Quiet

Music notes lifted from the keys to swirl around the yard like dying leaves on the Autumn breeze.

Colours collided in vibrant hues of orange, purple and gold.

Splashes of rain bounced off the dead soil.

Her eyelids flickered as his distinct scent tickled her into awareness, teased her up out of the dream about him.

The crash of the kitchen door.  A scream cut off abruptly.  Coppery scent of fresh blood.  Senses chasing her through her dreams turned nightmares.  Demons and ghosts with talons made of bone and the cold stare of Death.

Images piling on top of her, suffocating her, drowning her. Pain, the scalding hot pain of realization, speared her chest, robbed her breath.  Her body shuddered as her eyes opened wide.  Terror shoved adrenaline through her veins while gaze sought out answers. A silent room. An empty room

She willed her limbs into quiet.  Took a deep breath to restore vital oxygen to her panicked brain.  Nightmares. Only nightmares.  She turned her head towards his pillow, to the comfort of his scent, the reassurance that only he could provide.

Moonlight through the window exposed the sharp steel of the blade that lay upon the red stained pillow.  The scream lodged in her throat as the gloved hand reached down to silence her forever.

Life as a television show

Lately, I've been watching a lot of dark, gloomy paranoid television. It's entertaining and stretches my problem-solving skills. I'd never last ten minutes in any of those scenarios.  I wouldn't want my life to be anything like them. I like Suburgatory.  It's funny, cute and no one dies. I can't think of a sexy rom-com. Hmmm, that could be the problem at home.

If your life was a television show, what would you like it to be?

Fame

I had an interesting conversation with someone the other day about meeting famous people. She's thinking of taking to the streets of Toronto for the Toronto International Film Festival because she's never met a famous person.  I don't understand wanting to meet someone based solely on their celebrity.

My grandfather was the head of PR for the CNE so celebrity doesn't have the same meaning for our family.  Because we've been exposed to interesting people who are famous for one thing or another, we quickly learned that what makes people fascinating is personality and behaviour as opposed to persona and fame.

There are several famous people I'd like to meet. I've seen them in documentaries or on talk shows and been intrigued by their experiences or perceptions.  I want to talk with them about those things. Last night, I dreamt that Robin Williams, Dennis Quaid, Nancy Herkness and I were talking about raising kids. We were a group of people united by our frustrations, pride and love for the children in our lives.  It was a good conversation (and entirely imaginary but I blame the actual conversation that started this blog)

Somehow, I doubt that will happen by standing behind a rope to watch someone walk down a red carpet.

How do you feel about fame?

Random thoughts

If you're a plant-based life-form who eats vegetables, are you a cannibal?

Mulberry trees are condominiums. They support several different species of birds, silkworms, squirrels and raccoons. They protect the house, gobble up carbon and excrete oxygen. You can make jam from their berries. Not that I ever have. I don't get to the berries as fast as the afore-mentioned creatures.

Worry is like a rocking chair - lots of movement, no real activity. Yet we all line our porches with those bits of furniture and talk about spending our retirement in them.

Why are some poorly constructed/plotted/written books HUGELY popular? (not all hugely popular books are badly constructed/plotted/written)

On a related note, education can be entertaining and vice versa. I'm thinking of you, Museum Secrets.

There is simply not enough time in the day to work on all of the projects that are crowded into my brain and work to keep a roof over our heads. Yet somehow, I spend a ridiculous amount of time each day staring at an Osprey chick on the other side of the world.

What's your favourite form of procrastination relaxation?

A few observations

This week I learned that if I make plans to write at a particular time for a specific length, then tell people, I will do it.

Peer pressure works on me.

I also learned:

I may never be done research. One thing leads to another then another and somehow everything I've written up to this point dovetails nicely with what I've just learned yet somehow I still need more information so that my characters don't sound like idiots. Although I wonder what the scientific community knows that I don't (plenty!) that they're not making the same connections I am and curing cancer.

Walking the terrain gives me a few shortcuts. I don't have to puzzle out logistics. My characters don't drive 300 miles out of their way to go for dinner. Or to work.

I do not have a large enough vocabulary to describe that awkward first meeting between two characters who will change each other's lives. The descent into cliches is swift and deep.

Some days the words flow. Other days they must be chiseled out of stone with a toothpick.

Taking those observations into consideration, what cliched scene have you read that really worked for you regardless of flaws?

Front door

I'm thinking of starting a blog called The Front Door. It will simply be pictures of people's front doors.

The idea was inspired by this one

What do you think?