Update – 4/25/2016 +

What’s the plus for you ask? This is not simply an update. There is a bonus anecdote. Whatever, I’m probably using the word wrong but I witnessed something I had to share before the update.

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I was sitting in line at a drive thru when a very young girl came out onto the patio I had to pass by to get to the window. She was small and blonde with miniature Princess Leia buns perched perfectly above her ears, making her adorable. She was smiling and laughing as she played with the tiny umbrella that came with her shaved ice. I was thoroughly charmed.

Then the unthinkable, no, the inevitable happened. She dropped the umbrella and since this is west Texas, the wind picked it up and blew it over the fence and beyond her grasp. Her face underwent an amazing transformation, closing up in a way that reminded me of an old man. Then the child, who could be no more than seven years old, opened her mouth and the roar of a thousand angry beasts burst forth, startling me, the guy in the car in front of me and the lady behind me. It was so loud, so primal that when she ran out of breath the silence was absolute. As was her devastation.

She became a child again and put on the largest pout/frown I’ve ever seen. The door to the building opened and I caught a glimpse of what I presume to be her mother since the woman wore the half horrified, half resigned look of a parent who’d witnessed similar reactions before. In her hand was another small umbrella and gone was the beast.

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You see why I needed to include this. I probably should have turned it into a story…actually I might. Children are so funny, although I held in any laughter until I got my window rolled back up.

Onto the update. I’ve been writing! It’s more accurate to say I’ve been plotting but it’s progress and I’m thrilled. It’s about a girl who has an odd type of magic and what she goes through because of it. I know how I want it to end and I wrote the first few scenes. I also roughly filled in the middle with the major plot points but I still have a lot to figure out. At present I only have three real characters and only one is named. I don’t want to type ‘the boy’ or ‘the healer’ all the way through so I’m trying to come up with names.

My next step is to make a storyboard on my bulletin board wall so I can see the holes and maybe rearrange some planned scenes. I can’t do it today but hopefully tomorrow.

The reason I can’t do this today is I’m  simply in too much pain. It’s not the worst pain I’ve felt in my back but it’s enough that I’ve spent most of the day lying down watching Star Trek movies. For the last few days I’ve gotten out of the house to write or chat about writing. It involved sitting for longer than was good for me in awful chairs and now I’m paying the price. I’m content to have a recuperation day but it was worth it.

Other than this new story, the only writing related thing going on is I figured out how to fix a short story I wrote called The Fence. The other night I was laying in bed trying to go to sleep and all these ideas for the piece kept intruding. I tried to tell myself I would remember in the morning but I finally admitted it was unlikely so I got up and jotted everything down with very little light and probably too quick. I’m happy to report I could read it all in the morning. I work on editing the story sometime this week if I’m not too busy with the other one. I’m nervous about editing when I’m in creative mode but I think I can do it.

As for medical stuff, I go see the neurosurgeon for the first time since my surgery tomorrow morning. I’ll find out if they will have me do physical therapy and talk about the neuropathy in my toes. The meds they gave me at the clinic are working but I don’t know what the surgeon will want to do. I’ll write a quick update after I see him.

I will also repost The Fence once I have it redone. It’s on my Flash Fiction page but it’s the unedited version. I’ll pull it down when I put the new one up.

Oh! I almost forgot. I am almost positive I will participate in the Story A Day May challenge at Storyaday.org. I did it in September and it went well. I’m not sure about now though. Maybe it will help me with my goal of getting back to writing daily, or perhaps I’ll fail miserably. Either way, I want to try. I have a couple more days to decide but I think I’ve already made up my mind. More on that later.