Writing

But … But… I Don’t Have The Time To Read

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amusement-Vasnetsov_Razvlechenie

 

I will listen to people make excuses for whatever they want for as long as they want all day long because I don’t believe that your eyes are the windows to the soul.

The words that fall from your lips are.

And for the most part I’m entertained with the excuses people come up with for not doing things or for not getting things done.

But there are a few that set my teeth on edge- and the one about not reading is at the top of my list.

This is what I think- if you had any part in making ” Duck Dynasty ” or “Jersey Shore”  among the highest rated reality shows of all times you had the time to read. You had time to pick up a book or your phone and you had time to read.

Facebook does not count.

I started having  issues with Facebook when I realized people were treating quips like great works of literature.

To be crystal clear: I’m not a TV  hating snob.  I do indulge in  TV- I like to watch Pawn Stars and Counting Cars. I love Supernatural and Doctor Who. But I can also say that I’ve missed episodes because I was busy reading or writing or playing with my cats or talking to my friends or going to movies, concerts or art galleries.

Because nothing gets in the way of me feeding my soul.

So please, for your own benefit-

Pick up a book. Email a letter. Write something, write anything.

These are things that you do for yourself and they enrich your brain.

And that matters.

 

 

And Top Of The Mourning To You Too!

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vonstuck

Reflecting the biblical account of the Fall of Man, the snake-entwined figure epitmoizes evil and sensuality

I was in search of a Good Mourning Comic, but this picture from the artist Franz Von Stuck was the way to go.

The Seattle Times, in their review of Von Stuck’s work which was being shown at the Frye Museum in Seattle ( and I was lucky enough to see- Thanks Colleen!) was described as ” Spooky, Sinful and Seductive “

Why wouldn’t you know it.

Those are my favorite topics to write about.

In Von Stuck’s work I found it interesting that the less than holy subjects seemed to be more in charge of their enviroment then the more ” pure ” figures- even to the point to where the models representing all things “spooky and sinful and seductive”  seemed to be burning their way into Von Stuck’s and in turn the viewers eyes.

I like that in a monster.

I actually like it in people who are NOT monsters, but that doesn’t happen very often.

Isn’t it said that if someone looks into your eyes for more than twenty seconds they either love you or want to kill you? So I guess that’s why people thinking looking into anyone’s eyes is a sign of aggression. Maybe it is.

Maybe it is.

But when I need a little inspiration or when I just want to look at something that makes my brain and spirit sigh together in harmony I pull out the book ( they call it a catalog ) I bought at The Frye of Von Stuck’s work-

and enjoy.

 Stuck

( Click On The Picture To See More of Von Stuck’s Works)

Senza Fine

/ Anita Marie / Leave a comment
Photo By: Ostephy

Photo By: Ostephy

 

ONCE upon a time

a little old lady who smoked too much and drank too much and swore too much  met  the Devil on the path that led into the deep dark woods behind her house.

It was just before sunset when she saw the Devil, who did indeed have horns and eyes like a wolf’s and a head of long black hair that smelled faintly of tomatoes leaning against a Maple tree covered with flaming red and orange fall leaves.

Her name was Enid Oddworte and the Devil didn’t tell her its name but the Devil fancied Enid. She felt it in her dry aged bones. So it didn’t matter to Enid what its name was.

All she cared about was that in all of the world  the Devil wanted her kiss.

But everyday the Little Old Lady said no.

“Why would you want a kiss from me?” she asked in her wine  soaked voice as she took a long hard drag off of her cigarette. Then she  blew a thin line of smoke over her shoulder and tossed her thin dark hair out of her watery dark eyes and smiled.

It was not an honest smile.

The Devil shrugged and it’s tail twitched from side to side, just like a cat’s. ” I don’t know Enid. I just know what I want. And what I want is a kiss from you. I would give up Hell, I would give up trying to get back into Heaven I’d do anything for a kiss from you.

Enid, who was usually a little drunk on her nightly strolls would walk away leaving the Devil with nothing more the  the scent of unfiltered cigarette smoke and expensive perfume.

And it’s heart-because the Devil did have one. Sort of. Would ache just a little at the sight of her carefully picking her way back to her house in her platform shoes.

Then one day Enid said yes.

Yes she wanted a kiss from the Devil.

So she kissed the Devil’s slightly warm lips and the heavy scent of her cigarette smoke filled the woods behind her house and the smell of tomatoes and dark wet earth chased it.

For a little while.

Then the Devil put it’s hands on Enid’s shoulders and it pushed her back.

It’s Wolfish orange eyes blazed and she could see herself in them, burning.

Enid looked up at the Devil and whispered, ” I’d give it all up for you, if you asked.”

