5/27/18

Graveyard Story

A note: This was written from a prompt a while ago, but is one of my favorite shorts that I've done in a while.  

"Doesn't it always seem like all graveyards should be wreathed in fog," Gladys said to nobody in particular as she hobbled down the gravel pathway through the grass patches.  "There should be fog... and moonlight." she continued, "but they don't let us out in the nighttime at that old home of mine, and California is no good for fog in August, even if you are in San Francisco."  
She took a left at a particular fork in the path, keeping to the path for a while more and then cutting across the grass.  She greeted the headstones as she passed old friends. "Well, Joseph and Edith. It is so good of you to visit.  I hope things are going well for you down wherever you are."  She chuckled to herself and remembered how Joseph pinched her bottom every time he stood to let her by into the pew at church.  That was before his heart had given out while he was laying on top of Mabel Merryweather.
"Good to see you too, Moses and Rachel."  Their tombstone not only listed their dates of birth and death, but the dates of their marriages and the life spans of their seven children.  Too bad only three of the children had been Moses's.  The other four had fathers of various patronage from around the village.
She came at last to the headstone that she knew best of all, her sister, Clarice. There was a bench near the tombstone and she laid her cane across the seat of the bench and sat on the edge, bending forward to adjust the wrinkles in her support stockings. As she did this, she spoke to the headstone.
"Well, Clarice. Looks like I'm about to join you.  The doctor said I have cancer now, and that it's eating my bones, and has spread into my brain.  he says I have maybe a week to live, and I thought I would come out here and say goodbye to you, since I'm not likely to get another visit."  She fidgeted with her shoe laces, tied expertly that morning by the nurse, and smiled. "I beat you though. I beat you by twenty years, and I got to keep Albert for another ten after you were gone.  Looks like I won after all."  She turned her head and looked around her and then stood to walk towards the tombstone.
"Funny thing," she said, as she placed her hand on the tombstone and patted it. "They call these headstones, but they don't go to the head. They go to the feet.  Your head should be right about" she walked about 5 paces and then turned. "here." She set her feet wide.  "I'm standing on your head, Clarice. Remember how I used to do that when we were pretending to be acrobats for the circus. We always swore that we would run away to the circus together when we were old enough to take care of ourselves." 
Gladys grabbed at the hem of her skirt and began to hike it up until it turned inside out and covered her rather ample bosom. "We were always going to do everything together, but then, you went and got yourself pregnant, and dashed our dreams forever.  And you got yourself knocked up" she grabbed the band of her underwear and pushed them down past her hips.. "by my Albert.  Do you think I would ever forgive you for that?" 
She bent forward and sent the hot yellow stream down onto the grave where her sister's head would be.  It wasn't much, as she still had an old lady's bladder, but it was enough, and she hiked her underwear back up, pushed her skirt down and stomped on the now slightly yellower ground.
"I hope, dear sister, that you are rotting in hell.  Who knows, maybe we'll see each other again.  But I won't be back, and I'm glad that you're dead and I made it longer than you, you fucking hussy."
She hobbled back to the bench, grabbing her cane and began making her way towards the pathway again. "Hope you enjoyed the show, Albert." she said to the tombstone that sat next to her sisters.  "Sorry I didn't save enough for you."

5/26/18

Writing Challenges and Blogging

I haven't been blogging or writing nearly as often as I would like. It wasn't but.. oh,... 5 years ago that I had a pretty active blog, and so now, I am going to be blogging and writing again.  This time, however, I am going to be working with a writing network and writing challenges, so that's pretty exciting to me.

So, what have I been doing with myself for the last five years? Not much. Just living the blissfully married life, focusing on the teaching life, being an amazing human being (or trying my best) and doing Nanowrimo every year.

I am involved with two writing groups here in Stockton, the Stockton Writer's Group and the San Joaquin Valley Writer's, the local branch of the California Writer's Club.  I also have been keeping myself busy with teaching, which really helps me fill up all that extra time!

So, what's in my future?

Well, I'm working with people on a Discord server who are amazing and who really are helping me get better at writing.  I am trying to read through a bunch of KM Weiland writing advice as well as the StoryGrid book.

I am working on editing Broken Dolls in order to make it a novel that I'm willing to publish.

I want to write more poetry.

I just want to write more.

Waking up my blog is going to start helping me do that.

Here goes...

12/20/13

What D&D Character am I?

True Neutral Human Wizard (6th Level)



Ability Scores:
Strength- 10
Dexterity- 9
Constitution- 9
Intelligence- 17
Wisdom- 12
Charisma- 13

Alignment:
True Neutral- A true neutral character does what seems to be a good idea. He doesn't feel strongly one way or the other when it comes to good vs. evil or law vs. chaos. Most true neutral characters exhibit a lack of conviction or bias rather than a commitment to neutrality. Such a character thinks of good as better than evil after all, he would rather have good neighbors and rulers than evil ones. Still, he's not personally committed to upholding good in any abstract or universal way. Some true neutral characters, on the other hand, commit themselves philosophically to neutrality. They see good, evil, law, and chaos as prejudices and dangerous extremes. They advocate the middle way of neutrality as the best, most balanced road in the long run. True neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you act naturally, without prejudice or compulsion. However, true neutral can be a dangerous alignment when it represents apathy, indifference, and a lack of conviction.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Class:
Wizards- Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard's strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.





