Maurice Broaddus's Blog, page 34

Surviving the Day – by Reese Broaddus

This is the story my son wrote during his four days in my creative writing camp.  It will appear in the upcoming LYN House Creative Writing Camp anthology, Swag Surfing.

About the author:

Reese Broaddus is officially a middle grade student now.  He claims to hate writing, yet is continually called upon to do it anyway.  He dreams of being a famous quarterback or wide receiver but is content to grow up to be the man who signs the checks of famous quarterbacks or wide receivers.  He is no stranger to publication as his story Police as well as a love letter he once wrote have appeared on this blog before.

SURVIVING THE DAY

James Jackson was at the park looking for new friends.  His older brother, Mike, began picking on him.  Mike just liked picking on people, always the younger ones.

Mike threw a punch and hit James in the face.  James tried to fight back.  As soon as he stood back up, he got knocked down again.  He stood back up again, but started crying.  So he ran to the car.  Chris was there.

Chris was like the mom.  No one was taking care of the younger kids and she was the second oldest.  Since Mike kept beating them up, she looked out for them.  She got out of the car and went over to Mike.

“Why did you hit James?” Chris asked.

“Duh, because I felt like it,” Mike said.

“You know he has an issue, so you shouldn’t pick on him.”

James was hiding behind Chris.  Mike acted like he was going to hit him then Chris pushed Mike.

“You’re lucky your big sister is here.”  Then Mike walked away.

“He’s just mad because he’s not special like you.” Chris put her arm around him and walked him back to the car.

James was two and a half feet tall.  He still looked like a toddler even though he was fifteen years old.  His body stopped aging when he was four.  He was frustrated that he was always being picked on and he was tired of being scared all the time.  The day ended the way all his days ended, with him in his room, crying.

#

The next day began the way all his days began, with him in the bathroom, crying.  His mom used to sing him a song about brushing his teeth.  He missed his parents.  It had been one year, three months, two weeks, four days, and five hours since they were killed.

Chris had breakfast ready.  She had made him a bowl of cereal.  He ate most of it when Mike trudged down the stairs.  He looked at James, got mad when he saw no breakfast for him, then picked up the bowl and dumped it on James’ head.

“Eat up,” Mike said.

James got fed up and threw his cup of milk at Mike.

“Will you both stop it!” Chris said, frustrated. “James get cleaned up and go to the bus stop.  Mike, try acting mature for once.”

James missed his parents some more.  They left the house to Mike, but put Chris in charge of looking after the kids.  The twins, a four year old boy and girl, came down the stairs arguing, but stopped when they saw them.

“You are too late for breakfast.  Go ahead and go to the bus stop with James.”

“But I have to take a shower,” James said.

“The bus is going to be here any minute, so you have no choice but to leave now.”

“But can’t you take me to school?”

“No, because I have to go to work,” Chris said.

Mike snickered.  “You look ridiculous.”

“You look like you peed your pants.”

Mike was about to come over to him when the bus honked its horn.  James took off running.  His shirt was really wet and stuck to his skin.  A Lucky Charms marshmallow was stuck in his hair.  His hair was sticky.  When he got on the bus, everyone began making fun of him.  James tried to hide in his seat, covering his face with his back pack and sliding down into his seat.

#

James hid in the boys’ bathroom, trying to wash some of the milk out of his hair.  He heard the second bell ring and he knew he was late for his homeroom.  He ran to his class, the janitor yelled at him for running in the halls.  James ignored him, then almost slid into the lockers on the wet floor.

“Your late, Mr. Jackson,” Mr. Arnold, his math homeroom teacher, said.

“I’m sorry.  I promise I won’t be late again.”

“Just get to your seat.  Save your stupid promises.”

Rumor had it that Mr. Arnold hated smart students because he was never a bright student when he was younger.  That didn’t make James feel any better.  He held back another bit of tears.  He knew he couldn’t cry here because it would only bring another round of being made fun of and he wasn’t ready for that yet.  He hated his spot in the classroom because Wyatt Nowak, the big-headed bully of the school, sat behind him.

“What does fist + fist equal, math midget?”  Wyatt asked.

“I don’t know,” James said.

“You’ll find out after school.”

“Is there a problem Mr. Jackson?”

“Mr. Arnold, Wyatt is threatening me.”

“No I’m not.  That’s just a big,” Wyatt looked at James, “I mean, really small lie.”

Everybody laughed.

“That’s enough,” Mr. Arnold said.  “If you have a problem, you can go to the principal.”