The Devil asked. ” What would you give up for me Enid?”

” My soul, my heart my life. I want this moment with you to last forever…”

” Mio ” the Devil said. ” My name is Mio Andira. And you Enid are my true love. I can deny you nothing. Nothing. If you want this moment to last forever. It shall. For you my love.”

And because The Devil- whose name id Mio Andira, was good to its word -Enid’s moment with her one true love on the trail that led into the deep dark wood has lasted forever.

You can see it for yourself- every day just after sunset- you can see Enid unable to leave the trail- unable to go back to her house or forward into the deep dark woods.

She is rooted to that spot, the very same spot where Mio Andira declared its love to Enid.

But she is not alone.

 She has two things with her…because indeed Mio loved her-  she has is that kiss that still burns just a little on lips and the endless scream- the one that started when her true love promised her forever

and gave it to her.

Eye Have You

/ Anita Marie / 2 Comments

wpid-f7d63dca4aaf55616da2f356137c96e7.jpg

 

I think about Hell a lot.

Like, where is it? And if you believe in the science ( which I do ) then one day the Universe will die and maybe it will start over again- so what happens to Hell?

I believe Hell is created by humans, populated by human monsters and run by every dark soul that has to this point in time existed.

So does Hell just wink out all together when the Universe dies?

Or do we carry it, each of us?

How is that possible you might be wondering.

I’m a science geek and I saw this show where a scientist explained that the atoms in your left hand came from a different place then the atoms in your right hand.

You have no idea where those atoms have been, what they’ve been part of and in the end where they go.

So where is this going- well I was thinking about the wrong we do to each other. The evil. That thing that makes food and wine and kisses less vibrant and alive then ‘before’

I write about monsters  and for the most part they are always based humans gone bad. So those human behaviors, those composite characters I create ( I’m like Frankenstein come to think about it) get locked in my head and go through one Hell after another.

And one day those atoms that made me who I am will scatter out and where they’ll end up nobody knows.

But for now me and my atoms are one and those characters that I have crafted out of my life experiences  are living in my head and they inspire me.

Over and over and over again.

It must seem like an eternity in there locked away in my nightmare stories.

It must be just like Hell.

 

 

 

 

Aren’t You Just A Little Ray Of Sunshine?

/ Anita Marie / 2 Comments

halloween2

A few days ago it was a dark and stormy night-

People were excited- the promise of Fall was literally in the air.

And then Summer came back.

Ugh.

 

One Spin

/ animar64 / 1 Comment

wpid-img_20140818_124024.jpg

When I was in Vegas last month one of the Casinos was giving this car away as a prize.

You didn’t have to play at the tables for a chance to win, you had to play a slot machine.

So everyday I was there I would play the machine for the car ONCE.

One spin, one chance,  that was it.

It would have been easy to put my money into that machine and play it but that wouldn’t  have been as much  fun.

What was fun was that walk around the block to that Casino to that machine to place my fifty cent bet to see if I would win that beautiful car. I could see myself driving it home, could see myself wearing my pink cat’s eyes sunglasses ( though I knew I’d have to buy the red ones with the white polka dots to match my awesome new car  when I got home.)

I seriously had a good time  trying to win that car every day.

Sad to say there was no  moment of glory, no happy ending,  I  didn’t win the car.

But I did have fun on that walk to the casino. I loved taking that ONE spin ( which when you think about it is EXACTLY how life works…you get one spin right? So enjoy yourself ) 

I bought the new sunglasses anyway.

And yes. Yes they are awesome.

Me Robot You Lazy

/ animar64 / 2 Comments

Daily Prompt

You, Robot

Congrats — you’ve been handed a robot whose sole job is to relieve you of one chore, job, or responsibility you particularly hate. What is it?

ultraseven

Before we got tangled up in the interwebs and a good part of the population disapeared into the unreality via their cellphones I had a very intersting conversation with my friend’s husband about robots.

He looked at them as tools or appliances, like toasters with brains.

But the part about creating robots that ‘think and learn’ rubbed me the wrong way.

” So. they’d be slaves.”

” No. They’d only have one purpose and you know they’re not human so they can’t be slaves.”

” So you’d purposely design them to not want to do anymore then you told them-like cleaning your house or walking your dog.”

” Yes.”

” Designer slaves?”

My friend’s husband laughed, ” They aren’t human. That slave arguement doesn’t even apply.”

” You know, many a slave owner has said that.”

We beat around that topic for awhile and to this day I still don’t like the idea of creating a robot ‘to do’ for me.

And as far as slaves- at work my printer has a name and chore. It’s called a Slave Printer.

And it does whatever it’s told to do by anyone who pushes a print button from their

computer and no matter what’s going on my printer will pick the job up.

