I Feel As If I'm Getting Too Much Attention

There's 5 main characters in this book but so far I'm the character that has gotten the most print-- far more than any of the rest. In a few minutes when I lay me down to sleep I'm going to try and suggest to myself that I dream of bigger rolls for the others. Will it work? I donno but in the past I have on occasion managed to influence my dreams so wish me luck so Donny, Steve and Wooley will all get the attention they deserve. After all, if it weren't for their support and tolerance I'd never be able to pen this story.

I Know How The Story Ends

I dream these stories as I write them but in most instances I know the ending almost as soon as I know the beginning. What I don't know is how I get from beginning to end.

Oh sure, sometimes I get waking glimpses, flashes into where the story is going to take me but sometimes those glimpses are simply alternate reality... er, I mean, alternate fiction sort of things that flash at me during my waking moments.

What really dictates where the story goes is what takes place in my dreams. I dream it then when I awake I pen it to paper or in recent years, type it to a computer hard drive. When I was working for a living it often mean I was about to lose another job. You see, and I know most won't understand, when I keep a story bottled up inside of me and don't stop doing everything else to get it out I literally become quite insane and impossible to deal with. The poems and stories I write are how I cope with the pressures of living in this crazy world. They are what stops me from becoming a school shooter or going postal.

Should you be scared? Should anyone be scared? Not as long as I'm being creative, off the wall, stubborn, argumentative and doing what most of you consider to be crazy things. It's when I stop being crazy and creative that you need worry.

Of course, writing isn't my only outlet. I torture the local political elite to no end, build things like the streetplane most of the world knows me for and believe it or not, Steve, Wooley, Donny and I really do work on and ride motorcycles. And someday we really do hope to turn it into a business. We invent things too. There was a time when I sang as well but a local doctor ruined that for me just as I landed a recording contract.

Anyway, as I was saying, the stories come out and I have to write them. The interruption of my life is something employers never learned to deal with and family barely tolerates probably only because they've seen what happens when I don't write. But as awkward as it is the process remains amazing even to this day watching these stories unfold in my dreams as livid as if they were a movie playing right before my eyes, short stories in a single nap, novels over a period of weeks or months, knowing all along where I'm going but never knowing how I'm going to get there.

So you see, for me, even knowing the ending doesn't ruin the story.

By the way, I just posted another chapter and another poem.

What, You Thought The Chocolate Gravy Was Fiction?

I made mention of Chocolate Gravy in Chapter 9, New River Valley and I'm sure most folks thought it purely fiction but family members leaving Momma's house just about now know full well it is very much real and has been passed down through generations of my mother's family, the Hartsoes, for well over 100 years, perhaps 300-400 years or more. Here's a biscuit covered with hot chocolate gravy just moments before being devoured by your's truly just this morning.

How do you make Chocolate Gravy? Here's about a million recipes-- take your pick.

Times are hard and like a lot of families we've had to cut back again this year but we made sure the kids got presents and the family gathered for Christmas breakfast just as we've done as long as I can remember. I'm saddened that Jason will never be able to join us for Christmas again and that there will never be any grandchildren to continue my line but the smiling faces of the great nephews and great nieces are always a joy to behold even if they all do think me their crazy uncle. And admittedly, it was fun watching my 17 year old niece squirm as I told her boyfriend (the first she's introduced to the family) things she'd rather he not know. You know, things we adults would think nothing of but teenage girls still freak over.

And while he thought it cool he might end up a good guy in a book, she was freaked to no end. Typical teenagers, right?

I've added a Sponsors page as well but not all are really sponsors in the real sense of the way we usually think of sponsors. Some are just good friends trying to eek out a living who I thought deserved a mention and an occasional leg up because they're good people doing good things, folks like Brian Heagney, environmentalist, homeless advocate, architect and children's author whose book, The ABC's of Anarchy could stand to sell a few more copies to help Brian and his wife take care of that darling little girl they're raising. You see, I want this book to be a book about good things no matter how badly written it might be.

Now if you'd like to become a real sponsor or even if you just want to comment on what I've written here you may contact me by e-mail at Recyclebill@gmail.com and I'll get back to you ASAP. Yes, I could enable live commenting here but because to do so would also enable commenting in the story itself I thought it better I disable commenting altogether. If I think your comment is of value to my other readers I'll be more than happy to post it along with attribution and links back to your blog or website if you wish. With some exceptions, of course.

Oh, and Merry Christmas, Happy Holidaze!