At 1800, my wife was at the far end of the dining table looking at dishwashers on her phone. She thinks we need a new one; I think she needs to do a better job rinsing dishes before she puts them in.
Anyway.
At that time, I was staring off, wondering what to write. I kinda/sorta knew Gary was due for an appearance, but I really didn’t –
And then, in an instant, I did. Everything below the fold was there in my eyes. Creative writing is so… strange!
After last night I knew I had to get back to writing or I’d die. Considered various ideas throughout the workday. Just after 1700, when I was cleaning the isolation hood, the roar of its motor must have mixed with the chemicals in the Cavicide wipes to let me see something. Not a lot of detail but certainly a week’s or more worth of story. I’d been thinking about Faustina, however by lunch I’d come to know I didn’t know her well enough to tell her story.
For Gary and Henge, though, I’d already laid down two big markers: one in “Echoes of Family Lost” and another in ‘Worlds Without End.’ I’ll be picking them up now. This is, I think, going to be a great deal of fun!
This may seem shorter than usual, but when you only need to write dialog, as in a play, it tends to keep your word count down.
PS I came up with the title after writing all this. It derives from something Ai said late in “The Fourth Law.” In doing so, I may have been given a glimpse of Faustina’s story. Apologies to Cornelius Ryan in advance.
Yes! Right where I wanted this one to go! Sometimes they show me what I’m hoping to see and this was one of those times!
A summary of my Lenten writing exercise tomorrow and likely a short stream of consciousness rant on wither next.
For those putting up with this and all the other shorts from my future history of Machine Civilization, thank you! Let’s do it more!
Last night was family movie night: the Charlton Heston version of “Ben Hur.” I was pleased that my teen girls sat still and seemed to take all three hours of it in. Gen Zyklon indeed! However, as a opportune result of that I was unable to scare up time to write. Priorities: God, family, friends.
Late this afternoon at DayJob, I mentioned to Friend Tracy that I not only didn’t know what to write, I had not idea what I wasn’t going to write.
“You’ll be fine.” She tossed back. There’s a reason I love (storge) her.
Looking at dinner, leftover Hungarian chicken paprikash, I thought about that. Hungarians. The Viszegrad Group… the survival of central and eastern Europe. What would that look like in my world…?
Let’s find out.
And now, having been given a glimpse of the beginning of ‘Crosses & Doublecrosses,’ and now the end of it, you might understand why I really never wanted to write the 60k words in between. Awful people.
Easter Egg in the Open: give me five LIKES and I’ll post the coda.
One week of Lent left! What to write about now?
Five parts. One for each day this week. That’s what I’m going to hold this to… All of this is way, way too close to home.
These installments are a little shorter. As I said yesterday, it’s not as if I enjoy hanging around these people. Off to do a little research into the energy output of a 1m x 6m tungsten alloy rod touching down at 10 miles/sec.
Thinking about them:
Machine Civilization.
Fun! But exhausting.
So much for my attempt at a less than 1k micro-story. Blew through that by over 700 words.
Screw it: tomorrow y’all get an haiku!
If there’s a two, there’s going to be a three.
I’m in complete control; I can quit anytime I want…!
machciv 