Ok this prompt should have been fun, what’s the one thing I’d like to have a Robot do for me that I hate.

You know what I hate. Standing at the bus stop in the morning. I’d like to have a Robot do that for me. Just stand there and wait for my bus and when my bus shows up?

Haven’t figured that part out yet…and I’ll tell you something that’s ok. Unless of course I had the Robot figure that out for me too…

Its Just You And Me Rod Serling

/ Anita Marie / 5 Comments

So this is where I have been for the past month and where I will be for the months to come:

I’ve started taking  screenwriting classes.

I’ve never actually read a script, I haven’t put much thought into what it takes to make a movie or a tv show and last year after helping on my husband’s campaign I was ready to jam a pencil into my own ear if I ever was tempted to sit in front of a computer and write anything for any reason ever again.

So this screenwriting class almost didn’t happen.

But the fact is I love to write and I love to tell stories so I signed up and off I went.

It was all good until it dawned on me that I was in a class with people who knew what they were talking about, they understood the industry and they had favorite screenwriters.

I have Rod Serling. And I tossed his name out there when we were talking about screenwriters we admired.

So at that point it was me and Rod sitting in this class- and had it been in the real world and not on -line I could picture us in the back of the class face palming ourselves when I hauled off and threw his name after someone dropped the name  Alan Ball and I had to google ASAP to find out who he was.

He turned out to be a very big deal.

Geeze.

But you know, that’s okay because, well, because it was funny I guess- and if  I am in a situation even the awful ones and I can laugh I know I am in the right place and that I am going to be okay…better then okay in fact.

So for the past month I read scripts, I’m studying from a book called the Screen Writer’s Bible I did my homework and when I handed in my assignments I learned that I was not a complete chucklehead with the creator of the Twilight Zone as her inspiration to become a writer and her guide into a completely new area  of writing that was completely alien to her.

However, if you are going to stand on a bridge look down into the abyss say to yourself, ” Oh yeah, let’s do it ” that kind of enthusiasm for adventure and the excitement for turning a corner and finding yourself in a strange world doesn’t come  our of thin air.

It comes from the Twilight Zone.

amm

Where I am taking my classes:

Academy of Film Writing

Info

HERE

Could Be Fun

/ Anita Marie / 2 Comments

Found Writing Prompts

that could be fun-

Give them a try and if you have some to share post the links in the comment section

a.m

from

 : Language Is A Virus:

Sprung Diary: Write a diary tracking and intercutting multiple levels of thoughts, experiences, anticipations, expectations, from minute to major. (Cf.. Hannah Weiner‘s Clairvoyant Journal.)

Fun- and I do mean Fun Prompts-

from

bogglesworld.com

Settlement On Mars

The Padlocked Chest

Beware of Humans

more prompts from bogglesworld

HERE

Visit

Writing Prompts: Daily Writing & Journal Prompts
choice-inspired writing prompts for daily writing in journals or notebooks

They have a Prompt Generator that has 548 prompts also they add to it periodically

HERE

2010

/ Anita Marie / 6 Comments

I ‘ve  got two goals for this 2010
1.  I’m going to try to have a little less fun
2. I’m going to work harder on my writing.
Oh. Who am I fooling.
I’m 45, I look 45 and all of those diet and cosmetic surgery ads you see on the sides of buses- those are aimed at women like me.
Fun. Oh. Right.
So really, all I have is one goal for 2010- and that goal is to work and improve my writing.
I think that over the years I have learned that I can write and hope that somewhere someone who matters in the world of publishing will notice me- which to be- realistic I am not exactly the type of person you would notice in a crowd ( that particular part of my lack of presence worked for me when I was  Mortician’s  Apprentice- so you know I that wouldn’t find that a total negative) so who oh why that should change because I tell stories?
Well I think that what it comes down to is doing what you do well- that you should be so sure of your skills and happy with what you can produce at the end of the day that it doesn’t matter what other people think of what you do.
Besides I’ve learned, via the world of Politics, that results count.
That’s right, make your own results.
Nobody can make you talented and nobody can make you suck, but you can start and finish a story, or a play or that cookbook you’ve always dreamed of putting out there.
Just get something, or lots of somethings finished.
And that leads me to the subject of shameless self promotion.
I’m all for it.
The world that the internets has opened to writers and story tellers now days is huge. You need to make it your business to understand it. 
Look at what Independent filmmakers can do- Musicians are doing the same – they creating, funding and promoting their own work, so why are writers showing up at Publishing Houses like some pathetic orphan with a begging bowl in their hands begging for ‘more’?
Well, that’s what I’ve decided to do with my New Year.
And you?