Life's Bone

Chapter One continues....

Chapter Three begins. Here are the first few episodes (Sandy goes to see a psychologist, Dr. Bell tells Sandy of certain changes regarding Billy, and we return to Jack and Violet in the basement...)

I am close to posting more episodes of The Dream Year. So, stay tuned for that if you have gotten into that drama. Meanwhile, I am on a side track with a different story. I started it some time ago, so now, I am picking up the trail on that tale. It is called Evidence of Violet. This is not the Violet in my current tale of The Dream Year. This is another Violet, in another kind of world. It starts somewhere south of the border. So, here's the beginning several episodes of EVIDENCE OF VIOLET.

It's hard to try to blog a lengthy story. Currently, it is The Dream Year. So, as with other long stories, I give it its own dedicated blog site. There I try to keep the running story current, but post the most recent entry at the top of the page. So as I write a newer entry, I have to take the previous one and move it down to the running story. I find this to be a pain in the ass. But that's all I know to do. So, I just wrote a few new episodes about Billy's comatose predicament. The way the site looks right now is that these newest posts are at the top of the page. If you've been following, the latest episodes are here. If you missed the last few episodes, they are immediately below that. Finally below that is the story from the beginning. For the likes of me, it is an organizational nightmare since all I do is string words and post them. But, hopefully some of you can go with this kind of flow.

Dear you,
I got your letter today.
I recall our time together too.
Laying out the pieces now,
I wonder what fell through the crack?
That's why I am writing.
Not to change anything really
Or to go back to where we were before.
But what happened after you went out?
That's another question that lingers.
Was the room really spinning?
Did you really even leave at all?
Or were you running circles around me?
After I waited, and before she came in,
Was it just the bed that was going
Round and round up off the floor
while the room stood still?
And why did I climb out the window?
Or do you still insist I flew?
If you know, please write back.
And who was it,
coming up the stairs, by the way?
And then, the man at the podium,
And his irrational smile.
He didn't see us, but we both know
He was talking to an empty room.
Something invisible was going on.
We agreed on that.
Remember? And I remember,
There was dirt in one of my shoes.
From a cave.
I dumped it on the table.
Around the candles.
Was that some part
Of the ceremony?
Write, if you still can.
I agree, of course with what you say.
Its still a mystery
The way we came unglued.
Sincerely, Dear me.

I like to watch bad movies now and then, they remind me of how hard it is to make a good one. "Break" was written and directed by Marc Clebanoff. I bought the DVD off a bargain table at a nearby store. And, I'm sorry Marc, but I thought this movie sucked.
I did sorta like this character named Haiku though. He was the bodyguard for that gangster dude, and he only spoke in haiku. In fact, I fast forwarded just to catch his every poetic word! Haiku's lines so eloquently presented, are listed below.

Haiku's haiku:

"Homosexual.
That lifestyle does not appeal.
I do not like dick."

"The woman is not.
He sent her shopping today.
She shops quite often."

"They are not deceased.
I fired only at his head
Both of them escaped."

"I don't wish to fight.
I'm to take you to the man.
A job awaits you."

"Its Frank that you love.
The man cannot stand that truth.
Either way you lose."

"I know your face well.
You've been after me awhile.
Poor weak helpless girl."

"That's quite possible.
I've killed many worthless men.
Yours is no different."

"You are not kidding.
You really want to fight me.
Bitch gonna get hurt."

(Sorry for the spoiler, but Haiku dies in the end, at the hand of 'the bitch'. R.I.P. Haiku.)

I get so carried away writing sometimes, and often forget things I've written. I got a comment from blog buddy Robert that made me remember a thing I wrote some time ago. (The Island Of Nothing To Speak Of") To laugh further about myself, it was something I posted on one of my sites that I didn't even remember having! (Mything Lynx)....I'm not sure how many sites I have now...more than ten, I think. I probably should go back to these sites now and then since if I'm not mistaken, the "Blogger" management sent a notice once that if you have a site that remains dormant for a year or more they can delete it! I have a couple of sites where I have posted lengthy work like DAW or Nothing Comes From Nothing. In that I am done with those works, I have nothing else to add to the site. So, I need to make a memo to download such things to a flash drive someday soon! Yikes!

So, I will reprise "The Island of Nothing To Speak Of" on the Mything Lynx site just to let Blogger management know I haven't abandoned the site. If you'd like to read that short piece you can go to it HERE.

It took me a few days to get over wrapping up Nothing Comes From Nothing. For one thing, I was attached to the characters. It was as though people I was living with every day suddenly packed their bags and went away. The story ended. I remember as a kid reading Terhune's stories of Lassie and Lochinvar, or Farley's stories of The Black Stallion and how much I hated it when such stories ended.

