Caroline Gerardo's Blog, page 50
May 20, 2011
Heart Attack Takes 55 Year Old Husband
"Mon coeur ne vous quitta jamais une seconde, et je suis, et serai jusque dans l'autre monde, celui qui vous aima, sans mesure..." Cyrano wears a plastic nose. Headband hides the rubber band. Abs of steel and a clogged heart. Look sideways upon his dressing gown, Ripple the waves of the river wash the sand.
May 15, 2011
Indie Ink Writing Challenge
Indie Ink Writing Challenge
I am new to the group. I used the prompt to add a part of Chapter to a novel I am already writing. The emptiness and tedium of the sound of the word prompt was tempting. Ugh has both positive and negative uses
My subject matter is not G rated. If you are under the age of eighteen, I advise you do not to read as the fictional characters talk about drugs.
"Ugh." is my prompt.
***
"Do you want to make some real money Seth?" Joe stands in a black jacket with padded shoulders.
"Ugh?"
"I have this buddy who pays for delivery. It is a drive to Miami. Tell your parents you are going on a school field trip or one of those fancy away swim competitions."
"My parents don't care what I do, as long as I don't talk to them." Seth answers.
"Being uninterested is better than a Mom who screams all the time."
"Mine just fight with each other."
"Can you leave tonight? "
"No problem. What are we transporting? What is my cut?"
"Hash. You can have a piece of the action." Joe puts his palm down from his extended arm. The hand curves as in the statue of Poseidon. The gesture tells Seth not to ask.
"How are we doing this?" Seth presses him.
" I know this guy who is a longshoreman at the docks. Some other people smuggle it into containers."
"Where?"
"It is Broussard Port Everglades, South Florida, where the cruise and cargo ships come in. It is a long drive, one thousand two hundred miles. I can fill you in along the way."
Seth walks behind Joe his upper body strutting. Seth occupies more space than before.
"When do we leave?"
"Soon. Come on let's go in here, I need something." Joe puffs his jacket. He points to the door of a hardware store. "Let's split up."
Seth sees a pair of steel-toed boots sitting on top of stacks of cardboard boxes. The leather is soggy red brown with a notched storm welt. They are size ten, "perfect." Seth speaks quietly. He looks over his shoulder. Seth puts the boots under his jacket. He steps first with his left foot. Outside the glass double doors, he feels cooling air on his skin. He waits for Joe. His back leans on the unreinforced masonry. He admires the water resistance and electrical shock-proof boots by spitting on the soles. Seth Christens the pair for fortune.
"Why did you lift those ugly shoes?" Joe startles Seth with a poke.
"I 'dunno, just seemed like a good idea at the time."
"Look what I got, a .32 short." The gun still has a price tag on the revolver. Joe opens the barrel. He looks down the solid tunnel. "Didn't get any ammo, the sales clerk was watching."
At 3:00 AM Joe shuts the car's engine off. He coasts his Impala onto Seth's driveway. He does not to disturb the family. The sky is indigo. The bitter air seeps into Joe's bones. He shrugs. Seth walks in the new boots kicking from his hips, toes east and west. His collar is up to hide the cystic boil on the back of his neck. Seth did not have time to lance it with one of the stainless diabetes lances. In his pocket wrapped in sterile foil is a metal sword. The pointed piece of surgical steel encased in plastic is usually used to puncture the skin on one's finger to take a blood sample. This lancet Seth will use to make a small incision, to drain the acne cyst later. He took a box from his father, the Doctor's office.
"I brought some Quaaludes for the trip."
"I have some speed and pot. That should do us. All we need is to find some girls."
"What do we need girls for Joe?"
"Entertainment. This is a boring drive. Maybe a chick will get you to end your virginity."
"I'm no virgin."
"Right. Sing it."
"I know what you mean about uninteresting, my whole life is dull."
They head out on South 476 and on to I-95 south towards Baltimore. Seth watches the moon waning from his leather passenger seat. They are silent. Seth moves the electric window down. He lets his hair spin in the wind and At their first stop for gas, they spot three teen girls waiting outside. They are trying to score some alcohol.
"Can you buy us some vodka?" The heavy set one asks.
"I'm only seventeen, no I.D." Joe's lips part. He gives the fat girl his row of white teeth.
She is charmed by the tall V shaped Joe. She giggles. She turns to her two friends. They reapply chap-stick and huddle towards him.
