Death Takes A Vacation

What's been happening since the last blog?  Well, not much in the writing realm, though there has been one significant happening on the writing front that I'll talk about in a minute.  First, I've only managed to write one day since the last blog post update, mostly because of lack of inspiration and desire.  I've just been kind of blah on creativity the past few weeks.  I suppose there are lots of reason, not the least of which is me not making myself write even through the non-motivational period (like I tell Candice she needs to do with her art when she gets into similar creativity droughts  - I am apparently a hypocrite - at least recently.

A little over a week ago, Candice's grandma suffered a heart attack and had to be carried away by ambulance.  She's fine now, but it was scary for a couple of days.  She made it home just in time for her birthday party (which was also Gabe's and Jeanette's party).  She's been tired a lot more since coming home, but seems to be getting stronger with each passing day.

Gabe has become a greedy little jerk.  Everything is all about "me, me, me" and "gimme, gimme."  I know we're not knowingly promoting such an attitude, and it makes us want to go without giving presents to him for a while if he doesn't grow out of it soon.

Now for the "big" writing news - yesterday I sat down and wrote for the first time in weeks, and not only did I start a new story, I finished a new story.  It's only 3 pages and about 1200 words, but it's a pretty decent story.  It revolves around who death is, and his decision to finally take a vacation, which turns into him taking off a whole year and covers how the world changes in that time.

It was a concept that occurred to me while listening to The Book Thief (which we're almost finished listening to).  It is narrated by death and he describes taking the souls away, so naturally, the though occurred to me "What if he didn't do it?"

Anyway, that's what has been happening with me and my writing lately, thanks for reading.

My Interview With a Famous Dead Person

My interview wasn’t going well. Probably because I didn’t speak Ancient or Hellenistic Greek and English wasn’t around yet when he was alive, much less modern English. But you’d think I could get some responses from him anyway. Still I got nothing at all. He couldn’t tell me if his stories about Atlantis were a story for entertainment, a metaphor of warning, or something he believed to be true. He wouldn’t say a word about what it was like to study under Socrates. He wouldn’t even talk about the Academy where he trained future political leaders. But in retrospect, I guess he never responded because he’s dead.