Monday November 15th, 2010

The exercise:

I'm back in Osoyoos, to bring you: the babysitter.

While we were in Vancouver we were staying with Kat's friend Susi. Susi and her husband have a little boy named Owen (yes, that's where the king's name came from) who turned two yesterday. He is adorable. Anyway, we spent some time watching him to give his parents a little break, so that's where the prompt came from.

Did more writing that I expected to over the weekend, but I'm still working on today's portion. Will update once all three days have been posted.

Update: here you go - day thirteen is here. Day fourteen is here. And today's writing is right around here.

These are really the first few chapters that I didn't properly look over before posting, so please let me know if you see anything terribly amiss.

Mine:

"Harold and I went out for dinner and a movie last night."

"Oh, how nice! Who did you get to watch the kids?"

"You know Darlene, the Sutter's daughter?"

"Oh yes, lovely girl. Did your boys like her?"

"Well, I think they would've liked her better if she didn't take her job title quite so literally."

Sunday November 14th, 2010

The exercise:

Let's write about: the waiter.

This is a scheduled post, since we're off having dinner out with friends in Vancouver tonight. See you guys tomorrow.

Mine:

He appears at our table

In a puff of gray smoke;

He takes all of our orders

While cracking awful jokes.

Another puff and he's gone

And much to my dismay,

I see that you've gone with him -

I guess I've already paid.

Saturday November 13th, 2010

The exercise:

A four line poem about: friendship.

Spending the weekend with friends, so it seemed appropriate.

This is a scheduled post. Will be back Monday.

Mine:

We don't speak for weeks

When we get caught up in the herd,

But each time we meet

I cherish every single word.

Friday November 12th, 2010

The exercise:

Four lines of prose about: pizza.

We got winter tires put on the car on Wednesday morning and the mechanic told me to come back after eighty or a hundred kilometers to get the lug nuts tightened up. Problem with that being we're heading to Vancouver tomorrow morning and we'd only put on about twenty by this morning.

So I went for a drive. Brought my camera along, took a few pictures. On the way back I stopped to take this one and I wanted to share it because I don't think I've properly shown you guys where I live yet. Our place is somewhere around the middle of the picture, maybe a bit below that:

So, yeah. Leaving tomorrow morning, coming back Monday. Posts for the next couple days will be scheduled, I'll get to your comments when I get back. Not sure how much NaNo work is going to get done this weekend, but I'm hoping to squeeze in 1,000 words over the next two days. This is what I built up my lead for.

Update: day twelve. See you guys on Monday!

Mine:

Paul maneuvered the car onto the sidewalk as pedestrians scattered in every direction. He honked his horn a few times to encourage the slower ones and the seniors. He waved to the drivers stuck at the red light as he sped past them, and he could see a few of them were thinking about following his lead.

None of them did, but then none of them had a pizza to deliver in under twenty minutes - any later than that, and it would be free.

Thursday November 11th, 2010

The exercise:

Since today is Remembrance Day, we're going with: memories of war.

Made some good progress on the cabin today. 

Writing for day eleven is done. Almost reached the halfway point for words!

Mine:

He will never forget that muddy field in the middle of nowhere. The way the air smelled like freshly fallen rain when he woke that morning. The way it smelled like death that night.

He still remembers the sounds of the bullets as they zipped past his ears, as they kicked up dirt all around him, as they killed his friends. Gunfire still echoes in his ears, grenades weigh his jacket down, his feet are still heavy with caked mud.

He will never forget that muddy field, for he dreams of it every night.

Wednesday November 10th, 2010

The exercise:

Let's give the random book prompt another whirl. Grab a book from your collection at random, and use its first line as the first line of your prose today (giving credit where it is due, obviously). Then go in a different direction than the book did - your own.

Writing is in progress. Update later.

Update: day ten. I am very tired. Good night.

Mine:

The Pillars Of The Earth - Ken Follett

The small boys came early for the hanging.

They did not do so to secure a spot in the front row. The adults would have just shooed them back home if they had.

Instead, they climbed to the top of the saloon which stood across the square from the wooden scaffold and remained there, bellies pressed flat against the roof, until the appointed time.

They had decided that if the law was going to hang their daddy, they were going to bear witness to it.

And then, one day in the distant future, they would exact their revenge on them all. The judge, the sheriff, the hangman. Every person in the square who cheered when the trap door fell open. They brought pencil and paper and wrote down the names. None would be forgotten. None would be forgiven.

None would be spared.

Tuesday November 9th, 2010

The exercise:

Two haiku about: kittens.

So. A wild cat got into the garage recently and proceeded to transport her kittens up to the top of a storage shed in there. Which is about ten feet tall. Kat's mother heard mewing in there yesterday morning, so I found a ladder and had a look with the flashlight from a safe distance. Yup, there was a cat up there. I couldn't see anything else though.

We heard the kittens later in the afternoon. So we set a trap this morning and caught the momma cat. Which meant that the kittens were stuck up there on their own. So up I went, cardboard box in hand. Came back down with five kittens in said box.

Here they are:

They're on their way to a good home now. Unfor... er, fortunately both Kat and I are allergic to them, otherwise at least one would probably have been mysteriously misplaced.

Oh yeah. All that and I wrote a couple thousand words too.

Mine:

I want to keep them,

though it must be said that I

don't even like cats.

*     *     *

One ball of red yarn

plus four paws equals hours

of entertainment.