Category Archives: Uncategorized

November 6, 2012

This is the typical sort of thing on my blog, but I wanted to share it, since it’s about the response to the passengers on 9-11 near where I grew up in Newfoundland. It’s a great account. I’m very proud to be from there.

A Daily Thought

I got this story in an email and I just had to pass it on. It brought tears to my eyes.

Delta Flight 15

Here is an amazing story from a flight attendant on Delta Flight 15, written following 9-11:
“On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, we were about 5 hours out of Frankfurt, flying over the North Atlantic. All of a sudden the curtains parted and I was told to go to the cockpit, immediately, to see the captain. As soon as I got there I noticed that the crew had that “All Business” look on their faces. The captain handed me a printed message. It was from Delta’s main office in Atlanta and simply read, “All airways over the Continental United States are closed to commercial air traffic. Land ASAP at the nearest airport. Advise your destination.”
“No one said a word about what this could…

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1 Comment | posted in Uncategorized

November 2, 2012

Money or Food: A Thought Exercise

By David Stewart

Here is a thought exercise. Imagine you had no possible source of income but had food, basic shelter and basic clothes provided for you as you needed them. Nothing else is given to you though.

Now, imagine that you could refuse to eat a meal and you would get five dollars (or equivalent currency). You could do this anytime you liked, up to $15 a day if you didn’t eat at all.

Would you just take the food and live comfortably or would you sacrifice to save up money? If so, how much would you try to save and what would you buy with it?

23 Comments | tags: choice, dilemma, food, money, thought exercise | posted in Uncategorized

November 1, 2012

Nanowrimo: And so it begins again…

By David Stewart

It occurred to me that this will probably be one of thousands of posts about Nanowrimo on WordPress today, but oh well.

Well, it’s that time of the year again: November, which for many means National Novel Writing Month. I have done it for the last six years but was debating not doing this year because of other writing and busyness. However, I’ve decided to do it anyway.

Thus, the amount of fiction I will be putting up here will be much less for the next month. I will still post three times a week with either true anecdotes from my life, reflections on writing, or whatever.

I’ve decided to write a full novel version of my story, The Girl Who Could Snee. That story was 1600 words and the novel will be at least 50,000 words, so the characters are going to be more developed and the plot will be quite different. I’ve got a rough sketch in my head and I’m excited.

Back when I was a young thing, I used to stay up until midnight every November 1st to get a jump on the writing. I told myself to be sensible this year, but “sensible” and “bedtime” are not two words that go together in my brain. I started writing at the stroke of midnight and…wrote 109 words before bailing and going to bed.

So, are you doing Nano? Are you tempted to? If you are doing it, let me know and we can be writing buddies on the Nanowrimo site.

http://inkygirl.com/wwfc

23 Comments | tags: nanowrimo, novel, writing | posted in Uncategorized

October 9, 2012

Open Prompts #3

By David Stewart

It’s been a few weeks, but here is the third installment of Open Prompts, where you tell me what to write, and then join me if you feel the muse move you.

The first two attempts produced Klutz and Saturday 4am, which has its own recurring story line and music video.

This time, I’m going to set the length at about 200 words. That’s pretty short, so I’m only going to take 3 prompts. If you have an idea, write it in the comments and I’ll include it in the story and credit you at the beginning. Pretty much anything goes, from the tone, genre and title, to characters, setting or objects in the story. Go nuts!

Story elements:

Length: 200 words

I’ll post the story this Friday, October 12. See you then~

21 Comments | tags: Open Prompts, writing | posted in Uncategorized

October 6, 2012

When Life Intervenes (aka “Where’s Isabelle”?)

By David Stewart

Tragic news, everyone. Part 4 of Isabelle’s Story is not ready yet, even though I said it would be up today. The good news is that it should be ready tomorrow. I really try to post things when I say I will, but as the title says, life intervenes sometimes.

In this case, I went rafting today with my friend. It was kind of a last minute thing, but if you know me in real life, you’ll know I’m adventurous and spontaneous. If you don’t know me in real life, well, now you know.

