Reflection!

When we reflect I cannot help but wonder why. People I speak to seem to reflect back on there life with the filter of  regret. I can honestly say there are only a handful of friends and family in my life that follow my interpretation of reflection.

Above is a collage of words from my tags of the last year. I can say that these are the most important words from my last year of posts. When I look over these, it makes me reflect with in, I see happy, sad and great social times. The last year has brought me the death of my father. The finish of my book. The realisation that I need to do more. Also a great growth within my self. My first blog almost a year ago was (and you can look this up in my archives if you wish) To Van Dyke or not To Van Dyke That is the Question. Since than I have posted fifty seven times subjects ranging from information about my writing  to family holidays, great social events such as the Royal Wedding and some very personal events too.

This is the past and we should learn from this, not repeat it.

We hold onto the past with notions that to persist and repeat will bring better results. It will not.

Most conversations I will have over the next twenty four hours about the future, will involve the past. Trying to make a better future by clinging onto a changed or modified past.

The glory days are just that.

We anchor ourselves with Memories but we set ourselves free with Dreams.

We look forward and shape the future, use your glory days, don’t repeat them.

On this I wish you all a very happy and productive New Year. I look forward to the new challenges it will bring.

 

First person, third person. narrator, omniscient or limited which one?

This is one of the biggest shell we say surprises I have had since I began to write fiction. For instance when I wrote the hundred and fourteenth word and that word being ‘END’ I was not aware of the amount of work that will go into this fictional journey. I have been over the manuscript at least four maybe five times each time thinking this will be the final time. Then I find myself picking it up a few weeks later and bang it’s crap again.

Second and third draft, I would say spelling was an issue. Third draft was more more plot holes. Now I have started the next novel to this story, and I now find I have a problem with the way I wrote the point of view of the first book. I wrote first person in the first book, my narrator is third person. This I’m fine with, its the amount of each that is the problem. for instance in the first book I think I was more narrator and less first person. where in the second I’m edging the other way.

I suppose the question I’m asking is this ok considering these are different books or do I try and keep the same flow throughout all the books could this be my inexperience speaking? Could this be the show don’t tell thing? but surly you have to tell sometimes.

I may need to go have a cup of tea and sort these out, it seems my mind maybe running away again, it’s small grey and round, very wrinkled probable throbbing too, if you see it running down the road, please don’t tread on it, I need it.

 

Halloween flash fiction

Hi to all the young witches and vampires out there. It’s halloween again and I love this time of year, frights and costumes are getting better and better each year. England seems to be getting better at this the more time goes on. So in celebration of this ever so special time of year I wrote a very short story, in fact its more like flash fiction than a short story. Enjoy.

Comments are always welcome.

There is a Monster at my window

It was strange, and looking back it was quite understandable to be scared. Come on there was a monster at my window.

It had come for the last three nights, just after midnight (I knew the time because there was a clock with glowing hands hung next to the window) Each night it would tap tap tap on the glass with its long white finger nails. Just three taps, then it would show me its teeth in a fierce snarl. Its eyes would glow red with a wave of fire flowing within them. I thought it could probably shoot fire from them.

Tap Tap Tap on the window.

By the forth night I thought it best to tell my parents. My mum looked at me over the toad in the hole.

“A monster, what in your bedroom?” said my father.

“No it is at my window, it taps three times then”

“Well” he interrupted with a mouth full of sausage. “Well if it’s outside you don’t have to worry about it. Anyway I’m here and won’t let anything happen to you”

I slammed my knife and fork down in the hope to shock them. “SAM” my mother shouted. “SAM”my father shouted both together, my father carried on after they looked at each other. “Sam you will not get the right sort of attention by doing that”

“You do it” I said soon to regret it.

“Now go to your room until”

“But the monster at my window” I interrupted.

“There is NO monster at your window” said my father.

As I walked up the stairs my legs went heavy. I thought tonight would be the night. Them taps would become bangs and then it would break through and kill us all.

The monster did not fail me. In the hope to ignore it I kept my head below the covers checking the time every now and then. But the closure it got to midnight the more I checked. The big hand of the clock was one minute from twelve. The second hand was at the six. Thirty seconds until it would come. I checked again ten seconds, five four three two one.

TAP TAP TAP

Its face was big and covered in fur the colour of fire and wood. Its fingers were scaled and the long white nails were taping on the glass. It opened its mouth and a split tong swung out from between its blue cold lips.

“MUM, DAD ITS HEAR NOW, ITS GOING TO EAT ME” I shouted.

Moments later the door swung open and standing there was my dad, stud behind him was my mum.

