Romancing the Muse – Page 3

Snakes Alive!

Sometimes we find adventures – or inspiration for fictional adventures – in the common occurrences of every day life. Since this is Halloween month, I’m going to share with you some ‘creepy’ stories from my life.

My buddy Mike, who lives in Alabama, was weeding in his yard the other day. He reached into a clump of plants and found a large snake skin. Fortunately that snake skin was uninhabited! He has a lot of copperheads around there and copperheads are just flat-out mean!

king snake, snakes, — Photo of and from Brian O’Hare – Snake Wrangler

My bro, Brian picked up a new golf partner, fortunately it was just a King snake.

I found a snake skin hanging off a hickory tree beside the house a while back. From the size of it I’d say mine was from a black snake – it was pretty big. We’ve seen black snakes around here get 6’ to 8’ in length. I came across one just the other day while I was mowing the grass – he was only about 4 feet. He hopped and wriggled comically to get away from the mower then slithered through a chink in the skirting under the trailer.

Note to self: next time I have to go under the trailer for something; MAKE A LOT OF NOISE! Continue reading “Snakes Alive!”

Five Sentence Fiction: Orange

What it’s all about: Five Sentence Fiction is about packing a powerful punch in a tiny fist. Each week Lillie McFerrin posts a one word inspiration, then anyone wishing to participate will write a five sentence story based on the prompt word. The word does not have to appear in your five sentences, just use it for direction. The word today is “orange”.

Here is my Five Sentence Fiction entry:

A lump formed in his throat as he watched the frame building burn; orange, red and vermillion illuminating the night. Wood crackled and hissed, glass shattered as pieces fell inward, collapsing. The fire consumed the house, and the memories; all those memories. Was it wrong? No: she deserved it, burn witch, burn.

* * * * * Continue reading “Five Sentence Fiction: Orange”

Wander, Putter, and Create!

Today I am delighted to have as my guest, best-selling novelist Toby Neal. In this guest-post she shares some thoughts and insights on the creative process and we introduce her latest book. Please make her welcome…

clouds, dreaming, create What is the creative process?

Different for everyone, sure. For me, it’s connected to daydreaming, and then making and doing stuff.

Yeah, real scientific.

Mulling, wandering, chewing a bit of grass as I kick a pebble on my walk with my (small/fuzzy/ridiculous) dogs, I think of a new scene.

Tilting my head to spot a flamenco dancer in the shape of a cloud. I take an Istagram pic of it (find me at tobyneal0)!

Chasing the aforementioned dogs away from a mysterious dirt patch in the middle of the ball field just the size of a body, I see a future crime scene for my novel. Continue reading “Wander, Putter, and Create!”

Be Nice To Nerds Who Don’t Fear Failure

What would you attempt to do if you were guaranteed that you would not fail?

The biggest reason most of do not attempt to do amazing things is that we fear failure.

Regina Dugan, former director of DARPA, now with Google, gave this TEDTalk on failure. Her observations about fear of failure and scientific advancement are inspiring, but she also shows new video of some of DARPA’s most ambitious projects and that alone makes it worth watching. She also reminds us that nearly all major scientific advances are created by nerds. So, you should be nice to nerds.

What would you attempt to create if you could refuse to fear failure?

(If this does not play for you: View it on YouTube)

As a fan (and hopeful author) of speculative fiction, it is encouraging to me to know that humankind has not stopped testing the limits of possibility. Although, perhaps “encouraging” is not the best word, as some of what we’re looking at is worrisome, as the interview at the end of the video suggests. Still, when we open our minds and envision new and wondrous places, machines and societies, we are not engaging in mere fancy, we are pioneering the future.

Sci-Fi Robot Trivia Fun

Here’s a little Sci-Fi trivia fun for you. Click the picture below to get the full size version, then see if you can find Wall-E. Once you’ve located him, go again and see how many of these robots you recognize. Do you remember what show or movie they came from? Some of these are pretty obscure!

robots, sci-fi, trivia — From ToplessRobot.com

Continue reading “Sci-Fi Robot Trivia Fun”

Are We Borg Bound?

