of photography related tasks lately.
First, I finally had the big wedding portfolio shoot. I had two models down from Ft. Wayne, one I’d worked with before the other contacted me as I was finalizing plans. So we did the dress and the getting ready and some lingerie, but we also did some professional/lifestyle work and some bikini stuff too. I’ll have results by this weekend.
The other thing that has been taking up some time is getting to know the folks at Ujena Swimwear. I’ve become an affiliate with them, and I’m seriously considering attending their Bikini Jam in Spain in May of ‘08. They have some great swimwear (some of which is on my website here) as well as clothes and accessories. If you decide to shop there, be sure to use Promo Code 983 to receive free shipping if the shop doesn’t automatically take care of that for you.
Next up… Mallory.
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05.22.07
Posted in Modeling at 8:12 am by Bryan
You may have noticed the new link in the Model section of my sidebar. I’ve been going out to her blog for a while now and finally decided to add her link there. I think my strategy is that model blogs will link from this page and the links to profiles and portfolios will link from my photography page so, eventually, most of the model links that are there now will move.
You may recognize Elyse Sewell from the first cycle of America’s Next Top Model. She was the future medical student who made it to the top three. I’ve never worked with her, never spoken to her, never written to her, and probably couldn’t afford to work with her unless I snagged a major advertising campaign. Not likely in the immediate future. So, I’ve linked to her for no other reason than I like her look and I like her writing. She seems to tell it like it is.
And I like that.
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05.17.07
Posted in Writing at 10:40 am by Bryan
I have a concern. While the core of my concern could be boiled down to a matter of politics, it goes deeper than that. It goes to the responsibility which has been abdicated by journalists specifically, but authors more generally. My concern arises from my day job as a librarian, a reference librarian, a reference librarian responsible for selecting non-fiction titles to include in our collection of books, a reference librarian responsible for helping students in the community locate materials to use in their research.
In a perfect world, journalists are unbiased reporters of fact. In truth, that’s more the exception than the rule, and it always has been. Journalists have helped start wars. They’ve helped intervention in wars and they’ve advocated the abandonment of wars. Journalists helped ratify The Constitution and elect Presidents and on occasion announce the wrong winner of an election.
Call me an idealist, but I believe in the utopian ideal of journalism, and so do most journalists, or so they say when asked directly. But if you ask why they went into journalism in the first place, they rarely say that they want to lay out the facts. They usually answer that they are interested in being an advocate, or an activist, or a means of change. Not necessarily in those words, but they want to do something. They want to play a part in shaping the world.
That’s fine. That’s journalism, and it always has been. It’s not what they claim, but being a reporter of facts is loftier, nobler, than being a shaper of the news. The latter seems dirtier, akin to “Yellow Journalism”. Nobody would willingly give themselves a job title of Purveyor of Falsehood and Lies. And let me back off of that just a bit. I don’t even believe that of them. But neither do I hold on to the notion that journalists are unbiased.
Fake, But Accurate
One of the more glaring examples of media bias is CBS News’ investigation into George W. Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard. The investigation began in 1999 by looking for evidence of preferential treatment. None was found other than one hearsay statement by former Texas State Representative Jake Johnson regarding a conversation with General James M. Rose in which the General claimed to have “put Bush in the TANG”. The story was dropped until mid-2000.
In 2000, Lieutenant Colonel Bill Burkett alleged that Bush’s military records had been “scrubbed”. CBS did not pursue the story further until the summer of 2004.
Lieutenant Colonel Burkett reappeared in early 2004, making the rounds on television news programs. Almost immediately, contradictions began to appear in his story. In early September 2004, he met with Mary Mapes, Dan Rather’s producer on 60 Minutes Wednesday, and supplied her with documents which purported to show that Bush had been suspended from flying status, and that pressure was applied in order to get a good officer review. They ran with the story. These documents were later proved to be forgeries, but CBS continued to defend the story they aired on September 8th for months. Even now, Mapes and Rather contend that the documents may have been fake, but the story was accurate.
CBS’ own internal investigation of the failure to ensure a fair and accurate story had this to say:
While the focus of the Panel’s investigation at the outset was on the Killian documents, the investigation quickly identified considerable and fundamental deficiencies relating to the reporting and production of the September 8 segment and the statements and news reports during the aftermath. These problems were caused primarily by a myopic zeal to be the first news organization to broadcast what was believed to be a new story about President Bush’s TexANG service, and the rigid and blind defense of the segment after it aired despite numerous indications of its shortcomings.
CBS News is still feeling the backlash from this episode. The ratings for The Evening News dropped precipitously, and even today, with Katie Couric as the anchor, the ratings continue to fall, though more likely due to other reasons.
(An aside here, because, while Couric is going to take the blame along with an American public that is “not ready” for a female anchor, and potential women news anchors will pay the price, I believe the blame still lies with CBS News. The organization decided that it would “soften” the news to fit its anchor, rather than allowing Couric to adapt her style to hard news. CBS never gave her the chance to prove herself, and thereby doomed her to failure.)
