Writing Prompt: Write a Character Sketch...

Write a character sketch by describing the contents of your characters waste basket.

A single, black, unwravled shoelace. The plastic wings from a in-use bandaid. Grounds of discarded coffee clinging to once soggy filters. Newsprint. A recently dried and tired ballpoint pen. Discarded celluloid, negatives negated to the garbage. Boarding passes: Nepal, New Delhi, and Mumbai. Batteries soaked to the core, still slightly damp with murky river water. Leather gloves, the right palm torn open, leather wound infested with gravel. Chunks of mud pushed through the maze of a boot sole.

The leftover surgical sewing kit; suture and needle tinged crimson. A stray, empty shotgun shell. Notes; notebook paper; scraps; napkins none written in English. Maps without routes to retrace.

Writing Prompt: A Habitual Lie

What was uncharacteristic about the severed heads, as they tumbled across the ground, was their smiles. Big. Beaming. Frozen smiles that smacked against the floor, blonde ponytails twirling in the wake and growing more and more staticy. Tendrils of white-gold locks pulling apart from up dos and ponies to kiss the carpet before rolling on toward the next clump fiberous fingers.

As the dislodged heads rolled on, the vunerable floor was not left be for long. In mere seconds the spike of a candy cane speared the empty space, slivers of white and red spraying the ground. Empty boxes with flecks of colored paper still attached to stray corners tumble this way and that. A pair of pristine pink and purple polka dotted socks rise rapidly toward the textured ceiling, colliding with the plaster stalagmites and showering the room almost like snow.

“Barbie!? BARBIE! I HATE BARBIE!!”

A headless body peered from where it hung in the tree, a single ankle precariously positioned amid the pine needles and multicolored lights. Reds. Greens. Blues, yellow and purples flashed in turn against the decapitated figure. Her friends strewn between couch cushions, afloat amid the fishes, and poor Sally taken by the dog.

“I told Santa Bratz ONLY! BRATZ ONLY!!”

She stood straight and tall, crying to the heavens, trained tears pouring, “Santa hates me!!”

The year of being *such* a good little girl. The hour at the Towncenter mall enduring all the people and smells waiting to speak with the man in charge. The letter to the North Pole. Wasted. All of it wasted. And not even brat in sight.

Writing Prompt: Two Characters Sit Down to Eat...

Two characters sit down to eat. Don’t tell us where or when, but let us know through architecture, decor, implements, and food where and when the scene takes place.

“Morning…”

Jack drags the wicker chair across the carpet tiredly, not disturbing the printed tiki men or their spears as they lay etched into the fibers of the flooring. He nods to Sophie and sinks against the padded cushion.

“Late night?” she mocks, stabbing a triangle of pineapple with her fork.

“Yeah, I think there was a bear outside my room…”

Sophie stops chewing and scowls at him.

“Something was growling all night anyway.”

“For the last time, I don’t snore!”

“I don’t know if you can really call it snoring,” Jack slides his mug to the lip of the round table with a smile and nod to the coffee wielding waiter beside them, “More like howling almost. Thank you,” Jake leans back in the chair with his coffee to his lips, and tilts his head back toward the ceilings. Carved fish swim along the rafters, gulping at the painted accenting just beyond their frozen lips.

“Good God!” Sophie yelps, dropping her fork against the plate before her. Jack turns and spots a giant furry rabbit making its way through the maze of round tables, hugging breakfasters and posing for pictures. “That’s a lot of fur.”

The tourists look oddly out of place standing with carved tiki pillars holding up the ceiling to one side, and a giant white rabbit on the either.

“I never did understand how that bunny was supposed to lay eggs…”

“It’s a German thing I think,” Sophie waves him off, pulling her fork from the syrup covered mouse faced shaped waffles. “I never did understand how people don’t think those things are creepy. Their expressions never change…”

“And if their expressions did change, that would make them less creepy?”

Sophie stares transfixed and the shakes her head in dissent. “What time are we meeting everyone at the park?”

Jack shrugs, “whenever. I think everyone’s sleeping in a bit. That is, if the bear didn’t get them in the night.” Jack settles his coffee on the table and takes his empty plate in hand, “At least the creepy Bunny makes a good diversion, be right back,” and heads for the buffet.

Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust

This is a vlog a long time in the making. It's changed and evolved a lot since I first started brainstorming, but overall I'm happy with how it turned out.

Music credits (since there are a few):

-You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!

Sammy Fain and Sammy Cahn

-I Do Believe in Fairies

James Newton Howard

-Dearly Beloved

Yoko Shimomura

-Win One For the Reaper

Michael Giacchino

-Ron Leaves

Alexandre Desplat

-West Wing

Alan Menken

-Ewok Feast

John Williams

-News Travels

Thomas Newman

-Flying

James Newton Howard

-You Can Never Belong

Alan Silvestri

-Under the Stars

Hans Zimmer

-Hurley's Handouts

Michael Giacchino

-When I Was a Boy

Dar Williams

"October" Vlog

In making up for lost time, I'm doing the last 3 vlogs that I need to do from when I set the one vlog a month goal for myself last year. It seemed silly to make it so close and then give up, so better late than never.

For this one I had the idea, a while ago, to take short videos on my BlackBerry throughout the year. So the video quality is not the best, but it was kinda a fun ongoing project for me.

The music I chose actually has a bit more of a story to it. I named the track "Letting Go (Bad Things Happen)." It's actually a mesh of two songs I put together, both originally titled "Letting Go." One from the Super 8 score by Michael Giacchino. And the other from the "Thor" film score by Patrick Doyle.

Every year I make a CD for people. It's an inexpensive gift for the holidays (I do one every December) and it also kind of acts as a memento of my year. I pick songs that resonate with me, and tell the story of the year I had. This year, not only did these two amazing films hit home with me, but also the idea of letting go of certain things has been important. I combined these two songs and liked the result.