James sat back down and tried to be quiet for the rest of the class.  He didn’t hear a word Mr. Arnold said for the entire class.

When class was over, James ran out of the classroom to avoid Wyatt.  He weaved in and out of people’s legs.  He was so worried about Wyatt following him, that he wasn’t paying attention to where he was going and he ran into a student at his locker.  James fell down.  The student dropped her books on him.

“My bad,” James said.

“No, it’s my fault,” she said.

James looked up to see Ella Richardson.  She has long black hair and a couple freckles on each cheek.  She had straight white teeth, because she just had her braces removed.  She was skinny, but not in a bad way.  She smelled like lemons and soap.  She was new to the school.  Mr. Arnold picked on her, too, when she was in his class.  They kept staring at one another.  James had liked her from the first time he saw her.  In his head, a bad love song from the 60s popped into his head.  But he didn’t know what to say to her.

“Hubbity hub hub,” James said.  When you see a girl you like, you forget things.  He was supposed to say “hi, how are you doing?”

“Hubbity hub hub?” Ella asked.  “Hubbity hub hub to you, too.”

“Sorry, I meant to say are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m just fine.  You’re the one who fell on the floor.”

“Yeah, I’m used to that.”

They both laughed.  It was a good moment and he didn’t want to spoil it by saying something stupid.  So he tried to end it quickly.

“I guess I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah…my locker’s next to yours.”

“I knew that.  I just forget things.”

The rest of the day he didn’t hear a word any of his teachers said.  Nor did he hear anyone making fun of him.  He only thought about Ella.

#

When school was over, James walked to his bus.  As soon as he stepped outside, it started raining.  He saw Wyatt running to his bus with a backpack covering his head.  James didn’t even feel relieved, he no longer cared.  When James got to his bus seat, he looked over and saw Ella in the bus next to him.  He started to wave at her and she waved back.  He turned away so she couldn’t see the stupid grin on his face.

The buses drove away.  James stared out the window, watching the rain puddle on the roads.  The bus dropped him off a block from his house.  When the bus pulled off, it hit a puddle and sprayed James.  He goes into the house, soaking wet.

“What happened to you?” Chris asked.

“The stupid bus sprayed me with water.”

Chris wraps a towel around him.  “You survived another day.”

“It wasn’t all bad.”  James smiled.

The End

LYN House Creative Writing Camp

This summer has been speeding by with a variety of projects.  A few weeks ago I was invited down to the LYN (Love Your Neighbor) House to conduct a creative writing camp (July 24-27).  I love the folks down at the LYN House, as they love on the kids in their neighborhood (I especially appreciate a ministry with hospitality and relationships at the heart of its mission).

Over the course of the week I wanted to take the kids through the creative process, getting their imaginations going, figuring out how to create a character, what makes a good plot, crafting good scenes and putting together a successful story.  I was worried about how the kids might respond, after all, the camp was 3-4 hours a day spent writing.  Basically, just like school except more intense.

The kids were amazing!

We began each day with an activity to get our imaginations going, usually a variation of exquisite corpse:  either folded up a piece of paper with each student having that section to draw a part of a body (head, body, or legs) or each person got to write one sentence of a story and then pass it on.  Then we unveiled the (silly) masterpieces.

After that, we had a long discussion about what goes into creating a character.  The details, the quirks, the history, all the things they love about their favorite characters, using super heroes as our example.  And we gave those characters a goal they had to reach.  The kids were free to come up with anyone they wanted and some even drew their creations.  I quickly realized that the secret to conducting a successful workshop is to shut up and get out of the way of kids’ imaginations.

The second day we took cameras into the neighborhood searching for inspiration.  The kids took pictures of anything that caught their attention, with an eye toward the image inspiring a scene or providing setting details for their story.  Did I mention the whole “get out of their way” thing?  When they returned, they wrote up a storm and we shared our creations before going back to work on our collaborative stories.

On the third day, we used story cubes to create zombie themed stories.  Then we had a discussion about what goes into a scene and the importance of details.  Then we just let them go some more.  The whole week the last half of the day was spent with the kids divided into groups to work on a collaborative story, with us sharing our progress each day.  The last day involved a discussion on editing and proofreading our work as we strove to improve each story.

The kids were great (which considering that I brought my two plus my nephew is no mean feat).  The volunteers at the LYN House refused to let them give into any “I can’t do that” sentiments and kept pushing them.  The kids surprised themselves with how much work they produced.  We’re in the process of collecting the stories and putting together a chapbook anthology of their stories (called Swag Surfing, because my nephew has a way of rallying folks).

