M.G. Edwards's Blog, page 22

Thoughts and Sayings (January 2012)

Here are some thoughts and sayings that I posted on Twitter and/or Facebook in December. To my knowledge, I made these up (for better or for worse). Sit back, relax, and enjoy the write!

1. I would have more time if life were measured in teraseconds.

2. I asked Santa for an iPhone 4S, but all he gave me was an apple. I'm trying to figure out where the communication breakdown occurred.

3. Muscle is fickle; fat sticks around forever.

4. Fight for your right; on the other hand, appreciate what's left.

5. There's no one else above you unless an airplane is flying over.

6. Somewhere on the way to the mall and the post office, Christmas went from being a holiday celebration to an annual ritual.

7. Failure isn't an option, but crying is.

8. A trail lawyer is someone who's lost in the wilderness but litigates a new path.

9. Savor fashion by tasting it.

10. You leave me breathless every time we climb together to new heights.

11. Virtually every media site publishes their "Best of 2011" lists weeks before the year ends. Poor December is left out in the cold.

12. A Chinese wife told her husband that she loved him as far as East is from West; her American husband said that he loved her as far as West is from East.

13. Those who complain of squished grapes are merely wining.

14. The in-laws have landed.

15. Being an armchair quarterback does not make you ready to throw a touchdown.

16. Modern life has advanced so fast that we can hardly keep up.

17. Some kids collect sports cards. Mine collects credit cards.

18. Let's see if we're going to see some sights.

19. When the stock market goes up, my blood pressure goes down.

Click here to read the previous batch of Thoughts and Sayings.

Vichy

A French prisoner struggles to survive in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. "Vichy" is a first-hand account of Jean-Marie Daubert, an assistant deputy of finance of the French Ministry of Finance, who was captured by the Nazis in 1942, convicted of treason for his collaboration with the Free French Resistance, and imprisoned in Gurs, France. Daubert was transferred by cattle car in January 1943 to Gross-Rosen concentration camp in Lower Silesia (now Poland).

"Vichy" is a sobering story of love and loss told through letters from Daubert to his beloved wife Corinne and son Jean-Luc. It's a story of survival and resolve. "Vichy" is one of 15 stories in Real Dreams: Thirty Years of Short Stories, a collection of short stories written over three decades with themes ranging from adventure, fantasy, mystery, spirituality, mythology, to love and war.

Real Dreams: Thirty Years of Short Stories is available to purchase in print and e-book from Amazon.com, Apple iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Createspace, Diesel E-books, Kobo Books, Smashwords, and the Wordshop.

This story is also a contestant in Pixelhose's short story contest and available to read at http://pixelhose.com/2011/11/10/vichy-by-m-g-edwards/. If you like the story, please vote for it by choosing the "Like" button for Facebook or Twitter.

Resolve to Make 2012 A Great Year

Happy New Year! How did you enjoy ringing in the new year? Did you wake up feeling great or with a literal or proverbial hangover? Now that the celebrating has subsided, are you ready for 2012?

This year may be a momentous one with some major milestones on the calendar, from the Chinese Year of the Dragon to the end of the Mayan calendar. Some dates are already set, such as the Expo in Yeosu, South Korea (May 12-August 12), the Summer Olympics in London (July 27-August 12), not to mention the landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars in August, and, barring a new framework agreement, the end of the Kyoto Protocol on December 31. Some major events this year are already known, while others are not. No one really knows what will happen in places such as North Korea, where newly-installed "supreme commander" Kim Jong Un takes over as leader; possible sanctions and threats to blockade the Strait of Hormuz; unrest in Syria and other protests sparked by the Arab Spring; the European financial crisis; protests in Russia; potential economic slowdown in China; general elections in the United States and in dozens of other countries worldwide. No one knows what will happen. On December 21, 2012, when the Mayans purportedly predicted the end of the world will occur, we'll look back at the year 2012, analyze the fall out, and, hopefully, be around to tell about it on December 22. Until then, we can only speculate about the future.

