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Cutting Room Floor: Part 3

Scraps of papers on tiled floorSo, for the first time in my history of writing, I honestly don’t think I have a protagonist, and if I do it’s a tough call which one of my “main” characters it would be. The novel has a sort of staccato rhythm as it jumps back and forth between one character and the next, and amazingly enough I like the pacing and the lack of a solid “lead” character. In fact, I liken it to movie with an ensemble cast where everyone keeps up their end of the action. As I go back through the novel one more time for this final edit (the word “final” being relative, knowing me), I’m fascinated by the interconnections.

Now, of course, by fascinated I mean it’s a complex dynamic between characters in a very tight timeline. While I was initially writing it I moved through the complexity pretty quickly, but looking back on it it’s another one of those pieces that just seemed to write itself. Those are my favorites by far.

Well, I’m no closer to coming up with a title, but I’ve made a decision on that. Unless one just comes to me in an epiphany, while I’m editing I’m going to leave it to the side. That of course also affects the cover art, but I’ll deal with that as we get closer to the end of the month. Ideally I would like for my title to come from a pithy line in the novel itself. Those are probably my favorite titles, the ones that remind the reader when they get to it why the book was named thusly. Whether or not that happens remains to be seen, but inspiration could of course strike at any time. The second I know the title, you will know the title. That’s a promise. Continue reading “Cutting Room Floor: Part 3”

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Getting Cliqueish

“I don’t put people into groups like the jocks, the goths, and the nerds do. I’m a free-thinker. Everyone should be more like me.” To an extent we all judge others, whether they’re short or tall, large or small, black or white, gay or straight, or any other dichotomies that exist the whole world over, … Continue reading Getting Cliqueish

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Bruthaman

I was lucky, I thought, having procured a videotape copy of Jurassic Park while it was still in the theaters, guaranteeing me the pleasure of watching the biggest movie in America in the privacy of my own home. It didn’t matter that the case was a little blurry, and when I opened it the videotape … Continue reading Bruthaman

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Sleep Deprived

I fell asleep in the library again, and I think I know the culprit. I’m lucky no one stole any of my personal possessions while I was passed out. Perhaps it was because I was propped up in the seat with a book open on my lap so I appeared like I would awaken if … Continue reading Sleep Deprived

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So This is Global Warming?

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Bundle up.

Remember global warming? It was a hot-button term at the beginning of the 21st century. As our illustrious former vice president said, “It’s a certain truth. But it’s an inconvenient truth.” And yet since then we’ve recorded some of the harshest, coldest temperatures in this world’s history. In fact, today my children were home from school for a “snow” day, even though it wasn’t snowing. It was really a “frigid temperature” day, which was funny because yesterday it got up to 45 here in upstate New York. And isn’t that really the gist of the whole “global warming” issue, the idea of a global shifting of climate. Climate change, now that’s a phrase I can get on board with, but is it new?

When I was a kid growing up in Philadelphia I clearly recall a rough winter when it snowed more days than it didn’t, and during one stretch of time it didn’t stop snowing for three days straight, at the end of which we had over six feet of snow. And like good neighbors we made sure to dig out, at least to the sidewalk. There were these six foot walls of snow on either side, like we were rats in a huge, white maze. I was fascinated by it, sticking my hand out at one point while following my father, who was digging with the shovel, and touching one of the walls. My hand sunk in a little bit and was quickly covered in snow. I screamed and my dad turned around to laugh at me. I yanked my hand out of the snow and some of the wall crumbled at my feet. That was the end of that exploration.

Then, about fifteen years later, I went to New York City with a few friends of mine in order to party with another friend who lived in a dorm at NYU. We took the train in like we always did, but it was the time before instant notices ahead of time about weather situations. We knew a storm was supposed to come, but we didn’t realize it would be the blizzard of the decade, which it turned out to be. Continue reading “So This is Global Warming?”