Making Tracks
Toby needed to make tracks. Fast. He should have left town right after the killing, even if it meant hitchhiking through a snowstorm at midnight. Instead, he’d slept in the old wino’s cardboard palace. The smell weren’t too bad, so he stayed a couple of nights. Then they found the body.
Too late to hitch out now. He’d have to hop a train. He waited until the bull went by on an ATV, then tried to slip into an empty box car. It was locked! Climb up to the roof? Or cling to the underside? The bull caught him half way under.
The Challenge: Write a story in 100 words or less
The Hub: Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
The Photo Credit: C.E. Ayr
Cabo San Lucas Pix
I’m trying to organize my travel posts for easier access. Right now I’m working on my two trips to Cabo San Lucas. When I did the posts, I was participating in a blog challenge called 365. You were supposed to post a photo every day. A lot of my Cabo posts were nothing more than a photo. Here I’m bringing some of them together so people interested in the trip don’t have to click on a dozen posts just to see them.
13/365 Find the Boat
Suzie’s House 489 : The First Day of School for Emma
Emma paused in the front entrance of East High on the morning of the first day of school. She swallowed hard and tried to not think about barfing. This year, she was not going to run to the bathroom every few seconds. Not like all through middle school.
In middle school, up until she’d found the three Kates, she’d been a nervous wreck. Come to think of it, she’d been nearly as much of a nervous wreck afterwards too. When was it exactly that she’d gotten a grip?
Taxonomy of a Resolution
The first resolution I listed last Thursday – Write for at least one hour every day – is one I actually started in December. You’d think I’d make that kind of resolution DURING National Novel Writing Month in November. But no. I didn’t think of it until afterward.
At first I was too vague. I thought as long as I spent an hour each day in front of my computer with a file open, that should count. Good old BiCHoK in action. (Butt in chair, hand on keyboard). I actually did get a lot done through the course of the month. I’m not sure how much of it will actually bear fruit, though. I ended up working on the rough drafts for four different novels.
In my experience, it’s rarely a good idea to write the rough draft of more than one book at a time. I tend to lose focus, and stuff drifts in from one book to another when I don’t mean for it. Even when I’m working on radically different projects, it can combine.
The Fruit of Hard Work
Ruth liked to work in the elections office. Most of the other people there were also retirees. They all greeted her with a smile each election. Opening the envelopes and taking out the absentee ballots was easy work but felt important. During a major election they could work well into the night to be sure all the votes were counted and accounted for.
“You’re so fast!” One of her co-workers said. “How many did you process today?”
“I counted six boxes, so that’s around three thousand,” Ruth said proudly.
“Wow. That’s almost as good as the machine they will be bringing in to replace us.”
The Challenge: Write a story in 100 words or less
The Hub: Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
The Photo Credit: Sandra Crook
New Years Resolutions
I actually started my New Years resolutions a month ago. Sometimes resolve takes more than a year to bear fruit.
1. Write for at least an hour every day
2. Get more exercise
3. Do more sewing
4. Eat more fruit
5. Eat less fat
6. Deal with my left hip
7. Get a new car
8. Stay on top of my finances
9. Not procrastinate
10. Be more affectionate
11. Fix up this blog
12. Lose thirty pounds
13. Get my kids to be more self reliant
Suzie’s House 488 : School Supplies
“So. School starts tomorrow. Are you ready?” Lisa sat in Ben’s bedroom, on his bed, and kicked her heels back and forth while he sat at his desk in front of his computer and read through her latest opus.
“Uh-huh. Yeah.” He answered so absently that she almost asked again. But then he pointed to a backpack leaning up against the wall. It was stuffed so full the zipper wouldn’t close. It was like a gaping reminder of the hateful responsibility foisted on incorrigible students at summer’s end.
A Father-Son Moment
The boy found his father in the living room with a beer in one hand and the remote control in the other.
“Whatcha doing, Dad?”
“It’s a monster movie marathon on three channels at the same time. I can’t decide what I want to watch.”
“This is a horror movie? I get the scary music, but what’s so scary about a diner?”
“Just keep watching.”
“You’ve seen this before? Whoah! What’s that eating the diner?!”
“That’s the blob. The movie is Attack of the Killer Blob.”
“Oh, cool!” The boy sat down to watch.
The Challenge: Write a story in 100 words or less
Photo Cridit: Roger Bultot
Hub: Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
Suzie’s House 487 : Band Meeting
Gene ran out to the bottom of the stairs to shout at Ben and Lisa. Since Lisa was working on the music video for them, she counted as an honorary sort of band member and you couldn’t expect Ben to sit out of it when all his friends were there in his house.
“Lisa! Ben! We’re starting.”
“Yeah, we got it.” Ben waved from down the hall.
The two of them had come in from the kitchen. They weren’t upstairs at all. What a clunker.
