I just noticed that half of the story I posted the other day, “The Mourning,” vanished. I have no idea how it happened…maybe a Live Writer or Wordpress error. I don’t remember making any changes to it that could have caused the deletion. But bloglines still had the full version from the RSS feed, so I fixed it. But for anyone that may have read it…you might not have seen the ending. (And it’s has an awesome ending.) I have no idea how that happened.

This little girl has a beautiful voice but, apparently, is not pretty enough to represent the Chinese people. They want her voice, not her face. So they plugged in a more “attractive” nine year old girl to stand in front of the cameras for the Olympic opening ceremonies. I saw the performance and was touched. I hate when I’m manipulated like this. It leaves me feeling like a dimestore hooker. And I didn’t even get a dime out of it.

I liked Milli Vanilli too, back in the day. Now before you rag on me for admitting it, I’d like to point out that their albums sold millions and they won a Grammy, so I wasn’t alone. I didn’t like them because of the dancing puppets we thought were making the music…I liked the music. I was sad there weren’t more albums. But were the dancing puppets necessary to get the music out? The sad truth is that I probably wouldn’t have ever heard Milli Vanilli otherwise…because it’s not just about the music.
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When the old lady stopped breathing, so did Blake. Holding his breath, he waited. The corners of his mouth twitched, quivering like a racehorse waiting in the gate as his mouth tried to break a smile. She was finally dead. Dead and surrounded by a small army of crying children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

His hands shot to his face just in time to conceal the wide grin that parted his cheeks. Everything had worked out perfect. Since her fall, two weeks ago, he’d prayed every day that she would hold on long enough. When the phone would ring, his heart would stop. Mom would talk low and quiet and the thought of grandma dying too soon made tears trickle down his cheek. But she hadn’t. His eighth birthday was yesterday and since then, he’d been ready to explode with excitement. Masking it with sadness had been like trying to hide a bucket of exploding firecrackers.

A hand touched his shoulder and he looked up to see his mother and his blood ran cold. He breathed heavy and sweat beads appeared on his forehead as he stared back at her in wide-eyed fear. Could she see the happiness? Would she be angry?

She picked him up and buried his head in her shoulder.

“Poor Blake,” she told somebody. “He has been dreading this day.” Read the rest of this entry »

CNN headlined this story on their front page. It is about the fall of Wall Arch, one of the famous arches in Utah. The article states, "it’s the first collapse of a major arch in the park since nearby Landscape Arch fell in 1991." As far as I know, Landscape Arch is still standing, only piece fell in 1991. From the picture, it looks like it could go at any time…but as for now, it’s still there. The Associated Press didn’t do their research. Or maybe there has there been a cover up. The arch really fell in 1991 but using smoke and mirrors, the park rangers have convinced us it is still stands so they wouldn’t lose tourism…hmmmm…

My neighbor is in the Navy and brought over some passes for Seafair again this year and asked if I would get some pictures of their boat. The Navy sponsored a boat and painted it like the Blue Angels…cool idea! I’ve posted a few shots (taken Sunday) in this post and added them to my Seafair gallery. I didn’t get a shot of the Hoss boat flipping, dangit. It was on the other side of the track. I need to make friends with somebody on the east end of the lake to get the best shots of the Blue Angels…or somebody with a boat. With all the smoke and water vapor, the pictures really come out hazy from clear across the lake.

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Over the past year I have been invaded by vampires. They live in my sixteen year old daughter’s bedroom; on her walls, in her stereo, on her bookshelf, and in her computer. People magazine listed Stephenie Myer as one of the most 100 influential people of the year. She brought the vampires into our house.

The Twilight craze has spread like an unstoppable virus. Spread either by airborne sound waves or by computer, where countless blogs and chat rooms buzz with an addicting blend of romance and fantasy. The power of these stories astounds me. Nearly every woman in my life (wife, daughters, sisters, sister-in-laws, mother, friends, niece’s…) has been pricked by its allure (the teenagers especially). I was curious as a writer and a parent. So far I’ve read two of them.

I rolled my eyes a lot…too many references to “dreamy eyes” and “perfect skin” for my level of testosterone. But, I kept reading. Stephenie weaves a good tale and I found myself intrigued, although I would have been happy with a less oogling. But, I know that’s part of what the females love about it. I’m not quite the demographic.