There's no reason to worry about 2012. We can only control what falls in our own sphere of influence, which for most people amounts to whatever affects us directly. What do you have planned for yourself this year? Have you considered making some life changes? I believe in making and achieving goals, and I consider New Year's resolutions worthwhile. Realistic resolutions can help frame a goal and give you a specific objective to achieve. You may not achieve everything you set out to do in a given year, but if you achieve at least one resolution or make progress toward one, you're better off than you were. I met half the resolutions I set for myself in 2011 and set some new targets to achieve in 2012. The ones I did not achieve will be carried over to this year. They range from publishing a new book to losing weight to strengthening my faith to learning the guitar. Some will be easier than others, but I resolve to tackle them all in the next 12 months.

Even if you're not the type of person to make New Year's resolutions, there's one goal you can resolve to achieve this year. Make this year a better year than 2011. Make it the best it can be. It doesn't matter if you had a good or bad year last year. Life can always be better. Resolve to make 2012 a great year.

Verda: The Green Moon

Imagine a world where a green moon capable of sustaining life orbits the earth. The verdant orb lies close enough to the earth to intrigue humankind but too far away to reach — until the dawn of space exploration makes space travel possible and unleashes a race to explore this new world known as "Verda."

What awaits discovery on a moon long coveted by humans but unattainable…until now?

Discover "Verda," the story of this moon. It is one of 15 stories in Real Dreams: Thirty Years of Short Stories, a collection of short stories written over three decades with themes ranging from adventure, fantasy, mystery, spirituality, mythology, to love and war.

Real Dreams: Thirty Years of Short Stories is available to purchase in print and e-book from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, and Smashwords. Also available at The Wordshop.

For more books and stories by M.G. Edwards, visit www.mgedwards.com.

From Sevilla to Shanghai: Vancouver to Frankfurt

The following entry is an excerpt from the story "From Sevilla to Shanghai," which chronicles my travels abroad as a college student in 1994. The six-month journey took me to 19 countries in Europe, the Russian Federation, and the People's Republic of China. This is the second of many installments.

In February 1994 I waited at the international airport in Vancouver, Canada to board a plane bound for Frankfurt, Germany. Vancouver's airport had a more international flavor than many airports in the United States, perhaps because its position as Canada's gateway to Asia and francophonie influence gave it an aura de mystique. For the first time, I felt like a foreigner and an ignorant one to boot. I had trouble getting through immigration and customs because I didn't know I had to fill out a customs declaration form when I first entered the country; I was lucky I wasn't turned back by an overzealous official. Having lived most of my life near the U.S.-Canadian border, I always drove to Canada and had never experienced the rigor of flying to the Great White North. At the time, Canadian immigration officials at land border crossings merely asked you a few questions and waived you through without documentation.

Waiting in the airport terminal at the Lufthansa gate was a memorable experience for a novice traveler like me. Passengers waiting in the lounge spoke in German that I couldn't understand, even though I had studied the language for more than three years. I wondered whether I was the only nonnative German speaker on the flight. The lounge was a small enclave of Germanity in a sea of English and French. Listening to German whetted my appetite for more, a desire I would fulfill soon enough after touching down in Europe.

I waited to board my first transoceanic flight to the Old World, trying to suppress my anxiety. There I was, stuck in limbo between the United States and my new home in Europe; a very lonely place. I did not know what to expect after I arrived in Frankfurt. It would have been easy for me to succumb to my fear of the unknown: the fear of having no one to meet me at the airport; of having to speak a foreign language to get around (of course, lots of Frankfurters–the people of Frankfurt, not hot dogs–spoke English, so that helped); of being alone in a strange new city; of searching for the main train station; and of getting settled in my new home in Austria. No textbook could have taught me what I needed to know en route to ease my trepidation. I was on my own.

Lufthansa finally put me out of my misery when they called passengers to board the flight. The aircraft gangway, where you submit your ticket and passport (and in later years, your carry-on luggage and body) for inspection, can leave you feeling as if you're heading to the gallows. Add to that a fear of flying, and boarding a flight can be an ordeal. These thoughts crossed my mind as I handed the attendant my travel documents. She waved me through with a rushed smile, and I walked solemnly to the aircraft.