So why do I care about broadcast journalism? I began this piece whining about my responsibilities as a reference librarian, right? Well, guess who writes the books that wind up in Dewey 070? Journalists. They also write in the 300’s and the 900’s. Mapes and Rather each have books, and each have written in defense of a flawed news report. Each continues to believe that Bush’s service in TANG was somehow less than honorable.
It’s Not All Politics. Well, Okay, Maybe It Is.
Why would a significant portion of the country continue to advocate fighting a war that can’t be won and, even if it can be won, probably shouldn’t be fought in the first place? What? No, I’m not talking about Iraq. I’m talking about Global Warming.
You’re probably confused because I jumped straight into my closing argument without arguing the beginning first.
Ask a teenager, any teenager, who is the preeminent expert on Global Warming? If he doesn’t say “Huh?” because you used the word “preeminent”, he’ll probably say AlGore. And he’d be wrong. There are many scientific problems with AlGore’s book, not the least of which is the simple fact that he ignores the problem of Global Warming on Mars. What’s that got to do with anything, you ask. Well, if Mars is undergoing a similar period of global warming, and there are no humans on Mars, then how can anything that we humans do be attributed as the largest contributor to the phenomenon? What is the single factor affecting climate that both Mars and Earth have in common? Right, the Sun. So, why would people who believe that humans adversely affect the natural order of things advocate that humans intervene in a natural process?
Well, because that’s not really what it’s about. It’s about power. It’s about political systems.
One of my favorite reference items to hand out to college kids looking for sources on Global Warming is the April 28, 1975 issue of Newsweek. It contains an article on the Global Cooling crisis and mentions possible options like melting the arctic ice cap by covering it with a black soot, and diverting arctic rivers. That was only 32 years ago.
A scientific consensus is not proof. It is the lack of proof that signals the need for a consensus. We no longer require a consensus to say that the moon revolves around the Earth. It is an accepted fact. We need a consensus to say that CO2 is the key ingredient to Global Warming because the competing theory is that solar radiation is the key ingredient, and we have no control over the Sun. If it’s solar radiation, there is no solution, and therefore no grant money. And this, my friend, is why AlGore ignores Mars.
Edit ~ by the way, contrary to popular belief, the climate is not now hotter than it’s ever been. It’s hotter now than it’s been in recorded history, which in temperature recording is only since the late 1800’s. You know that place, Greenland? The place that’s so cold even the Canadians don’t want it? The place when they were figuring out who got what, the Danes kinda looked around before raising their hand and saying “Yeah, sure, why not? We’ll take it.”? Yeah, that place. It was called Greenland because the Vikings actually thought it looked like a pleasant place to live. Of course, that was before the Little Ice Age came along and they all froze to death. We still haven’t fully recovered from that little episode yet.
So, I ask again, why would a significant portion of the country continue to advocate fighting a war that can’t be won and, even if it can be won, probably shouldn’t be fought in the first place?
But more importantly, when choosing books for the collection, should my section on climate change include all theories, only those theories accepted by a consensus, or only the theories I agree with, and should I try to influence the researchers selection of the materials available to him when I’m asked for assistance?
Lies and Damn Lies.
By far, my biggest concern in selecting non-fiction books is when the book in question is known to be suspect from the beginning. Two recent books have major problems, and both are books that you can’t not have. Jimmy Carter’s book Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid is one example. There were so many problems with the book that Kenneth W. Stein actually resigned as Executive Director of the Carter Center, and wrote an extended rebuttal to the book in The Middle East Quarterly.
Another problem is George Tenet’s book At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA which similarly has factual problems, not the least of which is a very vivid recounting of a conversation he had on the steps of the White House on September 12th, 2001 with Richard Perle in which Perle supposedly said “Iraq has to pay a price for what happened yesterday. They bear responsibility.” The problem: Perle was in France on the 12th and, since airlines were grounded, was unable to return to the US until the 15th. Perle says that not only did he not say that on September 12th, he never said that.
So what do I do? Here I have two books, one by a former President of the United States, the other by a former CIA chief who, under two different Presidents, was perhaps one of the most important actors at the dawn of the twenty-first century, and neither source can be trusted. It’s fine, if you begin your research with the understanding that these sources have problems, or in the process of researching you discover that others point to these flaws, but what about the poor kid who really just wants the bare minimum of sources. Suppose he’s doing a report on President Bush and the only two books he checks out are by Mapes and Rather. He gets the same story, twice, and they’re both wrong.
I have a concern. I liked non-fiction a lot more before I became a reference librarian.
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05.16.07
Posted in Writing at 2:56 pm by Bryan
I just want to clear up one thing, and it’s probably a matter of semantics, but I do not post excerpts. The Mallory posts are created on the fly. Everything that exists in the Mallory world has been posted, and new words are not created until a new post is required.
So, unlike some people, I don’t have half a manuscript worth of stuff to pull from. I have to sit, and think, and write. The really bad part is that I don’t even have a plot. You know what happens next? Yeah, me neither.
