Motivation can be a bitch some times when it comes to the exercise and dieting stuff. I’m not miserable by any means and I kind of enjoy all the exercise in general. Sometimes? Sometimes you just have one of those mornings when you wake up and you just don’t want to do it that day. Everybody does it, so I’m not really ashamed of it. So far, I’ve been successful on pushing through those moments and making myself do it regardless.

At times, the fix for these moments is as simple as looking where I’m at now and where I want to be and realizing that this guy isn’t going to lose itself. Other times, it’s just a matter of rote habit that makes me get up there and ride that bike at 6am. Sometimes, it helps just to look at the whole picture and see where I’ve been to get a feel on just how far I’ve come. Thankfully, since I log all my exercise in Fitocracy, these numbers are pretty easy to find.

This morning, I had no problem getting on the bike, but I slept for crap the night before so I was feeling kind of mopey about it all before heading off to work. (No worries, all is still well. I’m down 35lbs as of this morning’s weigh in!) With it being Monday and all, I figured it would be a good idea to check in on my total mileage on this little adventure to perk me up a bit.

Going through my logs, I can now verify that I started this whole journey on February of this year. February 8th to be exact. We had a crazy warm end to the winter with temps in the 80′s in mid March, so I was able to get out more then as well. Last Fall, I bought an exercise bike off of a neighbor for a mere $5 and getting it out of her house, so that’s been my weapon of choice this time around.

For the exercise bike, as of today I’ve covered 335.7 Miles! That one was pretty surprising to me, I honestly didn’t think it was quite *that* much! I also know from looking at the stats that I’ve gone from doing 5.2 miles in 25 minutes on the bike to 7.2 miles in 25 minutes on the bike every morning. This stat I knew was improved, but I wasn’t quite aware that it was 2 miles worth of improvement!

For the walking, I’ve covered 88.5 miles! This has all been outdoors as I don’t have access to a treadmill. (Yet.) I know that I’ve blown this figure out of the water in past years/bouts with weight loss as walking was my weapon of choice. This time around, I was getting a lot of aches and soreness in my hips and thighs, most likely due to my weight, but this is improving. I kind of prefer the bike though, because as I said last week….I get to watch TV! That’s kind of fun. I was walking at lunch every day here at work through February, March and April, but it’s getting too warm and nobody wants to sit next to me after I’ve been sweating for an hour.

So, this is my mental pick me up for the week, realizing just how far I’ve traversed since the beginning of February. While this may sound like bragging, it’s not so much. Yes, I am damn proud of the improvements I’ve made and such. But, sometimes everybody is going to need a motivational boost to keep going. If your’e taking a similar journey as myself, this is just sharing one method of how I keep myself pumped up to keep fighting the good fight.

Note: For anybody that’s wondering, I started weight training two weeks ago to go along with all this cardio. It’s fun, it hurts like a mofo. But, I’m doing it. I can detail that in another post if anybody’s interested.

As you can see, I’ve been slacking off here on ye olde blog yet again, but for good reason this time. I’ve been making some pretty major changes and embarking on a long ass haul to lose weight. Some years ago, I went through some therapy to deal with a newly diagnosed anxiety disorder and it helped. Part of that therapy was choosing some problem areas that I myself identified and fixing them. The first of those problem areas? Smoking. I smoked a pack a day easily, so I tackled that first. That was a year and a half ago, so I’d say I definitely won that fight. I feel pretty great because of it! The problem with it though….I replaced the smoking when I felt nervous, agitated, etc….with food. So…a year and a half later, I found myself at 351 pounds and miserable again.

Here we arrive at change number two decided in those therapy sessions a few years back; it’s time to drop the weight. Around three and a half months ago now, I started exercising in the mornings and cutting out some of the bad stuff from my diet and it worked for the most part. It wasn’t on anything too strict or detailed diet wise though. Around a month after I started making some minor changes, we received a general bulletin at work that our in house clinic was starting a new weight loss program called F.U.S.E. and they were taking applications and surprising even myself…I didn’t hesitate. I applied on the spot and around a month later; I was in.