The flight from Vancouver to Frankfurt was as comfortable as a long-haul flight could have been. I enjoyed the experience of flying on my first twin-aisle 747 with its jumbo-sized cabin. I paced the aisles like a curious kid, testing the lavatories, gliding my hands across the smooth overhead storage bins, and checking out the snazzy controls built into the seat. That I felt like a country bumpkin was an understatement; I might as well have been raised in the wilderness the way this incredible feat of engineering dazzled me.

I met my seatmates, a friendly couple from Hannover, Germany named Rita and Ludwig. We spoke in a mixture of German and English, mostly German, which I enjoyed practicing after speaking English for most of my life. Returning from a two-week trip to "Havaii," Rita and Ludwig recounted their visit to America and told me about their life in Germany. I have never seen anyone head-bang while listening to classical music, but Ludwig, a fortysomething fan of the opera, somehow managed bring out the purest essence of the music by gracefully bobbing his head. I wondered the airline had backmasked the Bach tracks! Rita and I chatted while Ludwig entertained himself. By the end of the trip, we were both ready to muzzle a three-year-old boy who had whined and screamed nonstop for over eight hours. Much to our chagrin, the angelic brat fell asleep during the final thirty minutes of the flight. I wanted to try out the Bill Cosby's "Jeffrey" routine and wake the child up as we disembarked, but I was much too kind.

A novice traveler and poor college student unaccustomed to enjoying in-flight amenities, I took full advantage of it. I indulged in the "free" beer, wine, mineral water and in-flight entertainment is if I had never been treated to such luxury. There's nothing like "free" movies and a pair of "free" headphones to excite a young guy. The all-too-familiar dinner was a choice of beef or chicken, salad, bread and rolls, shrimp, and a drink. I chose the chicken and beer. While the meal was forgettable, I enjoyed the beverages. Although I thought these amenities were "complimentary" at the time, I later realized that I had paid more than $1,000 for these bennies when I bought my ticket. At least the beer was wunderschön.

Click here to read the previous installment of "From Sevilla to Shanghai."

Thoughts and Sayings (December 2011)

Here are some thoughts and sayings I posted on Twitter and/or Facebook in November. To my knowledge, I made these up (for better or for worse). Enjoy!

1. Let your light shine, but don't be a klieg light.

2. A Monday in the office is better than a day in the grave.

3. The only turkey I want over for Thanksgiving should be on my dinner table.

4. Do you spend more time…or money?

5. I enjoy having you around but prefer you a-flat.

6. Like a knife, are you on the cutting edge or flat and dull?

7. Don't fiddle around with playing someone like a fiddle.

8. You can put the Dole on a banana, but you can't put a banana on the dole.

9. Why die for something when you can live for something else?

10. Don't let the messenger shoot!

11. Although you may get better with age like fine wine, a bottle of wine will spoil if you open it.

12. It's like two birds killing me with one stone.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the write.

Real Dreams Now Available in Print

A French prisoner struggles to survive in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II.

A delinquent youth is obsessed with a cemetery ghost.

Good and evil fight for the soul of a zombie.

A grandmother thought to suffer from mental illness predicts the future.

A mysterious maintenance man haunts a college dormitory.

Car trouble leads to an encounter with an angel.

The Greek god of the unknown fights his nemesis, the god of light.

A chief must calm a volcano before it destroys his village.

A human tries to dissuade elves and dwarves from going to war.

A bride confronts deception in an effort to reunite with her bridegroom.

A child dreams of an alien invasion.

Humanity races to colonize a second moon orbiting the earth.

A boy encounters superhuman army ants that escape from a military laboratory and move into his closet.

A foreign exchange student learns baseball and tries out for a championship team.

These stories and more are featured in Real Dreams: Thirty Years of Short Stories, a collection of 15 short stories written between 1981 and 2011. The stories are from multiple genres with some common themes, including hope, dreams, light, darkness, perseverance, and spirituality, wrapped up in some novel ideas.

