• Writing

    01: Ugh. Of Course.

    Went to bed early, as I said in my last post. Woke up about a half hour ago because of sirens in the neighborhood and a helicopter flying fairly low over the subdivision with a damned spotlight brighter than the sun. Feh. Woke my housemate, too. We went out on the front lawn to see what we could find out, but it’s all down the street, and I’m barefoot and in pajamas. Some of the neighbors tried to walk deeper into the subdivision, but cops yelled at them to go back inside.

    While I was out there, I thought I heard a gunshot, but . . . it’s hard to tell, really. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard one close up except for one I fired myself, and that was quite noisy. And forty years ago.

    I decided I do not need to be wherever there are (potential) gunshots. Cowardly? Incurious? Maybe. But alive and not underfoot, impeding whatever investigation might be going on.

    Of course, the neighbors picked the one night I’d like to get a full night’s sleep to decide to go from quiet and unbothersome to . . . whatever this turns out to be. I hope I don’t see it on one of my mother’s favorite “Killers Among Us” type shows on ID. Maybe I could be that guy who always says, “They seemed so nice. Always quiet. Helped me unload a new fridge from my pickup that one time. I never would have dreamed he had buried bodies in his basement.”

    Yeah. Or not.

    As I was typing this, things seem to have died down a bit, although there seems to be a lot more people milling about than one would expect from a simple murder. Assuming it was simple. And a murder. And how many helicopters does one crime scene need, anyway? There are at least two, possibly more.

    Another weird thing: One of the vehicles that drove by looked armored. I wonder what that’s about? I’d go check, but . . . I have more important things to concern myself with. I’m sure someone in the neighborhood will explain it once I’m back from Viable Paradise. Maybe they’ll put it in the neighborhood newsletter.

    Dammit. Might as well stay up, now, even though I’ll be a zombie all day with only five and a half hours of sleep. I’m yawning so hard it feels like I’m going to inhale my monitor. Feh. I was going to get up at 5:30. I’ll probably not post again until I’m at the hotel up in Martha’s Vineyard. Maybe I can sleep on the plane, assuming I don’t sit next to a Chatty Kathy or within two rows of a kid.

    The shower calls. And apparently breakfast, if the smell of biscuits means anything.

    Later.


    Zombie Apocalypse 2012
    Zombie Apocalypse 2012

    This post is part of Zombie Apocalypse 2012, a multi-blog fictional account of a zombie uprising. (The previous post was part of the preamble). Stay tuned for more posts!

    You may also follow the button link to read other equally fictional Zombie Apocalypse 2012 blog entries by other writers, or join in and tell your own zombie apocalypse stories!

  • Writing

    Prologue: Viable Paradise Week

    Viable Paradise

    I’m forcing myself to go to bed as soon as I post this, even though I’m not the least bit sleepy, and probably too excited to sleep. Tomorrow is the Big Day™. I’ll get on a plane in the morning and fly to Boston, then bus to Woods Hole, then ferry over to Martha’s Vineyard for Viable Paradise. Can. Not. Wait.

    I just hope I’ll sleep. The plane leaves at WayTooFreakingEarly:30, which means I have to get up at some unbelievable hour that I’ve heard tell of, but can’t recall seeing with my own eyes, just so I can get to the airport two hours before the flight because of TSA. I’ve checked my itinerary and the ferry schedule about 300 times since this morning, convinced it’ll change before my eyes and say something else this time. I was . . . not exactly present, mentally, at work.

    At least the drive down to the airport will be easy at that hour. The only people up will be vampires and milkmen, one of which is mythical. And I think it’s milkmen.

    Anyhoo, enough procrastination. Bed!


    Wondering what the “Prologue:” is about? Stay tuned! All will become clear, soon. </cryptic>

  • Writing

    Impostor Syndrome

    Imposter by umisef, on Flickr
    Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic License  by  umisef 

    Do y’all know what Impostor Syndrome is? In a nutshell, it’s the feeling that, at any minute, something will happen to take something away from you that you thought was too good to be true. The feeling, deep down, that you don’t truly deserve it, and it must be some sort of cruel error.

    I keep expecting to get email or a phone call from Viable Paradise saying, “We made a really huge error and contacted you instead of the person with the actual talent, so never mind.”

    Yes, it’s silly. But it’s no less true. It’s the same feeling a lot of people get as graduation day approaches. They expect someone to rush on stage during their graduation ceremony and shout, “Wait! S/He didn’t earn that diploma! S/He neglected to take Underwater Tiddlywinks and his/her entire four years of college is now wasted!”

    Yes, I fully expected it all through my graduation from the University of Alabama. I was, frankly, stunned when they handed me my diploma and didn’t immediately snatch it back.

    In other news, I loathe my brain. This week can’t be done soon enough for me. Once I’m at VP, maybe Imposter Syndrome will go away.

    Suggested soundtrack: Carly Simon’s “Anticipation.” The Who’s “Who Are You?”