[Though I might post my oldest son’s story here tomorrow, which he balked at as apparently I’m screwing him out of his “first time rights.”  For someone who supposedly hates writing as much as he does, he knows how to protect his rights.  I’ll have to bribe him accordingly to publish his story first.]

Here’s a few blogs from LYN House about the camp:

Creative Writing Camp – Day 1

Creative Writing Camp – Day 2

My Gen Con 2012 Schedule

In addition to hanging out at the Apex Book Company booth, here’s where you can find me at Gen Con next week:

THURSDAY – 11 AM

Writing the “Other”: Maurice Broaddus, Kelly Swails, and Elizabeth Vaughan

Authors must often tell stories from the perspective of characters that aren’t anything like them. In this panel, learn techniques that let you dip into the psyches of characters whose background is completely different from your own and to do it in a way that is convincing to your reader.

Thursday – 12 PM

Well Said!—Getting Dialog and Language Right: Donald J. Bingle, Maurice Broaddus, Matt Forbeck, and George Strayton

Capturing a character’s voice can make the difference between a character the reader believes in and one that just doesn’t ring true. Learn to create distinctive voices for your characters that feel natural to the reader, and explore the art of writing convincing conversation.

Thursday – 6 PM

Quick Critique: Elizabeth Vaughan, Maurice Broaddus, Jason Sizemore, and Patrick Tomlinson

Got a few manuscript pages in your game bag that you want critiqued? Our authors will look at up to three pages and offer you an on-the-spot critique. Don’t pass up this opportunity for some free one-on-one advice. Seats are limited and pre-registration is required!

FRIDAY – 12 PM

Writing from Life: Gregory Wilson, Donald J. Bingle, and Maurice Broaddus

When writing genre fiction, it’s tempting to look to one’s favorite books and movies for inspiration. The danger in doing this is that your story may end up as little more than a retelling of someone else’s tale. Our panelists talk about looking to life for inspiration as way of creating richer stories while avoiding the tropes, conventions, and clichés of genre fiction.

Though I’m not officially on the schedule, I’ve been asked to crash this one:

Friday – 2 PM

Christianity and Gaming Panel:  Dave Mattingly and the Christian Gamers Guild.  Panel discussion with Q&A time on balancing faith and gaming.

SATURDAY – 12 PM

Ghosts, Spirits, and the World Beyond: Paul Genesse, Maurice Broaddus, Kerrie Hughes, and Lucy Snyder

Who needs zombies and vampires? Ghosts are the original undead, and they’ve haunted our imaginations for thousands of years. Our panelists explore ways you can use the restless dead in your stories, discuss why ghosts still excite us, and seek to inspire you with a few real life ghost stories.

The Bourne Legacy – A Review

A slow start with characters we don’t care about is probably not the best way to kick off a sequel to a franchise that doesn’t have its title character.  The Bourne Legacy starts with two strikes against it:  Paul Greengrass, director of the last two Bourne movies, and Matt Damon, the signature Jason Bourne, had both walked away from the franchise.  So rather than re-cast the hero Robert Ludlum’s series of books, a la Ian Fleming’s 007, they opted to “expand the mythos”.  In other words, instead of the adventures of James Bond, we follow the adventures of Jimbob Whogivesacrap Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner).

“Is this a test?” –Kenneth

Cross, nee Kenneth J. Kitsom, is a part of Outcome, a companion program to Bourne’s Treadstone.  Outcome operatives are genetically modified via chems/program kit:  green pills to improve physical performance while blue pills provides mental enhancement.  Like Captain America’s Steve Rogers, Kitsom was scrawny when he joined the military, except his was a mental weakness as they had to lie and add 12 points to his IQ to make the bare minimum for service.  Without the pills, he would revert to their previous, unmodified state, which would be a “long fall down” after he’s had a taste of what he could be.  So he partners with Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz) who has just survived a horrendous workplace shootout (which is particularly harrowing in light of the events in Aurora, Colorado).

Said shootout was only part of the less-than-subtle cleanup operation of Treadstone and Outcome led by Ret. Col. Eric Byer (Edward Norton).  There’s a tonal shift from the first movies as this one spends a lot of time with the machinations of the cover up and taking too long to focus on Cross.  The plot comes across as unnecessarily convoluted when it boils down to “Bourne exposed us, kill all loose ends.”  More conspiracy, less action didn’t work out so well for Star Wars episodes 1-3 either.