Enjoy these diverse and timeless works three decades in the making.

Now available to purchase in print at Createspace, an Amazon company, and coming soon in print to Amazon.com. Now available to purchase as an e-book for the Kindle at Amazon.com.

Mysterius, Lord of the Unknown

He is the least known of any Greek god yet has the greatest following of them all.

Many of his followers believe in no other god but him and thirst to know him.

The more they search, the more he eludes them.

Though human reverence to other gods fades, he remains a figure of worship and devotion.

He resides in Ignorance, a mystical realm beyond the fringes of human awareness.

He is Mysterius, the god of all that is unknown.

Here begins the tale of the Lord of the Unknown and his struggle against his mortal foe and brother, Apollo, the Lord of Truth and Light.

"Mysterius" is one of 15 stories in Real Dreams: Thirty Years of Short Stories, a collection of short stories written over three decades with themes ranging from adventure, fantasy, mystery, spirituality, and mythology.

Real Dreams: Thirty Years of Short Stories is available to purchase from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.com. Also available at The Wordshop.

Thoughts and Sayings

I've been doing some tweeting on Twitter to figure out how to use the site. Until recently Twitter was a big mystery to me, but I'm slowly figuring out the tweeting "game." As far as I can tell, Twitter is essentially a race to win as many followers as possible so that when you have something important to say, you can broadcast it and get the word out to hundreds or thousands of people. Unless you have something really profound to say like eyewitness reports of major events, however, it can be hard work getting noticed amid all the tweet. After the umpteenth offer for a free credit report or miracle cure, tweeting starts to lose its luster.

To get the balling rolling on Twitter, I started posting random thoughts and sayings. To my knowledge, I came up with them. Many are puns or wordplays with some kernel of wisdom or wit. I'll post new ones from time to time. For now, enjoy the first batch.

1. Why does the dentist, after poking and prodding your mouth with a sharp tool, scold you when they draw blood?

2. The most common type of ship is friendship, but an increasingly rare kind is a dictatorship.

3. I am somewhere between 1 and 99 percent, but I still figuring out how to Occupy my time.

4. If the chemistry and biology are good, sociology is sure to follow.

5. Your body is a temple, not a stadium.

6. Worrying will not add an hour to your life, but exercise can.

7. If some are followers and some are following, who is leading?

8. Editors should help writers find their voice rather than inserting theirs.

9. If a cat has nine lives, how many lives does a big cat have?

10. Don't get even. Get even better.

11. It's hard to fit in when everyone is so different.

12. "Fried!" I said to the chicken.

13. Reach for the sky, because if you shoot for the moon you might see stars.

Flood Fatigue

Dear Reader, you may be wondering why I posted frequent updates on the flooding in Bangkok in October and then stopped suddenly in November. Well, there were a few reasons for this.

One, the situation in Bangkok has not changed significantly since the waters first doused the inner city in md-October. In October, we were far less certain about what was going to happen. Now most residents have settled into a routine – if it can be called that when many streets are still flooded and neighborhoods evacuated. The floodwaters have receded a bit, but it will take weeks or even months for the water to disappear. Of course, the flooding is still there and affecting a great many people. Relief efforts in many quarters are still underway, such as this one at an international school in Bangkok. A big congratulations to everyone pitching in all around the country to do their part to help the hundreds of thousands of people impacted by flooding.

Two, I needed a break. I was posting frequent updates to help expats who were impacted by the flood. Unfortunately, by the end of October I was starting to develop a bad case of "flood fatigue." We were living in non-stop flooding, and I have to admit that I needed to do something else for a change. Anything to get my mind off this disaster. The risk of flooding still exists, but it's decreased for most of us, and we've learned to cope with it. Life is slowly getting back to normal. I will still post updates if they're important, but like most people, I just want the flooding to go away.

Three, I spent the past two weeks wrapping up my first published e-book now available to purchase from Amazon.com and other websites. It's called Real Dreams: Thirty Years of Short Stories. Check it out in my previous blog entry.

So, I'm back now. Let me see what else I can blog about that will cure my flood fatigue.