Happy Thanksgiving

I am not saying much today. Enjoy your family. Love your relatives, even the ones that piss you off. Be thankful for what you have and have a happy and safe holiday.

And for god’s sake, stop shopping. Take the time to enjoy what you have and help make sure that others will be able to stay home and spend time with their families instead of ringing up your purchases. All of that stuff will wait until Friday.

L. E. White

 

Good Boy

I knelt down, putting my ass against the trunk of an old pine tree so that it would shield me from the snow. I was resting on my heels, not letting my pants touch the soggy earth.

Merlin came up beside me and put his head in my lap. The spaniel didn’t worry about the weather, he was just happy to be outdoors with me.

I sat the butt of my shotgun on the ground and leaned the barrel up beside my head. The gun was a little taller than I was in this position, but my hood protected my ears from touching the cold metal.

“Good boy,” I said.

I like to think he grinned at me, but I am not really sure. I know that he scooted closer.

I didn’t have to stay here. We could be back home in less than a half of an hour. Merlin and I could be back at the house, cleaning the quail and listening to the television. I could be sitting in front of the fire place, brushing burrs out of his coat and throwing them into the fire.

But that would wait.

Here I was, sitting with my best friend. We were safe and happy. For once I didn’t have to be anywhere. For a few minutes, I didn’t have to do anything.

So I scratched the dog’s neck while we watched it snow.

“Good boy.”

I am a slacker

Well, if I get any further behind at NaNoWriMo, I will have to start over. I am pretty sure that I have reached the point where it isn’t possible to catch up.

So, I am going to keep updating my new novels progress, I am just not going to think of it as part of NaNoWriMo. Now, that doesn’t mean that I am quitting. If I manage to catch up, then I do and that is great. If I don’t, I am still updating the work every day.

I didn’t update at all this last weekend though and I am okay with that. The reason for my lack of writing was that I had the pleasure of working for the Geek Galaxy Comic and Toy Convention in Evansville Indiana.

It was wonderful.

My wife and I spent the weekend hanging out with great guests of the convention, running around doing odd jobs as needed, and getting a little free swag from a few of the vendors.

If you haven’t been to a convention like this, you need to go. You don’t have to be a diehard fan to enjoy it. All you have to do is go with an open mind and have some fun.

I know we are already looking forward to the Lexington Toy and Comic Convention. We will be working for the same wonderful organizers and both of us are excited. If you are close enough to go, I would pre-register. It is worth it.

A very short piece for you here, and then I am back to work on Oak, Ash and Thorn.

By the way, one of my contest winners has still not supplied me with an e-mail to contact them with. So, Michelle Willms, if you see this, I need an e-mail from you.

Later everyone.

L. E. White

Wind

Clay loved the feeling of the wind rushing through his hair. When he was a child, he would stand on top of the hill in the park and hold his arms out, letting the wind surround him. He would close his eyes and imagine flying as the hairs on his arms would shift in the breeze.

He was holding his arms out wide now, and the feeling of the air made him smile. His bangs were ruffling and his clothes pressed against him, the loose parts flapping like the wings on a flying squirrel.

He could smell smoke the smoke from the building fire as he rushed along. When he opened his mouth, he could taste the dust thrown up by tons of concrete crashing down in a rush.

When he opened his eyes, he saw the body of the woman who had been thrown out of the window just before he had jumped. They were close to the ground, and if he was going to save her, he had to hurry.

He shifted his focus from the joys of flight back to the metaphysics that would allow him to speed up. He pulled his arms in, to reduce the drag, and shifted his body.

The time to enjoy a memory was over. The time to be a hero had come. He would have to sacrifice his new identity to save her life, but just like every other time, it was worth it.

 

if only it were last week on my calendar.

I am so far behind that it is ludicrous. I have lots of excuses, and they are nothing more than excuses.

I am trying to catch up. I am working on the ARC’s for the winners and I am trying to get my word count up for NaNoWriMo.

And that is the end of this week’s post. On to a story.

L. E. White

Faith

When I began my work, I could feel my faith. It was a physical thing that I used to bludgeon the doubts of all others into submission. I would quote the good book or allow my mind to create its own unique phrases to properly dissuade any who thought that their own dogma might in some way be able to best my own.

At the end of any conversation, I would walk away. I attempted to be humble, but it was hard not to smile as I left each poor soul to consider the error of their way.

As time passed, minutes to hours to days to weeks to months and years, I began to feel the weight of my faith. It bore down upon my shoulders like a yoke and I felt my spine bend with the force of gravity upon it.

I was losing my faith. As my heart broke from the strain my faith faltered, spilling out of me like sand through a net. I would soon be lost. I would soon be hollow and empty.

When a sharp pain laid me low, I gasped. I fought, trying to free myself of the doubts that had formed in the absence of faith. It couldn’t be my time to go, I had more to do. There was so much work left.

I saw an angel come forward. A being of purity that was so beautiful as to blind me.

She took my hand.

I squeezed her hand for all I was worth, and pleaded with her to let me stay, that I might finish my work.

She smiled, and I felt my skin blister and burn from the radiance of that smile.

“Please, I have lost my faith. I have doubt and fear. I am not ready.”

“That is the way,” she said. “At the end, when there are no more days to hide behind. That is when faith is tested. Your work will continue with another. Your life will not. In this, the final moment, do you have doubt or hope?”

I tried to look at her through the tears, but I couldn’t see her. “I am afraid to doubt.”

“Then don’t.”

As the darkness and silence crashed over me like a wave that stumbles out of the surf, I saw the truth.

And I wept for that knowledge.

Congratulations Winners and NaNoWriMo

Hello to everyone. I am glad you stopped in today, and I have to say I hope to keep seeing you. The 2014 Coffin Hop is over, and I had a blast. Not only was there a lot of fantastic writing to read and art to look at, but I actually one something. That put a new item on my reading list.

Speaking of winning, it is time to announce the winner for my contest. Originally, I had offered a single e-copy ARC of my novel Double Occupancy.

Well, there were a total of 38 entries, and I like giving this out, so I am upping the qty. I decided to give away four copies. One of you that entered multiple times must have worked some magic on the old drawing hat, because your name came out for every time you entered.

Anyway, congratulations to Katie M John, Michelle Willms, The Manicheans & afstewart. I will be hunting for your e-mail addresses today. I have your books waiting for you.

On to other things.

As almost all writers with an internet presence are aware, November is National Novel Writing Month. It is the time of year when the truly insane amongst us let their crazy wave around like a flag by telling everyone that they are going to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. That works out to 1667 words per day.

This year, I am joining the insanity. If you look on the right hand side, below my advertising, you will find a daily word count. I will condense the count at the end of the week so that I don’t have thirty entries on that sidebar. My end of the week will be when I total a week’s entries up. It has nothing to do with a calendar.

So, this month’s stories and posts are going to be short from here on out.

Wish me luck. I am going to need it.

L. E. White

Revenge

He sat with his back straight, because slouching is bad for you.

His mother told him that.

He never said anything mean about other people behind there back. If he didn’t like someone, he just didn’t talk about them.

His grandmother told him that.

He never said anything that wasn’t true. A man was only as good as his word.

His grandfather told him that.

He did what he believed he should, because actions speak louder than words.

His father told him that.

When he walked into the bank and started shooting, it was because they had downsized him before raising his payments and taking his home away. An eye for an eye.

He didn’t remember where he had read that, and until today, he had never understood what it really meant.