"But I can get you some anyways." Joe goes into the station. He takes the hand of the big boned teenager tenderly. He nabs a bottle of Popov, "you beautiful ladies 'been partying last night?"
She puts her big toe curled inward as a coryphée might circle behind, "yeah we are supposed to be at a religious camp for the weekend. We snuck out. We can't find anything to do."
"Come on with us to Miami."
"Why are you going there?" She looks into Joe's sapphire eyes.
"Dropping sonny boy at college." Joe lies.
Some gasoline spills on Seth's hands. He wipes his fingers in the rain on the passenger window. He swiftly pulls the aldehydes through his nostrils. Seth opens the door for the plump girl to take shotgun.
***
copyright Caroline Gerardo May 15 2011
May 13, 2011
Preponderance of Crows May 21
Preponderance of Crows
Copyright Caroline Gerardo May 13, 2011
Kakka बाली
The neigh Sayers hike with black t-shirts
Why exercise if the end of days is only nine away?
They speak in tongues, in whispers, in my dreams.
Flocks of crows are upon us.
My heart pumps crimson rust.
Once it filled with liquid amber.
Numerology tells the jackdaw to raid the tomb.
Flocks of crows are upon us.
The rook imitates human voices.
He calls koww and caw eh aw for Bali Kakka.
When he flies on my right, it is good omen.
Flocks of crows are upon us.
Rumor is Harold Camping has West Nile Virus.
A raven can use tools and make art.
I am a three legged corvid, we will all survive.
***
I first posted this just as Google softwear updates crashed. I was thinking it had something to do with criticizing the doomsday group. The video and photographs I uploaded, I lost. Somehow, no copy but I had a clip of a different video. Video on Blogger takes forever to load.
May 12, 2011
Preponderance of Crows May 21
Kakka बाली
Preponderance of Crows
The neigh Sayers hike with black t-shirts.
Why exercise if the end of days is only nine away?
They speak in tongues, in whispers, in my dreams.
Flocks of crows are upon us.
My heart pumps crimson rust.
Once it filled with liquid amber.
Numerology tells the jackdaw to raid the tomb.
Flocks of crows are upon us.
The rook imitates human voices.
He calls koww and caw eh aw for Bali Kakka.
When he flies on my right, it is good omen.
Flocks of crows are upon us.
Rumor is Harold Camping has Nile Virus.
A raven uses tools to create great art.
I am a three legged corvid, we will survive.
***
copyright Caroline Gerardo May 12, 2011 photograph from Flannery O'Connor's childhood home
May 11, 2011
Indie Book Train ROW80
Dear Pete Morin:I do not see self-publishing as a stigma. It takes courage and stamina to finish a novel. It takes eggs to self publish (english translation fades). There is a train coming. There are thousands of new small publishers this past month that will print on demand. I see new mediums out cropping from the ability to write and publish in days.
Exciting interactive ideas are before us. Books where readers talk to the author online and change and develop stories, books with links to music and what is next? smellivision? It sounds silly but we have not fully used the interactive idea of the internet. I just started tweeting. I frowned on the concept. Shame on me for not jumping into something creative and full of knowledge. Social media is not understood by business, yet. It is more like indie music and film was fifteen years back. America and the world is hungry for great content. There is room for many. Be yourself and a million people will find a kindred spirit. At fifty two cents a book no one is getting rich. BUT the future is to be involved in positive ways. This is the Third Great Depression, great art came of the last two.
There are the spammers, there are the hackers, there are the trolls and doomsayers. I have decided to be myself - and embrace anyone who is positive. I invite you to get in my cattle car this might look like a choo-choo but it is going to be high speed rail.
What is your book about? What is your writing schedule? Who is your cheerleader?
My personal theory:
I will not pay to submit. I will not query a thousand. I only have X hours a day to devote my energy. I will not beg. The right agent with passion will find me. I will know it right away. I am making my writing great. I give something different about my time in this place. I am kind to everyone. I will help other authors, photographers and anyone who asks.
I am directing this next part of my own life. I have to lay the tracks. By tracks I mean, take the photograph for my cover art, learn to convert formats, weed through how to edit a video.
PS Buy my book, this is a stick up.
ROW80 Friends:
Finished rewrite chapter one and two
3-4 by Sunday
Need to plug someone else tomorrow, made that goal.