The river is known as the Mangyeonggang, which is practically unpronounceable when written in English. In Korean, it’s 만경강. I didn’t take any pictures, since I didn’t want to get the camera wet or damaged but here is a picture of the river by someone else.

As you can see, there are large masses of vegetation, as well as frequent breakwaters built across the river to slow the water down in the rainy seasons. We had to portage around four of those, but on the other side of them, the water was fast and went through corridors of tall grass and reeds, often in convoluted S-shapes. It was very fun. Here’s an aerial picture.

So that’s why the story isn’t ready. Unless I go sky-diving tomorrow, it should be up then. (In the meantime, you can catch up with the first story, Isabelle’s Island, or Part 1, Part 2, or Part 3 of The Other Side: Isabelle’s Story, if you haven’t read them yet.)

In the spirit of sharing, what are some times when life intervened on your scheduled writing?

8 Comments | tags: Korea, outside the tower, rafting, river, writing | posted in Uncategorized

September 22, 2012

Let the Cast Assemble

By David Stewart

If you read my blog regularly, you know that I tend to write a wide variety of stories with many different characters. However, if you were really paying attention, you know that a few characters have come up more than once.

The first of these is Klista. She first appeared in the story See the World Through a Cardboard Tube! and then recently in The Recruitment of Bruce Riansson.

Klista is a mysterious character. She is a woman who apparently has no trouble traveling between worlds or even quickly in space. Where she comes from is unknown. She often wears a red cloak and carries a bag of strange, possibly magical, items. As for what she does, she tells Bruce Riansson to “think of me as a type of guide. I show secrets to people who need them and who are worthy.” What this actually means, will be explored in later stories.

Joining her is Bruce Riansson, a former innkeeper who was exiled from his home country of Indrake for harboring a fleeing traitor. Because The Recruitment of Bruce Riansson occurred first, Bruce is actually the unnamed male assistant in See the World Through a Cardboard Tube!

The second recurring character is Horus Vere. He was the main character in The Mermaid’s Kiss and I Was on Trial Once… He come from the same world as Bruce Riansson and is a professional traveler, who seeks adventure and whatever profit he can make along the way.

A third character who will become a recurring character is Edward “The Squid” Morrison, who appeared in the recent story Saturday, 4am. He is an extortionist and scavenger in post-apocalyptic England who is out to find what he calls “hidden pearls” of the old world, the time Before. He is accompanied by his recently-acquired android follower, Droog.

I will still write unrelated stories, but I will write more stories to expand these three story arcs. Let me know if there is one character whose stories you particularly enjoy and I will try to do more with them.

7 Comments | tags: Edward Morrison, fantasy, fiction, Horus Vere, Klista, outside the tower, science fiction, writing | posted in Uncategorized

September 18, 2012

Open Prompts #2

By David Stewart

This is the second call for story elements in a series I’m calling Open Prompts (I’m not entirely sure I like that name though, so if you have a better suggestion, let me know). The result of the first Open Prompts was my story “Klutz” and originolS’s story “$0.99 Only”.

If you have a suggestion for a story element, post it in the comments. It’s pretty open, but here are some examples:

– the title

– the genre (fantasy, mystery, horror, etc.)

– the tone (dark, humorous , serious, absurd, etc.)

– a character’s name or other details about them (just one character at a time, though)

– plot elements (e.g. a silver dagger, a rainstorm, identical twins, etc.)

– the length (something between 50 and 1500 words)

– anything else you feel like.

I’m going to use six story elements, suggesting the first one myself to get the ball rolling. I know everyone has their own blogging/writing schedule, but if you’d like to join me, I’d be thrilled to read your story based on the same story elements.

Story elements:

The title is: “Saturday, 4am”

Have fun! Be creative! I’ll post the story this Friday.