Aaron Cross is a lone wolf cipher, dispatched to Alaska as if he’s the Unabomber of the assassin set, in full possession of his memories.  He knows exactly what he is and what he’s supposed to do.  His personality amounts to asking endless questions of everyone he encounters (and if you’ve ever encountered a seven year old who does this, you know how annoying this can be as conversation).  Without any exposition of who he is (because his questions go unanswered), we’re left with a character who lacks Damon’s charisma, who’s head we aren’t in, but are expected to care about.

Director Tony Gilroy opts to make up for the films lack of action by cramming as much as he can into the final act.  This includes dropping in an agent from yet another program, LARX-3, which has Louis Ozawa Changchien mean-mugging his way through scenery like a T-1000 from The Terminator series.

“Who tells you that this is okay?” –Aaron

Our military and espionage agents often find themselves in moral and ethical quandaries, called to do things and make decisions no one should have to.  They “take the moral excrement of others,” as Byer puts it, and do the dirty work no one else wants to do.  He describes them as sin-eaters.

During the Middle Ages, people used to place food and drink next to the recent dead.  Their sins were said to transfer to the food.  The sin-eater was someone who would come along, typically a beggar, then through prayer would eat the bread and drink the ale and through the ritual, remove the sins from the dying/dead person and take them onto himself.

Aaron Cross as a sin eater points to the true/final ‘sin eater’, Christ (get it?  Cross!), through whom forgiveness for all of the moral excrement we wallow in can be found and experienced.

“Do you ever not care?” –Aaron

The answer to Aaron’s question above is “no.”  In The Bourne Legacy, there is no sense of mystery, only information stingily withheld creating a narrative vacuum.  There is an endless series of lethal CYA measures, repercussions from much more interesting movies, that masquerades as a plot.  There is, as one character describes, a “bullshit scavenger hunt” which adds little to the mythos, so that in the end, the viewer still doesn’t care.

Locals Only Special Benefit

I love to promote the local art scene of Indianapolis when I can (read: whenever I’m not so swamped with work that I remember that I have a blog).  Locals Only (2449 E 56th Street) will be closing their doors on August 18th.  There will be a special benefit event starting August 11 at 4:30pm until 3:00am. This is a special, last time type event and all the proceeds go to the owners of Locals Only in support of their next music venture.

It’s a great mix of local music (yes, I have a buddy who’s in the line-up), so you’ll definitely want to check this show out.

Belated International Short Story Day

So I missed International Short Story Day, which apparently was 20th June.  So I have no real excuse to mention some of the upcoming short stories of mine that are seeing the light of day:

“Warrior of the Sunrise”

The New Hero Volume 1 (Stone Skin Press)

The last of my Sword & Soul stories (for now), “Warrior of the Sunrise” is the tale of one of my favorite characters, Lalyani the Outcast.  Stone Skin Press profiled her here.

Here is the link to their Kickstarter project

“The Cracker Trap”

Shroud Magazine #12 (Shroud Publications)

This is actually for the column, Skinning the Cat, which deals with social issues in the genre.  Rather than rant, since you know I’m sooooo above doing that, I submitted a story.  I like to consider this story the funny version of my novella, Devil’s Marionette.  Uh, emphasis on funny, less on the angst.










“Being in Shadow”

Appalachian Undead (Apex Books)

I don’t foray into zombie territory very often.  But, hey, throw in some detectives, a man hunt, a quarantined zone, and I’m all in.

Dark Faith:  Invocations (Apex Books)

Obviously I love short stories.  Putting together a collection of them from some of the best in the business isn’t exactly a chore.










“The Religious Order”

Eighth Day Genesis: A Worldbuilding Codex

Technically, it’s not a short story, but it is an essay.  Worldbuilding is my favorite part of the creation process.  In here I’m writing about what it means to build a religion (which makes sense since in high school I was voted “Most Likely to Start a Cult”).

Guest Essay: Maurice Broaddus: ‘Faith in the Fantastic’

I’m busy guest blogging all over the place as we get nearer to the release date of Dark Faith: Invocations.  Today I’m over at Suvudu.

Speculative fiction has a bit of an uneasy relationship with religion. On the one hand, Stephen King has considered horror writers as little more than moralists as they explore the nature of evil. On the other, some people of faith are concerned that books like Harry Potter might lead children down the path to witchcraft. Still, faith plays an important role not only in the lives of people, but also in the stories we create.
.
I have a broader definition of faith than some folks…

… continued on the Suvudu site.

