By: Bruce Black,
on 9/6/2015
The heat in Florida is unrelenting at the this time of year, pressing down over everything like a steamy blanket and making the air so thick and humid that it feels like you’re trapped inside a never-ending steam bath. It’s not only the air that warms up but the water, too. Instead of water temperatures in the 60's or 70's, like off the mid-Atlantic coast at this time of year, the
By: Bruce Black,
on 11/16/2014
It’s that time of year when the light changes. Even in Florida, where writers are accustomed to the sun shining brightly all year long, the days are growing shorter. Over the next few months, we'll watch as the light turns from highly burnished gold to a subtle shade of bronze, and we'll gaze in wonder as this honey-colored light seems to melt from the sky. In the weeks ahead, as
By: Bruce Black,
on 6/19/2011
Remember when you leaped as a child into the waves and splashed and dived for hours, and by the end of the afternoon you could hear your mother calling from the beach to tell you it was time to get out of the water?You’d turn toward shore, wading reluctantly through the waves, letting the surge of the ocean push you closer to the beach even as the undertow pulled you back into the sea.Once you
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By: Leslie Ann Clark,
on 5/5/2011
Oooh…. today I bought some Spanish Lavender for my garden. Even though I only have a weeee bit of time in the day to enjoy the garden each day, I am happy to dig around and imagine the best garden yet!
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By: MP,
on 11/24/2010
Sanity Check
by Amy Mullis
I love November. The month decorated with shades of orange and gold and...wait. That was October.
November is the month we plan a meal that involves more food than a jetliner requires fuel. We must clean the house, yes, even the corner behind the litter box, because it’s a safe bet the baby will find the petrified Snickers bar and spit it out with a flourish, wrapper and all, when you serve the pie.
We need to see if we have 24 cloth napkins to match the tablecloth and they have to be clean because if Aunt Maude gets the one with the wine stain, she’ll convince everyone that we’re a family of alcoholics who eats candy off the bathroom floor.
Oh, and while we’re up to our elbows trying to shove stuffing into a cavity the size of a quarter, lets take on a writing challenge and agree to throw down 50,000 words like they were marbles on the playground.
If I were into role playing games, I’d be rolling for a sanity check right now.
Head down, I’ve been typing away since the stroke of dawn on November 1. By the second week I finally began to pull ahead on my word count.
Before much longer, perhaps I could work in a bathroom break.
Why do life lessons happen at the most inconvenient times?
A call came from my son, who had one of those days at work. On the ten year college plan, he’s hovering between adolescence and adulthood and presently sitting under a cloud so dark that he was willing to talk about it.
I looked at my blank computer screen.
I looked at my phone.
The computer buzzed a faint protest as I turned it off.
We spent the day as a family, eating fresh doughnuts at a bakery shop where the air smelled of sugar and childhood memories and wonder. We took a trip to the local discount theatre, and laughed at the antics of a curmudgeon turned hero. We ate at a local fast food restaurant, sitting on high stools, swinging our legs.
Then came magic words. “Being with you guys makes up for everything that happened today.”
The next day I got up early. In two hours, I made up the word count from the day before. My mind was relaxed; its empty cup filled with new thoughts, new schemes, new ideas. I finished the day with enough words to pull back ahead. And it was fun!
Take a day off? Crazy. I never would have done it on my own. But it increased my productivity and gave me a fresh outlook.
Take a break. It doesn’t have to be for a day; it can be a walk down the street, looking at the miraculous change the seasons have made in the world around you.
And don’t worry about the napkins. If Aunt Maude gets the one with the wine stain, it will make a great story.
* * *
By: Scribe Chronicler of Aventar,
on 2/28/2008
“Okay, now I’m starting to wonder who he is.”
“What does exsamency mean?”
“‘Excellency,’ Cici. It’s a way of addressing nobility.”
“She’s a noble?”
“Page three is up. Fury of the Venom Legion updates every Thursday with a brand new color page.”
By: Scribe Chronicler of Aventar,
on 2/23/2008
“Here is a preview of page three of Fury of the Venom Legion our all-new color LadyStar web comic. Fury of the Venom Legion updates every Thursday.”
“This is a preview of page 18 of The Varcarel Jade the free LadyStar web manga. The Varcarel Jade updates every Monday with a new page.”
By: Scribe Chronicler of Aventar,
on 2/21/2008
“I wonder who she is…”
“She looks really sad.”
“I’ll bet you anything that’s that Vicereine person from those chapters in Miss Shannon’s book. She’s like scary powerful.”
“I hope we don’t have to fight her.”
“Hey man, we’ll do what we have to. If she wants a fight, we’ll power up and take care of business.”
“Well, let’s at least find out what’s going on first. She might not be trying to destroy our treasures like that Cryptic was.”
“Fury of the Venom Legion updates every Thursday with a brand new color page.”
By: Scribe Chronicler of Aventar,
on 2/18/2008
“Well now we know why Miss Shannon had that big silly grin on her face a couple days ago. She’s got herself a brand new warrior page!”
“Ooh, it’s got everything! Let’s see, there’s Kishi and her ring, and her cape and arrows and it’s even got three different kinds of earrings!”
“It is a pretty nice page, huh?”
“Okay ladies, me and hunter girl over here have got our warrior stuff together. Let’s get with it! Where’s your new pages?! We’ve got four to go!”
“Oh my goodness”
“Heheee.. Ooh, if you wanna read one of the stories from Shannon-sama’s book when she’s the Huntress and fights monsters with her magical cat named Kishi, you should go see the Call of the Huntress page, ’cause we gots lots of neat stories! Have fun minna!”