“Samantha What are you shouting for” said my dad.

“She’s petrified” said my mother. She sat down next to me and held me close.

“Tell me what happened princess” said my dad he would always call me princess when he wanted to calm me. I like that about him.

“It was at the window, it comes every night just after midnight”

“It could be because it halloween tomorrow night” said my mother to my father.

“Halloween or not I won’t have it scary my little princess. Tomorrow night I will be here at midnight and show her she has nothing to be scared about”

“What about tonight” I said “please stay, it might come back.

My father moved over to the window, the curtains where always bulled back, they swooped to the side leaving a diamond shape to see through. He moved them aside and looked out, his hand moved to the latch “NO DON’T” I shouted. He looked at me and smiled, them he open the window and poked his head out “there you go nothing out there, its all clear”

As they both left the room my father said “Now go to sleep and no more shouting”

No sooner had they closed the door the monster was back at the window but this time it was making a noise. It was like someone licking fire with a sizzle each time its tong touched its face.

In a gruff voice the monster said “Tomorrow night I will be here for you” it then hissed and vanished with a flash of fire.

The next morning I told my father all that had happened, he reassured me that all would be ok. He said “halloween is just a silly night for silly kids and you are no silly kid, are you?” I chose not to answer.

That night came round far to fast for me. My father came into my bedroom at eleven thirty and we watched the minuets pass, he kept telling me jokes that didn’t understand. Then there was only two minutes left.

“Not long now princess, then you can get some sleep” he smiled that smile and moved over to the window.

“No dad please stay here, don’t go over to the window it will” The monster rose from behind my father, it s teeth beard and fire flowing from its head like hair. My father looking at me did not see it, but his smile faded fast when he saw my face and the glow emanating from the fiery hair.

He turned, they where face to face, eye to eye. He walked toward the glass pain and reached for the handle.

“NO” I shouted “NO DAD DON’T”

He turned the handle and opened the window. My heart was beating fast, sweat was beading down my face with the heat that flooded the room.

My farther grabbed hold of the monsters head of flames, all I could think was how his hands must of burnt. They fell to the floor.

“MUMMY” I shouted as they rolled about on the floor, my fathers cloths were on fire now. “MUM DADS GETTING HURT”

She did not come, the monster was on top of my Father and rose its fist ready to smash it down. Then the most unbelievable thing happened. The flaming hairy monster bent down over my fathers neck, teeth bared dripping with saliva. And it kissed him on the lips. I waited for him to burn, but burn he did not. He kissed it back.

“Darling you are so wonderful, look she is so scared, how wonderful” it said in a not so gruff voice.

“Yes I know” he sat round “Samantha meet your mother”

“What… mother, no no no no its not mother its not” I’m now ashamed to say I cried, but given what I had just been through I think you will give me that.

When I rose my head my farther was a flaming monster too, in shock I backed against the wall.

“No no no no”

“Is that all your going to say” said my mother “because tonight is you night. My darling you are to come of age tonight”

A few moments later my hair burst into flames.

The end.

by Steven Glenn.

Faster than light?

Last week a group of scientist announced that they have just observed a neutrino travel fast than light.

Mouth wide open in astonishment.

Now you may say ‘so what’

You see the problem is that according to Einsteins Theory of Relativity, nothing which contains matter can travel fast than light. Now a neutrino have a very very very small amount of matter, it’s infentisamal. Making it imposable for it to travel fast than light. Let’s just say to move a particle of matter to the speed of light would take an impossible amount of energy.

Again you may say ‘so what, how can this effect me’

Well everything we know about physics is based on the theory of relativity. It gives us a well established stick to measure everything else against. (That’s if my understanding of it is correct and I’m no expert)
Needless to say if this is proven right it could change our understanding of the universe. Worst thing is it could take months probably years to get any confirmation. So don’t hold your breath.

I’m a science fiction geek and love this stuff. It’s like finding out that pitza can make you lose Weight.

What we have to remind ourselves is that there are discovers made every day that blow previous theory’s out the water only to be disproven later.

Wouldn’t it be cool though to find out everything we thought, was wrong.

I like change and changing the world is cool.

Emotions part five ‘Hate’

I wonder what we mean when we say hate. I think most people can see a person in there minds eye if I ask.

‘who do you hate?’

I have been trying to write this post for months, it seems that I just cannot get a handle on hate. It could be me, maybe I just don’t have the ability to hate.

