Writing!
OK, so I've not been terribly inspired to do any 'blogging' for quite some time.I think this is mainly due to having a lot on my plate between work, projects related to work, and also suffering from some mental fatigue to be honest.I am LOVING my writing class - to begin with, the people in the class are amazing. I mean, they are really amazing. Everyone has something to contribute and everyone has amazing stories to tell. And Tim, our inspiring leader, has a way of making everyone be inspired to write their best and most interesting stuff. Now, I guess every writing class has that potential but having taken a college level semester long class and other workshops, the class I am in is actually pretty rare. It does make me feel a bit slouchy for not writing every single day.
So, I resolve to get back to taking one single hour of each day to write something. I certainly have plenty of things to work on - at least three short stories in sad states of progress, my 'novel' such that it is, and a pile of ideas for new stories! One thing that I am discovering is that stories from my memories of my youth, especially in NYC, seem to have some rich material, even if I know I'll be fictionalizing it a lot. I also love to write about Wales, and its landscape and the pace of life there. So I'd better get cracking...
As for knitting, it's been too hot and humid for the most part. But I have been thinking about knitting... so I plan to assess my UFO's, figure out which one I can finish the quickest and get to work on it! I have two sweaters that are begging to be finished and I want to wear them!!! And I need to get cracking on Christmas gifts....hats, scarves, snowmen/women, and a bunch of other things. Lastly, I have to get the yarn for, and get moving on my event teammate's wedding present...
Until the next time....
Some Writing
Sad Scene of Children Playing (originally written 10/25/93)
The filthy, trash-laden streets are the children’s playground. From the alley, an overpowering smell of rotting garbage permeates the entire block, trash and food scraps overflowing onto the ground to be picked over by mangy stray animals and desperate homeless people. Laundry is strung between the tenements, looking not a whole lot cleaner than it was to begin with.
Whipping around the corner, a group of youths – four or five of them, ages six through twelve – search for excitement. It is extremely difficult to determine the boys from the girls. Winter is upon them and they dress in layers of tattered, ragged, soiled hand-me-downs, grubby, threadbare hats on each head. Their faces, covered with the grime of the city, give a haunting look – a look of innocence betrayed, of shattered dreams, of incredible hardness. Malnourished, one of the gang clutches a prize – a piece of rock candy. He holds it high in the air while the others push and shove, pummel him, leap in the air trying desperately to claim the prize for themselves. In an instant, the candy is shaken loose and tumbles onto the pavement – splintering into a hundred pieces. Scrambling furiously, the urchins wrestle for a sliver of the heavenly confection.
The children are only partially satisfied with this, restlessness reigns supreme. A slightly built boy, the one always picked on, pounces upon a crushed tin can, kicking it down the street. Another scrawny child, perhaps a girl of seven or eight, sprints down the block after the can. The children spread out in a pattern of some sort (like a ballet), a few on the sidewalk, one covering the entrance of the alley, and two others in the street itself. From one of the grimy windows above, an exhausted woman yells out at the kids in the street below – she fears they will come to some harm but cannot express this concern adequately. A particularly bratty, sullen girl shrieks back, “Mind your own business, old hag!” Just then, from around the corner, the neighborhood policeman approaches, spying the truant children playing. The scrawny boy shouts out, and the children speed down the alleyway, scrambling up waiting fire escapes, shaking off the cop’s pursuit.
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