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The shade of the aqueduct cleared a path through the wide swatches of sunlight, broken here and there where the workmanship had ruptured over the centuries.  The harsh insect sounds of the desert scratched around the deep shadow, pausing only when the traveler passed through.

A week of walking had taken him along miles of the structure.  Always in its shadow, he walked through the nights and days.  The infrequent and troubled rests lent his steps an occasional stagger.  As the sun reached the curved edge of the world on the last day of the journey, he gave up trying to keep to the shade and stumbled alongside the time-eaten curve of the aqueduct.  A scattering of other stones peered out from the dust and sand alongside.  Following the path of the stones, he finally found the lake.   

The land dipped deep where the water had once been, leaving rings around the small valley. At the edge of the first ring were the ruins of the city.  The remnants of the aqueduct tapered into them and ended amongst the rubble.

He followed his guide to its end and found a place to sit on one of the larger stones.  Leaning up against the cooling rock face, he waited for the others to arrive.

Now that my hubby & I have gotten the 'full' creature creator for the Spore game, our careless hands have been hard at work creating all kinds of creatures.   The displacer beast has to be among my favorites right now. I didn't want to be shown up, so I've made us a kobold.  Put a spear in one hand, an iPod in the other, & a Walmart vest on him.... and he'd fit right in with the other Kommandos!  

I've been slacking.  In general.  I'm going to blame it on vampires.  Not because they had much to do with it, but because it's fun to blame things that don't have any connection to the real causes.

About those vampires.  Pants & my hubby were recently discussing the glut of crappy teen vampire books that are overwhelming the market.  According to the Pants, I simply need to write some vampire trash to get my break in publishing!  Genius, I say!

Well, I actually might or might not give that one a try.  But I thought it would be nice to have a novel where the attractive, tortured male vampire has a younger vampire 'sibling' who is anything but attractive, athletic, sexy, emo, etc, etc, etc.  A sibling who watches the classic vampire romance take place & gets to make commentary.  Like if Edward from Twilight had someone who saw what a silly, over dramatic, whiner Edward really is.  (Sorry, Pants, but that's how I feel about him).  This person could try to talk sense into the girl who will inevitably have terrible things happen to her because she is so obsessed with the romance of her vampire romance.  (Though, I doubt that this tactic would work.  Have you ever tried to talk sense into a teenager in love with an idea?) 

What a delight to have a character who could make snide comments on the vampire romance from inside the story.  Because no matter how much we might enjoy the escapism of our teen vampire romances, there will always be that little voice in the back of our heads saying, "Really?  Really?". 

What's holding you back from your dream job?

Huh.  Nothing right now.  Except the part where I'm not making any monies while I write.  Hmmm... That must be remedied.  What about the rest of you hunting for your dream jobs, eh?

With the recent loss of my job and spare time aplenty, I’ve taken an opportunity to look over 5+ years of writing that is recorded on my computer.  Freewriting, story ideas, chunks of larger works that have yet to be fitted together...  and I’ve found reoccurring themes.  Here they are, as promised to a couple of you.  You'll laugh and nod at some of them, I'm sure.  Perhaps you haven't seen some of the others before.   

Where I like to be: mountains, forests, deserts.  If the place has a name, it gets to develop a personality.  Cities that are like spiders. Empires on the verge of collapse.  Colonies, borderlands and (yes) crossroads.  Sometimes snowing scenes overcrowded with strange shadows. 

What I like to be: Canines, flying creatures, shapeshifters. Hybrids of mythology like Coyote who drives a park ranger jeep in the Rocky Mountains.  Sometimes the undead.

When I like to be: The undying medieval settings, the end of the world, alternate histories.  Even here and now, but never as it is here as now.  At the beginning, but rarely at the end of a tale.  

Who I like to be: mysterious strangers, messengers, outcasts.  Those who are not what they seem, just like everyone else.  People who have a strong sense of purpose.  Those who search for purpose but always find it in the wrong place.  The lost, angry, and driven.  Those with a destiny to fight.   

How I like to be: replete with symbols and omens, questioning the reality of each world, in pursuits or being pursued.  Obsessed with meanings, especially the meaning of names.  Wedged in the gray spaces between good and evil.   

Ouroboros

For anyone else who has the time or inclination – I’d love to see what themes you’d like to be.  What are the themes in your writing, the books you read, the movies you watch, stories you tell in gaming, video games themselves, or anything of the like?

I've hardly even touched by blog or my writing this year so far.  Sadness... and yet, I've had other creative endeavors to keep me occupied.  The chief of which is the campaign I'm running for Myrddin, Sho, and (a little) for Indumar. 

Crossroads. Sounds a little like an after-school special name, which I find hilarious.  Filled to bursting with dOrange history: past, present, and even quite a bit for the future.  It's allowed me a creative outlet for worldbuilding, character development, and general excitement about creating a great story.  I love that what was going to be a little experimental Saturday game turned out to be such a strong tale with such fascinating players.  Thanks to my PCs for making Crossroads so much more than I ever could have expected!  I look forward to seeing where this "Empire Strikes Back" of dOrange goes before we have our tragically epic ending. 

Irthos

Here's a pic from the amazingness that is Ernie -- thanks for the great art, my friend!

The evil reign of the new holiday gifted awesomeness that is our new digital camera begins!!

Ur nose it haz a flavor

I have taken it out. 

Thanks to my awesome supporters who keep me going as I end my INSANE/INANE student career and begin anew at the "!".

Weirdly enough, I've been called on to write two autobiographical papers in this last semester at school.  I have only done a little work on the larger of the two papers, but the smaller one is triggered some ruminations.  It's supposed to be "an autobiographical narrative on the topic of aging" (followed by a "literary analysis of that narrative").  I chose to write about my grandpa, who died when I was a senior in high school.  (Yeah, it's that freaky story I love to tell about how my aunt and grandpa both died within a few hours of each other even though they were several hundred miles apart - and on my and my aunt's birthday, to top it all off.)

It's just gotten me thinking about things.  How you remember people a certain way.  That I remember what a feisty old crank my grandpa was in those last years.  But writing this also helped me realize that he never treated me like a child in terms of intelligent conversation.  He, my grandma, and my mom always included me in their conversations and let me contribute, too.  I wonder if this is a rare thing?  I've seen so many adults who ignore kids and teenagers.  Maybe this is why I love working with kids.  Because they're not just 'kids' to me.  They have things to say that are relevant and important regardless of their age. 

And I just wanted to post this picture.  It's a snapshot of my grandparents and their two daughters.  I wish I could remember what I said to get them all laughing like that!

Family