Is it hate that we feel? or is it another emotion that we are just confusing as hate. Like jealousy or envy.
Hate is what I would call a prime emotion like a prime colour. It’s one of the big ones, we use this in a combination with others to make our mood or feeling at any one time. It wouldn’t suprise me to find that there are specific parts of the brain that directly involves it’s self to making us feel hate. There has been many times in my life when I have felt hateful towards someone or something; it is normally short lived and happened when I was a much younger person.

In the wisdom that comes with thirty eight years (if any) I seem to have mellowed, It takes a lot more to rattle my cage. Maybe having children has taught me to control this destructive emotion.

Our feelings have developed over many thousands of years. We as a species used to use such things as tools. Only now we live so different to our recent ancestors that we can get confused to which emotion we should be using.
It’s not human to hang on to any situation after the outcome is obsolete. So if you feel hate for someone because they have done you wrong then that’s fine but as soon as your hate becomes self destructive then it’s time to let go. Move on and make the best of what’s left. Whether it be love, money or a family feud. Life is to short and to preoccupy our life’s with such futile endeavours if wasteful to say the least. In the end hate is powered by the situation that gave it life. What we have to do is rationalise it as quick as possible to limit the damage it will cause, because if left it will cause damage.

This is when the empathy comes in; to see the situation from the other point of view will give you prospective and know doubt show you how small it was in the first place. In the end maybe it’s our ability to forgive and empathise with others that makes the difference. Writing makes me empathise with others, after all if I could not empathise I would only write a one sided story. I’m only able to give characters there own life by taking that life from everyone round me. I little bit of everyone I know will be in all my story’s

My oldest brother has some great advice, that is “do to others, only what you would have done to yourself’ (Im sure thats out of a very famous book, involved a man who’s name began with a “J” I think)

So hate is useless and a waste of hormones.

Buddha said “Hatred is never ended by hatred but by love” Be it karma or some faith from a corner of the world or a spiritual intervention, but I do believe that we get what we give.

What I tell my two boys when they blur the line between right and wrong is that ‘bad people get bad things and good people get good things’

So give nice and receive nice in return.

The Modest Writers in My Family

I thought it was about time I updated everyone on my writing progress. As it stands I have a number of, shall we say projects going on. Main one being my novel currently called Purple. a 104,000 word monster of a book. (for me) After saying that it truly is the most satisfying thing I have ever done.

Also I have written many short stories and have four more novels started, more outlined. Also I’m thinking about having a go at a stage play, just need a bit more research on that one.

Purple is in its third draft and doing well on feedback so far. I’m still finding spelling mistakes and plot holes. the iron that is revisions is doing a great job of smoothing them out.

Thanks again for the emails, I must be feeling good today I’m full of thanks. I might as well thank my family members who have commented recently. some great comments and surprise’s. It seems that I have many Budding writers in my family and shows me where I get my love for writing from. my father was a published poet he also has written six children story books. I have a cousin who is an editor and a aunty who has written her own novel. My brother writes poetry that would make any man laugh and cry. My uncle has released two self biographies, you can get them on amazon called John Carter.

Recently I have found that my brother-in-law is starting a short story, another cousin has gone down the creative writing route know doubt she can teach all of us a thing or two.

I suppose I’m trying to say that we writers seem to be modest by nature, and it’s only when we begin to talk about what we do that we find out how much we all have in common.

Writing Stuff

I have been writing or should I say rewriting my novel, this is to send to someone who is going to give me some feedback. on things like Story, plot, characters and so on.

This being my first novel length story, I have learnt quite a bit about how I write and have seen many problems while also seeing many good points. A bad point for example is the show don’t tell rule. I seem to be breaking this over and over again, this will lead to many rewrites, not of the whole book just the relevant bits. I am also noticing that I break into the ‘he thought’ and ‘she thought’ quite a bit at times. This again make for the show don’t tell rule. when I’m in there head and conveying there thoughts then I’m telling and not showing. this is ok if say I want to get the characters from one part of town to the other with no relevant story needed to be told about that journey.

Example : He thought, it best to lead his team straight to the station, when reaching the tall door, he thought. God I’m pleased to have got them here safely.

This although a bad sentence gets rid of many pages of description that would have been written if I showed then getting to the police station. The story should dictate whether it is needed or not. The problem is when I’m writing and its 11:30pm my eyes are falling closed on every breath. then it seems easy to replace five pages with one sentence.

But now that I work through the manuscript my tardiness is obvious. It makes me question the rule (there are many rules about this writing lark) just write no matter how bad you can sort it out in the second draft. now I’m in second draft it seam I should have been more decisive.

I think you learn as you write.

The Beauty of Woman

You know, you drive around, the sun breaks through the clouds. We feel warm and happy.

