Tuesday, August 17, 2010

an apology and a sample

Hi everyone.... I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in a few months, #writerfail as we say on Twitter.  I've been spending a lot more time online, looking at other writers websites and blogs and mine just looks so shabby and silly in comparison.  I can't currently afford to have a professional website designed for myself so I sort of lost my spark for my blog.  Like real life, first appearances matter, and honestly--when you first see my blog, it looks ridiculous compared to all the professionals out there.  It doesn't give the message that I'm serious.  I'll take this experience blogging as a warm-up for the website & blog I hope to be able to get up and running before the end of this year.  But for now, I'm still working away on my story, pouring almost all of my energies into wrapping it up, and very pleased with how it's coming along.

This morning I did a writing warm up on this woman's blog: http://www.writeawayeveryday.blogspot.com/ and it was a lot of fun.  I'm posting my 250ish :) word 'story' below, but please go see her blog and her picture prompts and see what it does for you!

He stood beside her, silent, unseen, staring down with her at the ragged strip of orange rubber from an exploded balloon that sat so innocently on dusk-darkened blades of grass. Tears tracked shining lines down the centers of her cheeks and dripped from her jaw. She lifted her head, stared sightlessly into the darkening trees standing around her, and swallowed. Without another glance to the balloon fragment, she started walking.
He followed her like a shadow.
The night summer breeze kissed her hair and scattered her brown bangs across her forehead. She didn’t reach up to fix them as she walked through the darkening park and towards the river churning a couple dozen feet away. Her hands curled into the wire fence dividing the park from the water and she stuffed her sneaker toes into the holes as she began to climb.
He was waiting on the other side when she dropped to the ground and followed her as she followed the water. Ahead, it was louder, dropping over the side of a dam. They stopped together and stared down at the shimmering water, one of the brightest points of the park in this semi-darkness.
Don’t do this, he told her. Just wait. Your life can be like those happy peoples’ lives someday. You just have to make it that way.
“I am the balloon,” she murmured to the thickening darkness and climbed the fence that denied the dam to the public. Without slowing her steps, she stepped off of the concrete ledge.
A short while later she stood beside him and they stared together at the shining, tumbling water, and the dark obstruction broken against the rocks below.

Thanks for sticking with me!