Thursday, March 04, 2010

An Ugly Week Finds It's Silver Lining

Far out.

I passed out early tonight. Not ten minutes ago I woke up on the couch. Fernando's butt was suspiciously close to my face and he was sleeping with a kind of just ate the canary look on his fur bearing mug. My suspicions rose when I realized my mouth tasted like what I assume the inside of a litter tray would taste like. I am positive now the cats act like drunken frat rats around passed out brother rats. But since they can't hold magic markers and write profanity or scrawl the words "I Like Boy Toys" across my forehead, they rub their butts in my face instead.

My eyes stung as I shuffled to the kitchen to get some water to wash out the litter taste from my mouth. Guess one of the cats thought a golden shower was in order while I was asleep. My left eyelid was stuck hard and wouldn't open and close right for several minutes. I found my drink of water and walked in here to shut down the computer before going to sleep again.

"Ah, what the Hell, I'll check the Dashboard to see if anyone has a new post up."

When I am half in this world and still half in the world I left in my sleep, I tend to find automatic. I don't think much. My body takes over and goes through motions it has learned from the thousands of times it has performed these motions before. It does not surprise me that it was not until my third run through that I caught the newest post up on "Thrillers, Killers 'n' Chillers", a really fine class act Ezine from over the great pond.

Yeah, there it was. The flash piece I submitted last week. "George" was an attempt of mine to flash some crime fiction without the graphic factor. Low key, mellow, not in your face, bones breaking, face smashing by guys wearing domestic quarrel shirts and sucking on toothpicks. I just don't feel like I can do that kind of crime stuff justice. I would like to, but well, so far, the graphic stuff just doesn't feel right when I write it.

Need I say I am thrilled? I hope not. Six months ago I would never in a million years think I would have had the balls to even submit something of mine to one of the heavier weight Ezines out there in the Blogoshere. And to actually have them post it, well....follow the logical progression of thought here. I am pissin my pants here........well, no not really. But I thought about it.

And as you can tell from the picture, the girls I keep in the attic are jumping for joy also. But I think they are just pumping up my ego in hopes I might install that window fan I promised them a few months back. I mean look at Ethel there on the right. Seems she's overplaying the thrilled factor, almost pushing disingenuous.

Without the support and goosing from David, Cormac, and yeah Randal, I would never have taken this step. As I am a very simple minded man, I can only equate my progress in the fiction writing world to my years of riding bikes with my friends. The fast guys teach the slow guys as long as the slow guy shows up every week. I'm still slow, but now I think I'll show up more often.

Thanks to Col Bury and Matt Hilton for publishing this. It has made my week after I have done everything I could up until tonight to ruin it.

Take a peek if you'd like. I would certainly like you to. But if nothing else, check out the fiction they publish. Some of the stories blow me away.

I'm going back to bed.............
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Image from - Through Rose Colored Glasses

10 comments:

David Barber said...

Mike, left a comment over at TK'n'C. Very well done bud. A great story with a very nice ending. There's no stopping you know mate.

Oh, and what a surprise to see a link on your blog sidebar advertising my blog. I'm honoured. :-)

Regards my friend, David.

Laura said...

I will for sure take a peek later!
I'm so happy for you!
Yay!!!!!!!!!

((Hugs))
Laura

Randal Graves said...

Loved the ending and, this may sound like a shot at the heavy fist n' blood n' cracked bones crowd but it isn't because I completely dig their stuff, but I liked this low-key approach, too.

Paul D Brazill said...

It's a classy piece of writing. Send out more and more. You've it.

MRMacrum said...

David Barber - Jeez David. I don't know what happened. One day your link was just gone. I think the dog ate it.......Yeah that's it. Stub ate it. ;)

But thanks. This one I struggled with. Especially the ending. Had five or six diffrent takes, written 5 or 6 different ways. Maybe another 300 words. I got pissed and cut it down to less than 100. Seemed to work out.

sunshine - If you weren't a girl, I'd give you some grief. But you are. It is hard to be nasty to a girl when she's being so nice and not sticking her tongue out. Thanks - :)

Randal - It was not by design so much as I went with what I felt comfortable with. The rough stuf, the graphic stuff is hard to get right I think. I will be working on my tough guy stories. Tough guys need love too.

Paul D. Brazil - Something switched on these past few weeks. This is more fun than it ever was. Thanks for the support. I truly appreciate it.

Commander Zaius said...

Rock on Mike! Congrats.

Commander Zaius said...

Just read the story, why do I have the feeling the woman that got him killed was his ex-wife?

susan said...

Congratulations. It has a very nice and low key creepiness to it.

Raymond Patriarcha kept RI crime entertaining for a long time - well, reading about it from a safe distance.

MRMacrum said...

Beach Bum - Thanks Man. The woman who found him in the coffee shop became someone different each time I re-read this. Ex wife, some prosecuting assistant or law enforcer. Or once she was his sister. I left her unidenitfied to add to the mystery of her connection.

susan - Thank you susan. Low key creepiness was indeed what I waas aiming at. When I hauled Rock n'Roll shows back in the 1970s, there were always rumors of criminal connections to the various venues we set up at. Providence was one of the places that the rumor seemed all too true. Scary place behind the scenes, Providence was.

Surly said...

Very cool!