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!
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!”
When people encounter the term “Hillbilly” they often think of characters such as Snuffy Smith. Hillbillies are often characterized as shiftless, lazy, shine-running, hicks who live in such isolation they’re out of step with the world. A lot of this impression comes from popular cartoon strips.
To a certain extent, Dear Reader, today’s pontification will apply to novelists and short fiction writers as well as to those of us who specialize in non-fiction. But mostly, I’m talking to non-fic writers.
Sometimes we feel as if much of life is a waste of time. There is so much that is lost amid our many preoccupations. It seems impossible to make every moment count. We procrastinate. We daydream and we “while away” the time. So little of our attention is directed toward things that really matter. So often our focus is diverted to that which is peripheral and inconsequential. There is so much to do, and we do not have the time and energy to do it. There is so much to say and not enough words to say it. Where will we find the will to be all we are capable of being? Where is the heart for the difficult task and the perseverance for the weary journey?
I love dark chocolate. Yes, I know: to most of you this qualifies me as a psychopath. “Normal” people prefer the sweetness of milk chocolate. Be that as it may, I remain committed to the dark variety. But then, even though I’m a Southerner, I don’t drink Sweet Tea and I prefer the taste of a diet soda over regular just because I can’t handle the syrupy sweetness. In the meals that we cook we reduce or eliminate sugar. It’s what we’re accustomed to.