By: Scribe Chronicler of Aventar,
on 2/14/2008
“Huge news!”
“She isn’t kidding, ladies. You have to come see this.”
“We were looking for Shannon-sama. She was here a second ago.”
“We’ll find Miss Shannon later. You have to see this, like now.”
By: Scribe Chronicler of Aventar,
on 2/8/2008
“It’s a new Varcarel Jade comic page!”
“I love those borders with the calm colors.”
“It’s Page Sixteen!”
“Nice!”
By: Scribe Chronicler of Aventar,
on 1/26/2008
“Z-bot to Hana. Detecting a Varcarel Jade Web Comic Update. Transmitting coordinates.”
“Outstanding, Z-bot. Page fifteen verified. I love a good hockey game. Acey out.”
By: Scribe Chronicler of Aventar,
on 1/23/2008
“Time for another web comic update!”
“Yay! It’s Varcarel Jade Page Fourteen!”
“Roller hockey game! That was the one at the Sports and Crafts fair.”
“Yep. Good game too. Hayashi even cheered.”
“Oh my goodness…”
“We got lots more updates, minna! Visit again soon! Ja!”
By: Scribe Chronicler of Aventar,
on 1/23/2008
By: Scribe Chronicler of Aventar,
on 1/23/2008
“That’s one of those monsters from my dream at the Lithic Pavilion.”
“I think something weird is going on again.”
“Is it the Halloween monsters?”
“Nope, don’t think so, but we better be ready anyway.”
By: Scribe Chronicler of Aventar,
on 1/18/2008
“Shannon-sama!”
“I know! I know! We have a new Varcarel Jade comic page up, and it’s in color!”
“Slick.”
“I knew we’d have the best update today. Have fun minna! Ja!”
By: Scribe Chronicler of Aventar,
on 1/15/2008
“Another page, huh?”
“Yep! It’s Varcarel Jade Page Twelve!”
“And don’t forget to jump back and check page four for a nice introduction to our official charity. Rock Camp is win.”
“We’re going to have articles to go with all of our comic pages soon. Don’t miss the next page. I hear it’s going to be super cool! Have fun everyone!”
“Ja!”
By: Scribe Chronicler of Aventar,
on 1/13/2008
“Did you know that our comic site has extra sites where there’s lots of stuff and even sample pages? There’s even a site called The Web Comic List where we gots two pages!”
“Yeah, the first page is for the book side, which is this site, and then there’s another page for our web comic.”
“And they both have number buttons! Looky!”
“Hey, we used to have that one over on the left side next to the vote button didn’t we?”
“Yeah! That’s the button for our book site, and it says which rank we are from aaaaaaall the comics on the whole Web Comic List site.”
“Wait a second, there’s almost 11,000 comics on that site.”
“Guess we’re in there slugging then, because we’re almost in the top 1500!”
“Yay for us! Then we gots a whole different button for the comic site, even though it looks the same.”
“Coming along, isn’t it? We’re getting there, sports fans!”
“Our friends can go and vote for us too. Add our sites to your favorites list and help us get higher in the rankings. We have two pages on the Webcomic list, The Magical and Mysterious World of LadyStar and LadyStar: The Varcarel Jade.”
“Slick.”
“We also got a page on a site called ‘Comicspace’ where we listed both sites again. It’s LadyStar on Comicspace and people on that site can add us to their friend list. We already got 13 friends!”
“More coming up too. I hear we’ve got a new listing coming up on a big site, and we still have our Buzzcomix Vote Button.”
“We got 35 votes!”
“Yeah! And the more votes we get the higher in that list we go too. We’re going to be the best web comic because of all our friends that visit us. Be sure to vote for us if you can! Ja ne minna-san!”
By: Scribe Chronicler of Aventar,
on 1/12/2008
“Check out Goofy with all the introductions to our books!”
“She’s the new spokesgirl.”
“Yay! We gots a comic update! Varcarel Jade Page Eleven is new!”
“There’s always something new on our site.”
“Sure is. Have a great weekend everyone!”
By: Scribe Chronicler of Aventar,
on 1/12/2008
LadyStar is the story of a group of girls who each have a powerful weapon they wear disguised as a priceless jeweled treasure. With their magical weapons, Jessica Hoshi and her friends can transform into the Ajan Warriors, champion defenders of the enchanted realm of Aventar!
“Hi! I’m Jessica Hoshi! If you like stories about action and adventure and discovering magical treasures and fighting evil monsters, you’ll like our new web comic the best! It’s the story of when we fought some yucky monsters called liches! Me and my friends have lots of exciting adventures together! You can read LadyStar: The Varcarel Jade for free! Right in your browser! The comic is updated twice a week with new pages! So tell all your friends and come visit us as much as you want! There’s always something fun happening at the Magical and Mysterious World of LadyStar!”
By: Scribe Chronicler of Aventar,
on 1/5/2008
LadyStar is the story of a group of girls who each have a powerful weapon they wear disguised as a priceless jeweled treasure. With their magical weapons, Jessica Hoshi and her friends can transform into the Ajan Warriors, champion defenders of the enchanted realm of Aventar!
“Hi! I’m Jessica Hoshi! If you like stories about action and adventure and discovering magical treasures and fighting evil monsters, you’ll like our books a lot! Me and my friends have lots of fun adventures together! You can read LadyStar: The Dreamspeaker for free! The whole book! Right in your browser! So tell all your friends and come visit us as much as you want! There’s always something fun happening on our site!”
The strange part is that the day off seems to have disappeared as soon as its over, right? But it is sure great while it lasts. And it always, always, always provides more raw material. Because what is writing but reflections of life itself?