15 Comments | tags: Open Prompts, writing | posted in Uncategorized

September 3, 2012

How to Mess Around with Another Writer’s Story

By David Stewart

Have you ever wanted to mess around with another writer’s story? Well, here is your chance. Introducing Open Prompts. Post some aspect of a short story in the comments and I will be sure to include it in my next story, to be posted on Friday, September 7.

Some examples are:

– the title

– the genre (fantasy, mystery, horror, etc.)

– the tone (dark, humorous , serious, absurd, etc.)

– characters’ names or other details about them

– plot elements (e.g. a silver dagger, a rainstorm, identical twins, etc.)

– the length (something between 50 and 1500 words)

– the setting

– anything else you feel like.

It’s pretty much open. I am planning on doing this on a regular basis, although this first one is a test. Every time, I will suggest one element and then take the first 5 suggestions I get in the comments, for a total of six elements per story. Please though, nothing obscene or sexually explicit. I’ll post the names of the story element contributors in the story. First come, first serve!

This isn’t just for me, of course. Feel free to join me in this: we all use the same story elements and then compare stories. Just post a link to your story somewhere so I can read it.

So, here is the first prompt:

1. There is a character name Kermit, who is a horrible klutz

25 Comments | tags: Open Prompts, writers | posted in Uncategorized

July 21, 2012

One Lovely Blog Award

By David Stewart

I’ve never thought of myself as particularly lovely (although David does mean “beloved”) but thank you, The Bumble Files, for nominating me. Because you are so awesome, I accept. She was the third person to follow my blog and is my number one commenter. Check out her blog.

Here are rules for the award as I have received them:

1. Thank the person who nominated me. (of course)

2. Share 7 things about myself that you still may not know. (see below)

3. Nominate 15 bloggers. (see below)

4. Notify the nominees that I have done so. (wouldn’t hurt)

5. Put the logo of the award on my blog site. (cool. Why not?)

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So, here are seven things about me that you probably don’t know. Hmm, let’s see…

For a period of time in high school, my signature included a tiny Viking ship.
I once broke my thumb the first time down the ski slope. However, I didn’t want to miss skiing so I skied the whole day with a broken thumb.
I use Greek letters for my initials (thus, my Gravatar), something which dates back to when I first studied Greek on my own in high school.
My favorite Korean food is sundaegukbap, a spicy soup of pig organ meat and blood sausage. It is much better than it sounds, although some Koreans don’t even like it.
I worked for 5 years in my college library as a book doctor, fixing books whose covers were falling off or that were coming apart or whatever. It was an awesome job.
My favorite book is Lord of the Rings. I’ve read it about 20 times in 3 languages. I could never get tired of reading it.
I used to blush very easily and even now I still do. I blush more than I’m actually embarrassed, so I feel like my face is betraying me sometimes.

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I have only been blogging for a short time, but already I have met and enjoyed reading a lot of interesting, intelligent, funny people. Here are a few that I think are lovely bloggers. Go read their thoughts.

Thanks again for reading, everyone!

14 Comments | posted in Uncategorized

July 20, 2012

Outside the Tower: Update on “It Only Takes Once”

By David Stewart

As you had probably guessed (by the “fiction” tag), the story I wrote a while back, It Only Takes Once is fiction. However, as I mentioned in the comments, it does take place in the apartment I’m currently living in. As I sit at my computer, I can look into the bathroom and see the window where the hand appeared. This one:

The following is true, by the way. Just so there’s no confusion. A few minutes ago, as I was sitting at my computer, alone in the dark, the light went on in the hall. The motion-sensor light. I suddenly heard this “squeak, squeak, squeak” over the sound of my music and I looked into the bathroom. Through the frosted glass window I could see my neighbor’s door moving back and forth really fast. Maybe it was just sitting in the dark alone like this, but it reminded me of the rapid, jerky movement of the haunted rocking chair in the movie The Woman in Black.

After about 20 seconds, the door slowly closed and the light went off. I’m sure there is a perfectly natural explanation for it all, but it made me really excited, because what if there wasn’t?