But now I am moving on. I need more people in my life even if they are only imaginary. So I made a humble start on something new that I am calling 'The Way Fall Fell' for now. That beginning is posted just below this one. So far in my efforts to try to write stuff, it seems to be that I often start a narrative without having any real sense where it might go. Its an impulsive thing. I write a few paragraphs and then look at it and wonder what in the hell its about. Interestingly it has often been this way working in other media. I pick up pieces of wood and start sanding and sawing on them, not sure why. Not sure what it is supposed to become. Then I sit and look at these pieces of wood and see what they might want to be. "Oh, I see. It's a table! Now I just have to put the pieces together." So it seems to be with sentences and paragraphs now.

Some of you may have followed my first steps into The Dream Year. I sorta put it 'on pause' for a couple of weeks so I could finish up Nothing Comes From Nothing. So now I am re-visiting that. Looking at the story's beginnings and wondering what is going to happen. Damn if I know!

Basically it is about Billy. He and his girl friend wreck on a motorcycle. He winds up in a coma. She is trying to cope with it even though weeks are turning into months of waiting for him to wake up. Is he going to wake up? I honestly couldn't say. Removed from the outside world, a couple of imaginary childhood friends seem to be company inside his head for the time being. Jack and Violet. So, if you sorta remember where we left off, here's a few more episodes of The Dream Year

(Beneath those latest episodes is The Dream Year from its beginning....)

More of The Dream Year will be coming soon. Also, I hope to figure out what's going on with The Way Fall Fell, and Erin and Kelly in this very strange world they seem to have found themselves in. If you like to watch/read work in progress, and have the time, stay tuned!

This morning I finished Chapter Six, the conclusion of Nothing Comes From Nothing. I'd like to say thanks to the handful of readers that encouraged me all the way through the writing of this first draft. It's been a process of two months or more, of trying to pound it out. But, its done. I hope you enjoy the climactic final chapter.

Chapter Six can be found here.

(Beneath Chapter Six, the conclusion of Chapter Five can be found for anyone wanting to read that. And below that, the entire story beginning to end - all 60,000 words give or take, can be found. I'll pull all the material down in a few weeks when I get around to making revisions.)

And now, I am back to picking up the pieces of The Dream Year)

Thanks again, Dan

I was listening this morning to a Bob Dylan song. If you've been following me in blog-land, you probably know I am keen on him. There is something about the stuff he writes that captures my imagination. Today, over my morning coffee, I listened to Series of Dreams by Dylan. I'm not sure what it means, I'll leave that to scholars to debate, along with his other works. And for you to ponder if you listen to it.
Personally, I felt a certain angst about life in the song. About how whole lives come and go as a series of dreams. That's the thing about art, I think. It gives you metaphors to attach meaning to. Anyway, here is the tune, with lyrics below. Sorry about the commercial preface if you should see one, but it seems the way things are. Or maybe not. 'You gotta serve somebody' between here and there. Or, maybe not. Cyber-space is a funny place. Anyway, here is the video. The lyrics are posted below it. You may see a notice that you have to go to Youtube to watch it. It's just another of those hang-ups in information flow. Or maybe not.

Go with it, and if you wind up on Youtube, go full screen and check it out.

The song and video.



The words to Dylan's song.

Series of Dreams

I was thinking of a series of dreams
Where nothing comes up to the top
Everything stays down where it's wounded
And comes to a permanent stop
Wasn't thinking of anything specific
Like in a dream, when someone wakes up and screams
Nothing too very scientific
Just thinking of a series of dreams

Thinking of a series of dreams
Where the time and the tempo fly
And there's no exit in any direction
'Cept the one that you can't see with your eyes
Wasn't making any great connection
Wasn't falling for any intricate scheme
Nothing that would pass inspection
Just thinking of a series of dreams

Dreams where the umbrella is folded
Into the path you are hurled
And the cards are no good that you're holding
Unless they're from another world

In one, numbers were burning
In another, I witnessed a crime
In one, I was running, and in another
All I seemed to be doing was climb
Wasn't looking for any special assistance
Not going to any great extremes
I'd already gone the distance
Just thinking of a series of dreams

My post today is the conclusion of Chapter Five (Nothing Comes From Nothing). Next week I will post Chapter Six, the final chapter in this story. You won't want to miss the exciting climax!

For now, here's the conclusion of Chapter Five

I realize I am probably posting too often and too much for many to keep up with. But the way I figure it, if you feel like writing, you need to go ahead and write. And for me anyway, once you get started writing, its easier to keep writing than it is to stop. So, yesterday I advanced The Dream Year a bit (see post below) and now I'm moving into Chapter Five of Nothing Comes From Nothing. So, I am posting that new material now, so I can get back to The Dream Year. Its like playing ping-pong with myself!

When Chapter Four concluded, Morrissey and Penny had found (rescued) Melody at a motel in Alabama while en route to Atlanta. So, with Melody in the back seat of the torpedo, they hit the road once again.

