Category: Musing (Page 22 of 31)

We are reluctant vacationers.  It’s not that we don’t like to take time off, or that we don’t enjoy going other places, we do. And we have. When the girls were little we would go on vacation to see family, because no family lived close to us. Then we bought a twenty five foot motor home and we went to national parks and campgroups, we drove through the Blue Ridge, we camped at the beach, we went to the top of Cadillac Mountain. We sold the Passport and moved to vacations that needed vacations in order to survive them. After a furious week in Orlando we could have used a weekend in Bermuda. And as the girls aged, so did our vacations as they were planned around the school holiday period, summer jobs and the need to move in and out of dorm rooms and apartments. Now we are no longer constrained by anything outside of us. Tom is retired, the girls are married, no more frantic trips to commerical hotspots, no more Uhauls and boxing weekends and no more school holidays. Actually, sometimes it is hard for me to remember what day of the week it is. So a vacation now is more of a change of view.

Yes we still like to see new things. This trip to Myrtle Beach is perfect. Less than a day away from home, enough time to  drop the puppies off and make it in time to check on at the hotel, and still feel that we are in another place, outside of where we live. The noun, to vacate means to leave, to let go.   So we leave on vacation. We let go of what is at home, any of the worries, the hassels, the grind.  We let go of that by going to anther place. Nice!

say series finale,  and you think of a long running show and then lots of publicity, and the loss of characters who have been in your house for what seems like a lifetime. I sort of felt that way with Eureka! On the SciFi channel. I say sort of because when they did the ‘going back in time’ thing, I felt they cheated.  They upped the love story between Jack and Alison, changed the kids and, well, I guess Stark was already dead by then.

Still, I had hoped for a bit more from the series finale.  The whole deal with the show was there were all these very bright, brilliant people who could almost rescue the universe every day, but they  really needed a *normal* person, in the form of a median IQ  intellect of Jack Carter. And he did it well, he continually, stepped into the breach and saved everyone. I liked the dynamic. And then POOF! It was over, bang, without a bang.

The government was closing down General Dynamics and with it Eureka and everyone whom we had come to know, who had been through so much, well they were going to be gone. So instead, they had the scientist from the 1940s who stayed in our present and apparently made a lot of money, who knew?, buy the town. One episode? Seriously? You think that just ties up everything and we’re good?  No. Not by a long shot!

There are some pretty classic archenemies.  Holmes & Moriarity. Superman & Lex Luthor. The Jedi & The Sith. Peter Pan & Captain Hook. Dr Who & The Master. Denis Nayland Smith & Fu Manchu.  Not to mention Harry and Lord Voldemort. Classic, meaning definitive, of the highest quality, outstanding example of it’s kind. It’s not just me, you’d be able to come up with all of these and more depending on whether you look in books, TV, comics, toys, or games.  It’s not just that these combinations are well known and are the epitome of what archenemies are, but that most of us can probably say the why, what, when, where and how archenemy status was established on almost every one listed.

This is not a picture of archenemy hood. This is one of predator and prey. There’s no feeling of one being good and the other being evil. Except maybe in a Disney movie, where we have the character overlay. Personally, I’d like the goldfish to be the evil. And the cat be the good. Toss the usual up in the air, throw it around a bit, and let it settle down someplace orange. Or purple. Not here. Someplace else.

It’s hard to create an archenemy, someone evil for ever and ever. Because today there’s always the tendency to make the recalcitrant baddie, never to reform, never to know goodness evil, change, have some redeeming qualities. It’s a shame.  Evil isn’t like that. Oh, sometimes it can seem like it’s changing, making it’s way from the darkness to the light. But no, a bad to the core would never do that. That’s why I like Harry. Tom Riddle has to go down in a crushing defeat, he will never see the light of goodness or charity, he will never know the love that Harry does. He will never have people around him who want to be there, the only people around him will be terrified of him and what he is capable of doing.

Classic archenemies are hard to come by.

When I was at the University of Portland, Oregon, that is, I was a card carrying member of the Procrastination Club…Never Put off Until Tomorrow What You Can Put Off Until the Day After Tomorrow.  But it wasn’t true, I lied [well, it was the 60’s we all lied about something]. I like to be done. Have all my ducks in a row. Neat and Tidy [are there any more clichés I could use?] Probably, but I don’t remember them right now.

And, although my teachers and even my parents thought I was really doing nothing but avoiding, I was doing something. There. In the back side of my brain, there’s this little machine that keeps whirring, just humming along on what ever topic I choose to leave back there. I’ve been having a problem getting from here to there. Ever happen to you? Well, here I am, my main character in my MG story has a couple of irons in the fire, you know, the usual stuff, a dead body next door, a classmate whose mother is not dead, a bully

on the bus and  an older sister who is just about ballistic over being a senior, apparently some people just can’t handle the stress.

I know where the plot goes, but my MC? Not quite sure. So, I’m avoiding the problem. Writing this blog. Making book map of the characters. Avoidance.

Then. Hello, inspiration. Right. Just throw them into hot water.  HeeHee.

Yes, well. I guess it is, July that is.  Had a bit of a pickle in getting the conference registration up and running, although I should have been prepared for that possibility. Ho Hum, wasn’t. It did go up. It’s different and people don’t like different. They say they do, but they don’t. Well, it’s up, working, people are signing up, so I guess we’re good.

I’m trying not to let my own writing interfere with my scbwi work, but, lol, it’s not that easy to do. And, there was a study yesterday in the WSJ about if you sit more than three hours a day you are reducing your life span. Seriously? How many people don’t sit for three hours a day. And. Better question: If I start to do this when I’m already in my sixties, how the h$** can you tell it has reduced my lifespan?  Okay, a little over the top there. But just what I need when I’m trying to do BIC [butt in chair] and get this middle grade mystery done.

They say ‘try to stand, for example, when you are on the telephone.’  LOL, it makes Tom’s pacing when he’s on the phone look positively prescient. Although I do know that’s not true, he just didn’t like to wait. Meanwhile, it’s still July. We got through the fourth okay, although it was a touch difficult for Bayley and Dan. They lost power due to the big storm that came across the eastern seaboard. for five days, forcing them to eat the top layer of their wedding cake five months early or lose it. Weather can be so trying 🙂

Okay, so I’ve been writing so much my brain is in a far off land trying to recuperate. Not likely to happen soon, but I’ll let you know. Now. Back to BIC and the mystery.