Scott Semegran's Blog, page 25
May 6, 2010
February 26, 2010
In My Garage
It was the day before the end of the world, at least that's what the news media and the ancient Mayans believed. No one really knew what was going to happen at the end but it was going to happen, goddamn it. And no one cared about the details of how it was going to happen. The end was the end. The end. End. It just seemed so final.
A couple of years ago, I made a pact with my two best friends, Nolan and Jacob (I'm using codenames, by the way). We decided that we would spend the last night before the end of the world partying in my garage. We compiled a list of required items for the party: keg of beer, carton of cigarettes, liter of vodka, liter of spiced rum, mixers, ounce of weed, a pipe, a ten pound brisket, our favorite barbeque sauce, etc. And we agreed that if our lives were in a certain state by the time the world was going to end, then the three of us would convene in my garage, no matter what, and drink and smoke and eat ourselves silly.
And as luck would have it (if there was any luck left at all before the world was going to end), our lives were already ruined. So the party was on!
May 27, 2009
Morningwood
I filled the coffee machine hopper with coffee, poured the water in the reservoir, and turned the machine on. I woke up a little earlier than usual and fought the urge to try to go back to sleep. So I got up, making sure not to wake the kids, and headed downstairs. After five minutes of staring into space, I snapped out of it while the coffee machine wheezed and hissed and dripped the last of its fresh batch into the carafe. I poured myself a cup and walked to the front of the house, peeling open the curtains and standing in the window, sipping my coffee.
I was mulling a list of chores through my head, things to do around the house. Looking at the lawn through the window, I knew I was going to have to bust out some lawn equipment in the next couple of hours and manicure the shaggy grass. I knew I was going to have to cut down some dead bushes in the backyard. I knew I was going to have to do a number of other mundane tasks on my mental chores list. I knew this. But I continued to sip my coffee slowly and didn't move.
May 18, 2009
The Butterfly Effect
My daughters and I walked to the mailbox with hurried optimism. Sophia, my 6-year-old, ran in front, the mailbox key clinking on the keychain she grasped tightly in her little hand. My 8-year-old, Mia, held my hand and smiled at me while we walked.
"Do you think they'll be there, daddy?" Mia asked.
"I have a good feeling they will be."
"I sure hope so, daddy."
"Me too."
Sophia was already around the corner and running full-throttle for the mailbox, her little fists pumping, her little feet scurrying.
"Sophia is excited too, daddy."
"I can see that."
At the mailbox, Sophia inserted the key and opened the door. Plunging her hand in the mailbox, she pulled out a smallish cardboard box and placed it on the ground. She marveled at it like it was a treasure chest, an ancient lockbox filled with valuable things. Mia knelt next to it, placing her ear on top, closing her eyes as she listened.
"Do you think they know where they are?" Mia asked me.
December 5, 2008
That Little Devil
The shower of dirt clods hit the ground like tiny meteors. Rogelio reloaded his little hand with more clumps of dirt, dropping a few extra in his shirt pocket, and climbed up the side of the ditch to a superior vantage point. When he reached the top, he surveyed the makeshift battlefield that lay in front of him across the rocky bed of the ditch. An armada of plastic soldiers, miniature tanks, and grounded airplanes were poised for battle, waiting for Rogelio's inevitable onslaught, stranded in strategically frozen positions in the loose dirt.
Rogelio raised his clinched fist over his head. And in a matter of seconds, he managed to demolish every miniature representation of war with a few quick flicks of his wrist, and a war cry for added effect. Examining the damage from his dirt bombs, the thought of reconstructing what he had just destroyed for the third time made him uneasy. But he descended the ditch wall anyway, grabbed his empty bucket, and began filling it with the defeated soldiers and their artillery.
"I defeated the Arabs again," he boasted. "They are no match for me and my nuclear bombs, even with Nazis on their side!"
December 3, 2008
Who Am I?
My name is Scott Semegran and I live in Austin, Texas. I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in English. I'm a writer, a cartoonist, and a webmaster. I am a Kindle bestselling author. I can also bend metal with my mind and run really fast, if chased by a pack of wolves. This web site is here to entertain you with my fiction work, blog, comic strips, and cartoons. I hope you enjoy my creative work.
If you like novels, then look for The Meteoric Rise of Simon Burchwood. On his way to New York to celebrate his impending literary success, Simon Burchwood is the prototypical American careerist. But a quick detour to Montgomery, Alabama to visit a childhood friend sends Simon on a bizarre journey, challenging his hopes and dreams of becoming a famous writer. This is a character study that delves into the psyche of a man who desperately tries to redefine himself. Is Simon pompous? Yes. A jerk? Yes. Will you like him? Absolutely! "The book is told entirely from Simon’s viewpoint. Simon is not a very likable guy; as a matter of fact, he is a self-centered, pompous jerk. But for some reason, it’s pretty fun to be inside his head, mainly because he is an inadvertent, oblivious jerk... you will learn Simon’s views on smoking, cleanliness and going to the bathroom, just to name a few. There were times that I laughed out loud... A very good novel that was humorous throughout." 4 and 1/2 Stars - Red Adept Reviews. The Meteoric Rise of Simon Burchwood is available through Lulu.com and Amazon.com in paperback, as well as various eBook retailers. Check out my Books page for links to buy and download my novel or search for it in your eReader's book store. This novel was inducted into the Indie eBook Hall of Fame and also named one of the "5 Best Summer Indie Beach Reads" by the Huffington Post.