I’ve read many books on writing, studied the rules, and tried to learn the craft of writing. In fact, I rewrote my book to fix a particular “problem” that I was surprised to find plastered on every page of the two of hers I have read. Based on what I have learned about writing, the books (word by word) are not written well. But before you all flame me for saying that, let me qualify that statement with this: I’m an unpublished author that can’t get signed and she’s a multi-millionaire superstar author. I thought they could have been better written, but I’m going against millions and millions of readers. Obviously I’m the one off base. So it makes me wonder, why have I spent all this time trying to learn the rules? Who made them and why? In the end, they obviously don’t matter and maybe by focusing on the mechanics I have lost a connection with my muse. I did think the storyline was well done. The events, characters, the tension…no complaints there.

Stephenie was named one of the most 100 influential people of the year by Time Magazine. The important question is, how is she changing people? What are people, primarily teenage girls, learning from her stories? A passion for reading? Yes, and that is excellent. A fuel for imagination? Yes, another good thing. Books are a staple for growth, especially books like this that have controversy and generate passion. But at the same time I have seen the extreme obsession that teenage girls show for Bella and Edward and I have a few concerns. Not necessarily huge concerns, but for girls who read the book and don’t analyze and discuss certain issues, I think the influence could be harmful. Those who examine themselves and the reasons the books are so captivating, I believe come out wiser and stronger.

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How can people get away with this? The Mako shark is endangered (see the Wiki article) yet in this video we see one caught and killed for a fishing contest. How about we just have a Bald Eagle huntathon…hey aren’t endangered anymore. I don’t understand how a threatened species can be killed so thoughtlessly? If you watch the video (which CNN placed on their front page), you see the shark swimming around the boat before it is hooked. They saw what it was and yet they still chose to hook and kill it. A creature that is threatened by extinction, hauled in for a $15,000 prize. That’s just wrong.

Am I missing something? Maybe that sport fisherman call them one of the more challenging catches because they jump and splash and fight. We wouldn’t want to take that fun away now would we? I guess that makes it okay. And of course their impressive fang laced mouth looks better hanging over a fireplace than swimming through our oceans. They kill swimmers too. The wiki article referenced above reports 8 attacks, 2 fatal. I guess we better remove them and every other animal that has killed at least 2 human beings.

This just upsets me. They didn’t have to kill this shark. I’m not opposed to fishing or hunting. I haven’t hunted in years but I do go fishing a couple times a year. But this is a creature that we are in danger of losing. And they had a good look at it before they chose to cut it down. And then they win a contest and are plastered on CNN and newspapers reveling in their glory. Obviously I’m in the minority here. What am I missing?

I’ve finished  a novel, am working on my second, update this blog regularly, and write short stories yet hesitate to call myself a writer because I’m not published. I thought I might feel out of place at the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Summer Conference, but I didn’t. I met some really cool people and picked up some new ideas for my toolbox.

I was sitting this afternoon in a workshop on characterization and looked over to see Robert Dugoni sitting several people away, listening and taking notes. He’s a New York Times best selling author and still attends and participates in these conferences. Pretty damn cool! He was also one of the keynote speakers and gave a touching, inspiring presentation. He seems like Mr. Perfect: great speaker, high-achiever, hard worker, wonderful family, best selling author, and comes across to me as one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. I especially liked his dedication to family values, genuine compassion for the people around him, and his obvious high work ethic. Somehow I gotta get me a work ethic like that.

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I loved summer as a kid; I dread it as a parent. At least the out of school part. Not because I don’t want the kids to have fun and get a break from school, it’s because they get so freakin’ bored and I feel responsible. I don’t remember being bored as a kid. Was I? It seems like my kids are constantly bored and I’m trying to figure out what I’m doing wrong as a parent.

I grew up in a small town surrounded by friends. There was hill after hill of Utah wilderness to explore right out of my front door. My kids live in the middle of suburbia and spend most of their time stuck indoors because of the rain and houses that fill the horizon in every direction. In addition, I don’t know many of my neighbors…there aren’t five kids of assorted ages in almost every house in the neighborhood. As a kid, I played constantly…basketball, football, rode bikes in the hills, had dirt clod wars, hunted with bb guns, and even some Dungeons and Dragons. Sometimes we’d even pack up supplies and as many as ten kids (ages 6-13) would hike several miles out of town, make a fire, cook dinner, and sleep under the stars. Just us kids.

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I’ve had to work out of town for the past two weeks. Today is the first day of summer for the kids, so I brought them with me this week. Although they are well behaved teenagers, they still like to make noise and have some fun on occasion; nothing wrong with that as long as it’s not in the hotel. So before we went in to the lobby, I told them to be professional while we were here. No running around, being loud…that sort of thing. I also told them there were cookies in the lobby and they could help themselves.

Mikayla responded in her professional adult voice, “Excuse me, but may I enjoy one of your circular yummies?”

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