Sci-Fi, society, borg, star trek — Image from StarTrek.com

I have, on several occasions, pointed out humanity’s increasing love affair with technology and forecasted that we would one day become essentially the same as the fictional Star Trek characters known as the Borg. These humanoid beings have embraced technology and integrated it into their very bodies to increase their awareness and effectiveness to the point that they have become something beyond a society. They have no concept of individuality, but rather they work in concert as cells in a body do. This is accomplished through a collective consciousness that connects their minds together into a neural net that spans the galaxy, sharing their every thought with every one, knowing every thought of all.

I am often chided for my refusal to become so dependent on a cellphone that I would hyperventilate if I discover I’d left home without it. (I know people who do this!) In fact I don’t own a cell phone at all. I refuse to get to the point where, if I were to be cut off from the internet for more than a day or two, I’d curl up in a ball on my bed and whimper. (I don’t know anyone THAT bad, but pretty close!) People don’t believe that we will ever implant cell phones or create a permanent brain to internet connection. People say these are just conveniences, just gadgets, nothing to worry about!

I came across this yesterday, and all I can say is “See, see, I TOLD you!” It’s already happening… Continue reading “Are We Borg Bound?”

Mysteries of the Moon

moon, exploration, base A while back I posted a brain spill involving a moon base, just to entertain you a bit – by teasing me about it if nothing else. A brain spill is a snippet of a story, or potential story. But reaction was good and I decided to explore developing the story further. To do that, I needed information about the moon; its composition, its history, and a reason that mankind may want to have a presence there at all; other than setting records for the longest home run hit ever.

Of course I could just make up a bunch of stuff – it IS fiction after all – but I like to stay as close to truth as I can in fiction. One of the questions I had is, “why does one side of the moon always face the Earth?” I theorized that perhaps the moon is not round, but lopsided, or egg shaped. The large end of the egg would pull harder toward the Earth’s gravity. I was pretty darn close! I’ve turned up a lot of amazing facts. Here are some of the more interesting study materials on the moon, it’s history and why it is the way it is. Continue reading “Mysteries of the Moon”

The Mechanics of Creativity

Recently there has been a good deal of discussion going on about creativity: what it is, where it comes from, how it works, and how to get it to work better for you. Many articles have been written on how to encourage your imagination, how to feed your muse. As writers we depend on our imagination to craft our stories. Novelists most of all, but even non-fiction is enlivened by creative writing.

In this article I’m not going to try to tell you how to build up your creative muscle, I’m going to do an analytical breakdown of the creative process I went through to write my last blog post. I’ll preface it by saying that this is not the process I use all the time: sometimes an article just springs into my mind, fully written, my only task is to record it before the words fade from my mind. Often these Inspired Writings occur at the most inopportune times: like 3:00 am. If I am able to ignore the call and go back to sleep I’ll remember that I had a wonderful idea, but won’t remember anything more about it. Opportunity lost! Continue reading “The Mechanics of Creativity”

Getting Sirius About Creativity

My latest guest post is about Creativity and is on the Sirius Press Inc.’s Creative Flux web site. My contact there is Terre Britton.

Terre is co-author of The Four Orders, a four-book Sci-Fi/Thriller series that begins with life-altering discoveries and builds momentum towards our society’s self-actualization. Terre is a Graphic Designer and Illustrator and has recently moved into the fields of Video and Motion Graphics. She holds a degree in History in Art with a minor in English and is a published Art Reviewer. We’ve been communication compadre’s for some time now as we help one another promote our books.

Please pop over and read Training Creativity; it’s a short post and I think you’ll find it entertaining and it has earned some accolades:

The Artist’s Road named it a Tweet of the Week
It was also listed as a Wisdom of the Writerdom tip of the week