Author Archives: Alice
Cannon Fodder
I mentioned before that Jakarta had a tendency to get overrun. That really stood out during our walking tour of Fatahillah Square. I don’t remember if these cannons were moved to the square after the Dutch left or before. Now it’s quite clear they are not a danger to anyone. More like a playground. Seems to me that’s the right direction for things like this.
An Afternoon in Jakarta
After wandering around in a market, visiting a mosque, and talking to the local version of a relief society, we got in these tiny three wheeled cars and braved Jakarta’s traffic to go to a restaurant for lunch. This is a lot more daring than it sounds. Traffic in Jakarta is insane! Mind you I think traffic in a lot of places is nuts. Ulaan Battar comes to mind. Turns out Jakarta is far from the only city in Indonesia […]
Suzie’s House 430 : Permission
“This.. this is nice.” Emma glanced at Kate as the two of them walked down State Street together. She couldn’t remember the last time just the two of them hung out together. “Yeah. We should do this more often.”
NaNo and Family
I am particularly blessed because my family not only understands my need to write, they enthusiastically join me. Since I’m by far the most experienced in the field, our in-house word wars have hardly been fair. I generally take a handicap of a couple hundred. This hasn’t exactly sat well with either Mr. Al or The Girl. Even when they would win if we counted the handicap, they weren’t satisfied. They both wanted to out-write me straight out. This year, […]
Wired
When Ted was little, he buried treasure in the back yard. He knew he wouldn’t remember where he buried it, so he attached a wire to the box and left the wire poking out of the dirt. After his parents died, he inherited the house. For a few years he let renters stay there. He never did any maintenance and didn’t keep up with the property tax. Eventually, he had to sell it. For old times sake, he went to […]
A Morning in Jakarta
The tour I was on only gave us one full day in Jakarta. The national guide actually considered it a light day and mentioned consideration for our jet lag, but it seemed plenty full to me. We started off with a ride in the tour bus to a local market. I already told you all about that. I noticed that people tended to stare at us before, during, and after we passed. Yet I got the feeling we were hardly […]
Suzie’s House 429 : An Unsightly Request
Sophie took a ragged breath. She didn’t want Emma to think she had turned into a complete shrew, but she had to put her foot down. “Over night? In Chicago? No. I don’t think so. You’re too young.” She set her purse down on the side table next to the couch, but didn’t sit, though this conversation threatened to take a while.
Jack O Lantern
We had a huge pumpkin plant in our back yard this summer. A single plant from the dozen seed I started early in March made it to adulthood, but what a plant! The sucker sent out vines running all through the yard. Seriously, by the time it reached full size it made me think of Night of the Pod People type movies. It was supposed to produce award winning pumpkins of the “you could move into that and live it […]
Pipe!
“I hate irrigating,” Liam grumbled as he trudged into the field. “What is irrigating?” Alicia skipped along beside him. “We just have to turn the wheels on the gates so the water will go down a different set of ditches. Here’s the first one.” He walked up to the chest-high, metal gate and started turning the soccer ball sized wheel on the top to let the water flow into a new channel. “You turn that one while I do this.” […]
Suzie’s House 428 : Even a Toothbrush
The guest room struck Ethan as so placid it bordered on nondescript. None of the quirky paintings from the rest of the house had made it into this space. No high-end furniture or retro styling here. Just a regular bed, normal dresser, empty closet, inconsequential side table, and a nice window looking over the dark glinting of a lake. He liked it. Ethan felt right at home here.
NaNoWriMo 2015
Yep, I’m doing it again. I’m going to write a book in November. This time it’s going to be a Science Fiction idea that I’ve had floating around in my head for a number of years. It’s one of those great, archetype-filled journey stories. An outcast struggling to find his place in the world ends up the savior of his community. The only problem this time is that there aren’t any human beings in the story. The hero is a […]
13 Things That Didn’t Fit
I’m still working on my post about Jakarta. As I go through my notes, I’m finding a lot that won’t fit. 1. That’s a picture of a river we crossed in the bus. I think it gives a good idea of the skyline of Jakarta. But it doesn’t fit in the flow of my post, so out it went. 2. Fun fact. An Iman – Moslem spiritual leader – in the mosque we visited is elected to his position by […]