Detailed Results:

Alignment:
Lawful Good ----- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (21)
Neutral Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (22)
Chaotic Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (17)
Lawful Neutral -- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (23)
True Neutral ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (24)
Chaotic Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (19)
Lawful Evil ----- XXXXXXXXX (9)
Neutral Evil ---- XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Chaotic Evil ---- XXXXX (5)

Law & Chaos:
Law ----- XXXXXXXX (8)
Neutral - XXXXXXXXX (9)
Chaos --- XXXX (4)

Good & Evil:
Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13)
Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (15)
Evil ---- X (1)

Race:
Human ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13)
Dwarf ---- XXXXXXXXXXXX (12)
Elf ------ XXXXXXXXXXXX (12)
Gnome ---- XXXXXXXX (8)
Halfling - XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Half-Elf - XXXXXXXX (8)
Half-Orc - (-2)

Class:
Barbarian - (-6)
Bard ------ (0)
Cleric ---- (-6)
Druid ----- XX (2)
Fighter --- (0)
Monk ------ (-23)
Paladin --- (-21)
Ranger ---- XXXX (4)
Rogue ----- (-2)
Sorcerer -- XXXX (4)
Wizard ---- XXXXXX (6)

11/14/13

Peptalk!

Ok.. Middle of the Second Week.. some word counts are lagging, some plots are in question and your ML has been missing ALL WEEK LONG!!!  What in the world are you going to do?
My solution... keep going! Keep it up! You can do it! Even if you 1000 words, that is 1000 less you have to write... 49,000 to go, right?  17 days to go (counting the little big left of today). That is less than 3000 words a day! You can do that! That's.. 300 words every hour for 10 hours. We spend 16 hours awake, so you would have 6 hours all to yourself for eating and working!  That's EASY!
If you need some inspiration, send up a signal flare here, and we'll get right on the inspiring.  We have access to websites that have awesome writing podcasts (I personally had recommended to me Writing Excuses and I love it. Google it for amazing writing advice and ideas in 15 minute chunks). We also have writing prompts, challenges, word wars and a myriad of other things, or.. you know, propose a get together. You never know who could be out there in the middle of the day, wandering through life's loneliness just looking to reach out and find someone to share words with!  You can do it!
Just remember, this is a journey that is taken one step and one word at a time.  You are not alone and while the final word count may seem daunting, 300 words seems like a piece of cake... so go.. write your 300 words and then do it again... and again.. and again.... Go ahead... we'll be here when you get back to celebrate!
Love lollipops and lots of words!
ToryLynn

10/27/13

Halloween Poem by Sabra McGovern

Mummies, ghouls, haunts and spirits-
They got nothing, compared to you.
You make my heart beat;
You make my knees weak;
You may my poor hands shake too!

When you climbed into my life I tried not to fight
This feeling of unexplainable dread
But now I can't stop
My eyes want to pop
And now I'm on top of my bed.

Please, I'll do anything, just go away
Stop crawling on top of my mat
I guess I will stay here
Shaking with fear,
All just because of a rat!


10/13/13

Sabra's Poetry

The character for my new novel, Witch, has started to write poetry... in my head.  And so I'm going to leave these here to just.. be.

Beauty
by Sabra McGovern

Beauty walks on glass
The careful steps to make it right
The painful process where we
straighten something curly
Curl something straight, 
Oil something dry, 
Use potions to try out
Prick and poke and pluck and paint
Just to feel
That things can make us perfect
Without realizing perfection
Is just the way we are
And beauty is attitude
Not skin.


Prayer
by Sabra McGovern

I pray that you give me strength
to not kill the moron who
sits in front of me in English; 
to overcome that feeling that
I get where my hand tightens,
and my fist curls, and my body
tenses as he guffaws at the
moron who has stuck an "I'm
gay" sign to the back of a friend
in front of him.

I pray that you give me bravery to
stand up in front of the class
and instead of assaulting this
pudgy faced moron in front of me
with hands
I can assault them with words; 
words that will shame him and blame him
for making the kid who sits in the corner
squirm with embarrassment
because he's too offended to say "Hey, I'm gay
and that shouldn't be an insult."

I pray that you give me peace
to take on the chorus of 
voices that cry out against my opinions
that say it is just a word
that say it is just a word that
we use in fun..."It just means happy....right?
Right, in the same way that  nigger just means 
black person and WOP is just an Italian guy.
A slur is a slur, sir, and words can hurt.

I pray that you give me the wisdom to show that
while a knife or a gun
can break my skin
a word is a weapon
that breaks the spirit
which can be even more deadly.

6/8/13

Poem: The Room I knew

I was walking in the dark
Barely moving, afraid to stub my toes
Or trip over furniture
I couldn't see.

I could not see around me
But focused on myself
And then a candle
Brought a beautiful light.

I could see-
But only in shadow-
Everything was broken
A world shattered beyond.

If I had tried to move
there- in the dark-
The blood would trail the room
Leaving a passage of despair.

But this light came
Casting shadows long and deep
Showing the way
Through the broken bloody path

I began to move
slowly, then with more speed
And as confidence was gained
The path was left behind.

Pushing past the problems,
Pushing past the pain,
Pushing past despair
Until I found your light.

5/26/13