I think you can see a definite change in women in general when this happens. In the winter months, when it’s cloudy, it’s raining, or drizzle, it feels miserable. Oh did I forget Wet and damp. Well women cover up they have there hats on, umbrellas and big coats.

We don’t really see then. We just don’t notice them. They become part of the grey back ground.

I’m talking from a male point of view, from a mans point of veiw, I like to think of myself as a mans man, I believe in traditional values.

So as soon as that sun comes out woman change, they evolve like a butterfly, they will go from this coved up form, kin to a nun and then transform into a beautiful creature. They really do entice us all, my male friends pretty much say the same thing, we all notice. with the first bit of sun that the first thing a man notices is women. It Isn’t the sun its self, we love the sun only because women are gorgeous and I’m including my wife she is very gorgeous. (also to protect against fallback I only ever look at my wife, she is the only gorgeous woman for me) now that done I will carry on.
Even my wife does the same, see changes, see becomes vibrant and colourful, there is a little bit of flesh that starts to show this is coved up in the winter months. The skirts, the makeup, and then the smile.

This is the most important of the changes, the smile comes on most faces. We drive round the streets or we walk round the town centres, we go for walks at the weekends. If the suns out with blue sky’s and fluffy clouds then people smile and I presume men are smiling just as much as woman, it’s just that I don’t really notice as much. That’s because I find woman attractive. I dare say a man who finds men attractive would find them smiling alot. I would like to think that I smile more in the summer.
So I think this post is a testament to all women, to say thank you for uplifting my day and most other men’s day. I don’t think you realise what impact you have on us men of the world.

So Thanks.

Emotion’s part 4

Affection, Love, Happiness. (all the good ones)

These emotion’s seem really hard to write about.

I think its because where as the other emotions can be broken down I find it harder to break this one, when I do it kind of breaks the magic behind love and happiness.

I do believe in the magic that comes from caring for someone close to you, when you give over all you are. If you are as fortunate as me to have found the one person who you truly care about above and beyond yourself. (I think I will get some stick for this post)

Maybe this is it, we give affection to others in the hope that it will be returned. The problem is that sometimes it’s not returned and we start on one of those other emotion. This is what’s hard about the good emotions, they take an effort to keep. Were as the bad ones like hate and anger these take an effort to get rid of. It’s easy to stay angry. It’s harder to be happy.
Which in its self is kind of cool because most people you will meet are happy. I know a lot of people who are in love with someone. So at least we can take joy from the fact that most people want to smile and be your friend.
This is a quote I like from Albert Camus

Do not walk in front of me; I may not follow.

Do not walk behind me; I may not lead.

Just walk beside me and be my friend.

(like I said, I think I might get some stick for this post, showing my softer side I think)

I do like that that Albert Camus has written. It basically says be my friend, not by boss, nor me yours.

When I decided to write about emotions I did a bit of research. Did you know that there are 48 separate emotional states. I won’t cover all of them, that could get boring fast. But I do find the emotional state very interesting, how we mix and match them depending on who we are interacting with. How some people can be angry at one person then turn and be nice to the next. while others get into an emotional state, no mater who they see, that state will not change, it has to run its course. (heart on there sleeve comes to mind)

This variety in the Human emotions makes for very interesting discussions. Me and my wife will talk and when out eating at a restaurant we people watch. It soon becomes apparent that people are all the same, we all have the same worries and problems while at the same time we all have the same desirer to be connected and wanted by others.

Life is good if we understand that deep down we all want the same.

To Lie?

I was going to call this post emotions number four but lies are not really an emotion, although they do evoke an array of emotion.

First  I should define between a damaging lie and a white lie. I believe a white lie is when your partner says they had one biscuit when they really had two. A damaging lie is self explaining, they cause damage. The worst kind of lie is when the lie its self prevents you from fulfilling a promise or stops you from supporting the victim of the lie.

If you lie to someone close to you, the kind of person you would not normally betray. The disappointment you will cause that person will do a number of things to you (the lie giver). Firstly the guilt will make you angry at yourself which you will pass on. Also you would begin to avoid the victim of your lie (the one lied to), this in its self could cause more damage.

Then there is the trust lost, all lies do make themselves known eventually.

Someone once said if you cut your arm you will heal. If you keep cutting the arm eventually it will fall off. A lie is like a cut you only get to do it a few times. Then it will end.

As for the victim lies only hurt. There will never be a good one.

If I sound like a preacher I apologise, I don’t lie.

DO NOT LIE. EVER. EVER. 🙂