The beginning episodes of Chapter Five are here.

This post has to do with more about The Dream Year. Billy is unconscious. In a coma. But in his head, his mind is wandering about trying to figure out where or who he is. And what happened to him. He's imagined, or re-imagined a childhood imaginary friend named Jack. Jack reminds him about an imaginary girlfriend he had way back then as a kid. Her name was Violet. So now, Violet makes the scene inside Billy's head.

My post today is the conclusion to Chapter Four of NOTHING COMES FROM NOTHING. I suppose I should remind readers that this tale is intended for a mature audience. In other words, the on-going drama contains profanity, sexual references, brutality, and murder. EEEEKKKK!!!!!

When I left off in the telling of the story, Cully and Penny had caught up with Melody at a motel. Cully then confronts a man intent on attacking and/or abducting Melody.

So, here's what happened next...


(The entire four chapters of the on-going story can always be found by scrolling past this latest entry..in case one wants to back-track, or read it from its beginning.)

Thank you, dear readers who continue to encourage me to indulge in such murder and mayhem!!! Dan.

It gets strange to shift my brain from one world to another one. At the very least, I am beside myself. Two stories. I write one. My clone writes the other. For anyone out there who is trying patiently to follow these strings of words I lay down, there are two stories that I am trying to pound out. If you haven't been following these, then all this is irrelevant. But, if you have been following one or both of these tales, then here is the latest.

NOTHING COMES FROM NOTHING. Private dick Morrissey and his sidekick Penny have been trying to track down a certain Melody Johannson. It appears she might have drowned herself, or been drowned by someone else. Meanwhile, her parents have been assassinated. Morrissey and Penny decide to lay low since they don't know exactly what just went down. So, now the story deepens. Latest episodes can be read HERE.

THE DREAM YEAR.

Anita, close friend of Sandy tries to comfort her because Sandy's boyfriend Billy, is in a persistent coma resulting from a motorcycle accident. Meanwhile Billy, unable to know the outside world, is waking up inside his head to a vacuum, of sorts. His mind begins to unravel into a maze of memories and imaginings. The latest on this story can be found HERE.

Chapter One of The Dream Year continues and picks up with two entries I posted earlier as a teaser for this writing project: The Visitor, and, Billy Wakes Up To Nothing. The chapter then concludes with a few more episodes...If you've already followed the story's beginnings, then these latest segments can be found here.

If you want to read Chapter one from the beginning, then go to the link above, scroll down past that entry to where it all began.

I have been re-writing the first three chapters of Nothing Comes From Nothing. For anyone that has gotten that far along in this emerging tale, not a whole lot changed. I switched from first person to third. And as for Chuck Morrissey, I changed his first name to Cullin. (And his friends call him 'Cully') (I just had an issue with the original name 'Chuck' for some bizarre reason) For those following along, no big need to re-read all that.

But when I last wrote, Penny had killed Doyle by blowing him away with a gun in her purse. And then, they took on Joe Blow in Vegas and they both seemed to take credit in the killing. And then they set about trying to find Melody Johannson, who seems to have been a sex slave of sorts to Joe Blow. So, Penny and Cully Morrissey, paid by some Evelyn Kieriakas to find Melody, head down to the gulf cost on a hunch. What they want to know is 'What Really Happened to Melody Johannson?' This is another of my efforts to try to blog a novel in episodes.

If you have already been following this cheesy detective tale, you can read the most recent stuff HERE. If you haven't been following, but want to read from the beginning, scroll down past the new entry linked above, to find where Nothing Comes From Nothing began.

Next up, the continuation of The Dream Year. Hopefully, I will have a couple of more episodes in a day or two. (I am playing ping-pong in my head to try to advance both stories at the same time.) Thanks to those of you who take time to read. I apologize for any typos, it is all first draft stuff.

Written and performed by Randy Newman, 1972. That would be 40 years ago. Forty years ago. Wake me up if things get better. Or, should I invest in Halliburton?

Happy New Year to all! Over the past two weeks or so I have been trying to revise the beginning chapters of Nothing Comes From Nothing, and I will return to that story soon.

Meanwhile, I have begun to work on The Dream Year. A story I posted a coming-soon teaser about a few days ago. It basically is the story of a young man left comatose after an accident, but who is alert inside his head. It is just that he has no awareness of the outside world. So, the question is with respect to what happens when one is trapped in a state of total sensory deprivation over a prolonged period of time?

Much of the story will take place inside this person's head as his personality becomes increasing fragile and eventually fractures. His ego-orientation gets lost to multiple personalities inside his mind. What is going on in the outside world will also be described, but such things are unknown to the central character - the victim.

So, I have posted the first few paragraphs of this story, and if you are interested, you can begin to follow along by going to THE DREAM YEAR.

Also, coming soon: the continuation of Nothing Comes From Nothing.