Change

Change can be good. Even the change of replacing one routine with another. Routines, if carefully administered, can work for us. I have a routine of a day job that keeps a paycheck coming in, even though the work is not fulfilling. I want now to establish a routine of nighttime writing that is fulfilling and will allow me to produce as I need to produce.

Such change should result in improvement. Like the revision change I just put out for my novella: The Spark. I was going to wait until the first of October to upload it to Smashwords, but Donna convinced me to go ahead and put it out there. I agreed that would be best since the new version reads so much better, corrects some typos and awkward phrasings, and contains a link to my website at the end. It will also give ample time for the revision to reach the Premium channels (Barnes and Nobles, Sony, Borders, etc) well before the Christmas season. It's out there now at www.smashwords.com/books/view/32180 so check it out.

I've also included My Christmas Carol in the volume, which is a short story about a man who, confronted by the "ghost" of Ebeneezer Scrooge, must face his own materialism and the challenge to change his ways. Yes, it's modern retelling of A Christmas Carol that I hope you'll find some fun in. It's not as dark as my usual storytelling.

I guess that's a lot of talk about Christmas for September. Maybe it's prompted by the cooler air that's dropped over the south the last couple of weeks. Temperatures here have changed to an average ten degrees cooler since tropical storm Lee(?) passed through. That came from out of the blue. Usually such storms bring up a lot of warm gulf air and leave it hot and muggy, and September is usually pretty hot around here, anyway. And I've noticed that the five-day forecast has only been good for a couple of days. Climate change, I think.

Which brings me back to The Spark. The story has a strong ecological theme and it speaks of a thin polar ice cap:

    It was all gone–his workshop, house, the reindeer stables, the elves. Only the thin polar cap remained, collecting snow beneath a winter storm.

It seems the polar ice cap is actually at a record, or near-record, low for area-coverage according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, and the University of Bremen. See www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/09/14-0.

I've been following news of climate change for a number of years now, and I suspect it will eventually trump all the other problems that beset humankind.

But for now, I'll just enjoy the temperate weather and carry on.

I mentioned "next projects" in my last journal entry. I've decided since then that I'd like to do another short story or two and try to get them published in some ezines or magazines with enough circulation to gain some exposure for me. I'm working on one with the working title of My Stolen Child, playing off Yeat's poem, The Stolen Child (www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19415), and the changling folk tale. It's really more about the deception of appearances, though, and I may change the title. If it is published I'll, of course, provide the link here.

I do love Yeats (William Butler Yeats: www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/117). Especially his poem, The Second Coming (www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15527), that so eloquently captures the feeling of imminent and apocalyptic change. It's quoted a lot these days and I referred to it myself in A Single Step (www.smashwords.com/books/view/81356).

So I'll continue writing my new story this week, along with the articles that will make up the ALS newsletter for The Spark. Watch my website for news of both--and other changes.