Coming Soon … Dark Faith: Invocations

Set to debut at WorldCon:

“Subletting God’s Head” by Tom Piccirilli

“The Cancer Catechism” by Jay Lake

“The Big Blue Peacock” by Nick Mamatas

“Kill the Buddha” by Elizabeth Twist

“Robotnik” by Lavie Tidhar

“Prometheus Possessed” by Matt Cardin

“Night Train” by Alma Alexander

“The Sandfather” by Richard Wright

“Sacrifice” by Jennifer Pelland

“Thou Art God” by Tim Waggoner

“Wishflowers” by Tim Pratt

“Coin Drop” by Richard Dansky

“Starter Kit” by R.J. Sullivan

“A Little Faith” by Max Allan Collins and Matthew Clemens

“The Revealed Truth” by Mike Resnic

“God’s Dig” by Kelly Eiro

“The Divinity Boutique” by Brian J. Hatcher

“The Birth of Pegasus” by K. Tempest Bradford

“All This Pure Light Leaking In” by LaShawn M. Wanak

“Fin De Siécle” by Gemma Files

“The Angel Seems” by Jeffrey Ford

“Magdala Amygdala” by Lucy A. Snyder

“A Strange Form of Life” by Laird Barron

“In Blood and Song” by Nisi Shawl and Michael Ehart

“Little Lies, Dear Leader” by Kyle S. Johnson

“I Inhale the City, the City Exhales Me” by Douglas F. Warrick

I will reiterate what I posted on Twitter not too long ago that diversity is not difficult to achieve if you have a diverse Rolodex* and a diverse life.  Jerry Gordon has a breakdown of some of the stats on his blog that you may find of interest.

*Yeah, I said Rolodex.  I also used to listen to things called records.

Obligatory Generic Tweet Day Blog Post

From today’s Twitter feed …

I need to actually get some writing done today.  So I’m going to do a day’s tweets in an hour. #generictweetday

[insert morning salutations to tweeps here] #generictweetday

[insert an ode to a love of coffee here] @calvinfletcher #generictweetday

[insert a complaint of weather and/or traffic here] #generictweetday

[insert complaint about my co-workers here] #generictweetday

[insert what I'm eating here.]  [imagine a twitpic here] #generictweetday

[insert an inspirational writing quote here] #generictweetday

[insert daily word count here] [not too high or teh interwebz may balk @briankeene] #generictweetday

[insert comment on genre interwebz fail here.] [there's got to be one out there somewhere] #generictweetday

[insert pretending to hobnob w/ writers who actually don't know I exist here.] @realjohngreen @warrenellis @neilhimself #generictweetday

[insert moment of geek love here.] #MagicTheGathering  #generictweetday

[insert funny quote/anecdote from the family here.] #generictweetday

[insert alert for a new blog post here.] http://mauricebroaddus.com/ #generictweetday

#MetaPost

My Freelancing Day

Now that I’ve committed to freelancing during this season of life, I’ve realized that I have to be more disciplined about schedule.  I’ve come to realize that I need to get up, get dressed, and go to the “office.”  Otherwise, I remain unbathed, unshaven, in pajamas, watching television, with several Gchat windows open, and playing Words with Friends on Facebook.

My schedule is pretty much shaped around my sons’ school schedule and making sure family time is carved out in the evening.  So overall, me making time to write looks like this:

7 a.m. – 11 a.m. – writing time

12 p.m. – 3 p.m. – volunteer work

3 p.m. – 6 p.m. – business

11 p.m. – 2 a.m. – writing time

So I get up at 6:30 a.m. to make it to the office (read:  Calvin Fletcher coffeeshop) on time.  This time is set aside for blogs, freelance blogs, articles, and fiction.  At the moment I have no looming deadlines, so I can take some time to do a few blogs for me.  As the paying gig deadlines pile up, I have to go radio silent on my blog.

After about four hours, I need a break to relax my creative muscle.  That’s when I typically take meetings or do volunteer work.  The three places I focus on are Stop the Violence (gang intervention), Outreach Inc (homeless teens), A New Way of Life (adult homeless men), which probably comes as no shock to regular readers of my fiction.

Business is code for stuff I can get done once my sons are home and bringing their after school energy with them.  This typically means replying to e-mail, doing grant searches, doing social media, and/or taking a nap (

I’m probably more disciplined about my work than when I had a “regular” job.