Finished Preponderance of Crows, and I am pleased.
Exercised, did not eat Osso Bucco Pete (I don't eat red
meat but that sounds good right now.)
May 10, 2011
Haresh Daswani The Evolution of Insanity
The Amazon mail it to me method.
I can't wait to read it in paperback, as my eyesight is tired from so much online typing and writing.
May 8, 2011
One Stop Poetry Anthony Desmond Flash55
He was a good baby, to an American expat.
His mother, the illustrious painter, grew orchids in the bath.
They lived off the flowers.
She sang to him, for a future, a life, of joy and regard.
The song, Sally Gardens she gave him that.
ROW80 Writing Second Draft Stay The Course
sweet peas in my yardProductive Week
It is Mother's Day and family has been the focus of my life path. In the past months, I have squeezed the limits of my time into allowing myself five hours every day (more on weekends) just for writing the novel. This causes some conflict with my extending family who live nearby. They like to pop in and visit. They telephone more often knowing I am pulling into a solitary cacoon. I maintain the love and support for my two children. I have never missed one of son's baseball and football games this season. I make healthy meals and am hiking or running with them both several days a week. In order to work full time and write full time – things have to give me the solitude I need to finish.
This week I made a new story board. It is white board that is four feet by three feet. I mapped all the chapters. I added some images that motivate the characters. This helped me see clearly the journey that Seth must make through the narrative. It also made me decide to change the ending.
The story is somewhat chronological, with a few shifts in time. I used that in my last novel and struggled with using date in italics and point of view changes. Last time on the second draft, I changed the whole novel from first person to second with a few shifts. It was tedious editing and boring labor as focusing on a sweet gum leaf while Lamaze breathing out a baby. This time point of view is no problem. I am excited diving into the second draft and enjoying things Seth my lead character loves, slingshots, bergamot, insects, tinkering with inventions, and then all his evil bad stuff: bum fights, drugs, violence.
I wrote about 19211 words for the week. I word count is going to decrease now as I fight over synonyms and cut extraneous junk. If you are reading this, I need help on the title. I am now calling it Lucky. This is a novel title already of a totally different story. What do you think?
On my other lists of duties:
We hiked in Laguna canyon three days. The sage, the pearly everlasting and poppies have painted the hillsides.
Tomato plants are still alive, as are the dogs and Soup the turtle who is busy mowing the rose petals as I write.
I had fun meeting friends on twitter. The best is reading what they are doing.
The bank job has picked up a pace . I thank Heaven for the income.
The children's grades are good. I have neglected my Mom, siblings and nephews. I told my nephews that Auntie Caroline cannot make them dinner twice a week until the second draft is completed. They frowned and the younger one volunteered to edit for me. I am cutting a big patch of my sweet peas to put in bowls for the other Moms in my life. Happy Mother's Day to all.
May 6, 2011
News Lady
May 4, 2011
Second Draft Lucky
Monday morning I put the words the end to my first draft of Lucky.
Now comes the hard work. The second draft.Revising is more than cleaning and grammerly.This can be slow drip torture or I can choose to have fun.Do you hear the starting gun?I spent nine hours last night completing mapping behaviors.I built a storyboard for the novel. I made a couple copies to redline. I completed a new spreadsheet.I wrote my to do lists:1. Cut frivolous description and landscape that does not lead the narrative.2. Is time line right? Turn it around to start in the middle of his life or ending3. Do I change ending: other possible endings?4. Is a psychotic person likeable?5. Is there too much whining about his childhood?6. Temper the violence with tenderness. The book is dark. Bum fights, stealing, homeless, murder, drugs. Can humor lighten it up? Seth's idea of love?7. Plot line twists, Plot: a crazy young man becomes the CEO of a Chemical Company. Despite all the bad, evil, dumb, negative events and choices in Seth's life he decides to work his way up the ladder and makes it.Characters: Seth deceitful, lacking in empathy, violent, ADHD, impulsive, lacking remorse, ear problems, brain problems, inventionsDad/Doctor a cold inward man, selfish, shallow, Rene the Mother is in pain is gorgeous is cold and selfishSister is not described, Amy – willful strong beauty driven brothers Michael Cole need directionGirl he kills- needs a full lifeHer parents grieving angrySeth's success and marriage, rewards, fortune business, takes a path to become the CEOWhat do the characters eat? How do they smell? How do they touch?