One thing I did notice, and I believe that the method, or lack of method, is a contributing factor, is that the voice is different. In the first post, before I realized he was going to become a recurring character, Mallory was much more cliche’ in his speaking style. He used the word “dame” for crying out loud. As he’s grown, he’s become more up-to-date, though still heavily influenced by the Dashiell Hammett-like character he was. This was not an intentional change, just one that happened because I was in a different mood when I wrote it. If Mallory ever does become a character for the printed page, he’ll have to fix on one speaking style and stick to it.
Anyway, all this is to say, it ain’t as easy as it looks.
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05.11.07
Posted in Writing at 9:13 am by Bryan
So, yeah, originally this was going to be poetry, but then, um, no. Self-awareness kicked in and convinced me that, not only would it pretty much suck, it would probably be pretty stupid too.
Note - Doritos were involved.
But this post is dedicated to orangehands, and many, many others. While writing a blog is not indicative of the ability to write a book, it does give one many opportunities to assess one’s ability, to float ideas, to get that feedback in a lifestyle that is essentially solitary. Some of my friends here are writers. Some are readers. Others are family just looking for news because I rarely call. But everyone comes here to read what I’ve written, and that, my friends, is pretty special.
Worthy of an ode, even.
It’s hard to imagine that I’ve only been writing about writing for a year now (officially next week is the anniversary). In that year, I’ve met a half-dozen imaginary people, spoken to another half-dozen imaginary people on the phone, and consider many other imaginary people to be my friends. But just as important as the friendship, perhaps more so, is the support.
It seems that when my doubts are the strongest, I’m able to post something that inspires people to inspire me. How weird is that? It still hasn’t translated to a finished book, but progress is being made.
For that, you have my thanks.
And an ode to orangehands.
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05.01.07
Posted in Writing at 9:15 am by Bryan
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Not necessarily why do I write, but more along the lines of why do any of us write? It’s not a competition, is it? We don’t read each other’s work and think to ourselves, I can do better than that. Tolstoy? Ha!
But then again…
There are two pieces to the puzzle, I think. First, we have to have a story to tell. And that story has to be insistent. It has to want to be written. It has to drive us nuts, until, exhausted with the thinking about it, we can’t stand it any more and have to write it down, for no other reason than we just can’t sleep at night.
But then, we need to have a certain confidence in ourselves. Not delusions of grandeur, mind you, but a confidence that we can do our story justice. I will most likely never be studied in school alongside Shakespeare or Twain or Poe. But with my story, I can do a decent job. I’m better than some, not nearly as good as others.
We’re not writers because we want to be the best. We’re not even really that concerned about whether we get an agent, or a publisher, or how high up the best-seller list we go. In the end, all we really care about is putting the story on the page in the best way we know how. In the end, it’s really about hoping one day to get a good night’s sleep.
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04.28.07
Posted in Writing, Samples, Mallory at 2:47 pm by Bryan
First, the ado.
Um… I got nuthin’. Okay, on with the show.
Pirates! Unbestinkinlievable. We’re looking for pirates. And I’m pretty sure they’re not out there on the high seas flying the ol’ skull and bones, wearing eye patches, and sayin’ ”Argh” to the parrots sittin’ on their shoulders.
I shoulda told this girl to get outta my office when I had the chance.
To top it all off, any minute now the cops are going to be looking into the mysterious death of a local thug, trying to figure out how he managed to stab himself with his own knife. For a criminal mastermind, this guy wasn’t too bright. First he tells me everything I want to know, then he tries to take the gun away from me. Did he think I was just a tourist?
“Have you ever killed anyone before?” Tab asked from the bed.
“Yeah.” I didn’t look at her. Just kept my head down studying the map. I really hoped Tab had something under that t-shirt she was wearing.
I rubbed my brow in an effort to kickstart my brain. Hell, maybe it was just to block the glare from the desk lamp. Whatever. I was getting a headache. Truth be told, I think I was actually trying to erase the vision seared into my mind’s eye. The blood was almost black. Goober’d bled out in less than ten minutes.
There were four marinas on the the island. With any luck, these guys had put into one of them recently and I’d be able to find somebody who wasn’t currently dead to talk about it. I needed to get Chloe here. I needed someone with experience to help with this case. And I needed to get my mind off the fact that Tab was definitely not wearing a bra under that t-shirt. Jeez, my head hurt.
“Do you ever get over it?”
“No. You get used to it, but you never get over it.”
I decided to call Chloe in the morning. She’d be pissed off that I woke her, but she’d be happy to get out of town for a while. Then I’d take a look around the first marina, alone. No more risks with Tab.
She was quiet.
I turned to see if she was okay, and what I saw nearly broke my heart. She was sitting up on the bed, arms wrapped around her knees, just shivering. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, but she didn’t cry, not really. Just shook. I couldn’t help it. I went to her.
Thank God she’s wearing panties, I thought.
“I was so scared,” she said.
“I know.”
“When he went at you like that…”
“I know,” I said again.
I held her tight, whispering that everything would be all right. I hated lying to her, but she’d realize soon enough that her life would never be the same. It’s not every day a girl stabs a guy in the liver.
Didn’t expect that, did you? Yeah, me neither. Can’t wait to find out what happens next.
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