Once our group sessions started, I was assigned a weekly group meeting, a health coach for one on one session and regular nurse and dr. visits throughout the 10 week program to track progress and such. At first it was a bit intimidating, but I stuck with it. It was also a bit shocking at first too as when I met with my health coach the first time, the first thing she told me was, “I’m not going to give you a diet.” The catch is…this program wasn’t just a weight watchers clone or something like that. This program I found myself in was in fact much like therapy all over again. Their goals are to teach you how to deal with things like emotional eating, how to overcome barriers and set reasonable goals to keep yourself motivated. Once a realized that this was in fact what the F.U.S.E. program was aiming to do, it clicked for me and off I went.

Now, I’m down 33lbs so far and feeling pretty great. I still have a long way to go, like a bit over a hundred pounds to go as a matter of fact. But that’s okay. It’s a long haul and I’m getting my head on straight to be able to prepare for it. It’s still not easy, but I’m staying positive and I still have my health coach to turn to when staying positive starts to break down. Just yesterday, I found myself starting to worry over small stuff such as my calorie intake (I’m eating around 1800-1900 calories a day as opposed to the 2230 my tracker tells me I should eat) thinking that maybe I was eating too little and possibly hurting myself. Staying after group to talk to my coach for a bit cleared that right up. She simply said you’re eating enough, its working and you feel fine; stop over thinking it. Just like that, I had confirmation that I wasn’t hurting myself, so I was able to pull my head out of the fog of reading to much into every health blog I find and now I’m set to just keep on trucking as I’ve been doing!

So now, back to focusing on the positive stuff. As you can see in the picture above, I noticed getting dressed this morning that my belt has four distinct notches in it. That’s four times now I’ve had to tighten my belt! I’m starting to learn that sometimes when you don’t see the numbers drop on the scale, they’re starting to drop elsewhere, so don’t panic! This week, I had my mid-program checkup; I’ve dropped 3.5″ on all of my measurements (.5″ on my neck) and my BMI dropped by 3.5. Pretty shocking! So between the help of a coach and seeing positive trends like that, I feel like I can get back to normal life a bit such as my writing, reading and podcasting. The whole weight loss thing had kind of taken over my life and distracted me from these other things but now that I see that I was in fact over thinking it; I can just stick to the routine that I’ve built up because those 33 lbs are proof that it’s doign just fine.

In light of all this, I’ve had a number of people ask me how I’m doing it, so I’m happy to share. My writing’s been stagnant, but I’m kind of getting into a groove here, so blogging about this weight stuff is a good help to great the gears so to speak. Yah? Yah.

Anyways, I’ve upped my exercise significantly. I started out with cardio only, but as of last week, I started incorporating some weights as well. I’m pushing 40 and was living the life of a lazy nerd, so I’m not pushing a whole lot of weight. I make lifting those 15lb dumbbells sound like an Olympic event though! So now, the typical day looks like;

Roll out of bed! around 5:15am
Eat breakfast! This consists of two pieces of toast, two servings of egg beaters and cereal.
Ride the exercise bike! I stretch for five minutes first, then I do 25 minutes every morning and the bike is firmly planted directly in front of my computer monitor! Netflix is now my bestest early morning friend ever! So far, I’ve watched the second season of Supernatural, the first season of Breaking Bad, the first season of Sons of Anarchy, The first season of Star Trek Voyager, all of the second season of Game of Thrones so far and right now, I’m on the second season of Sons of Anarchy!
Shower/Get Dressed! I sweat like a mofo! It’s also cool cause I’m finding I can wear close stashed at the back of the closet again!
Eat some more! Before heading out for the day, I eat a Clif Bar to help recover from the bike while having another cup of coffee. I’ve always drank my coffee black, so I didn’t have to change anything there!
Grab my lunch and go! Here’s a big key moment, at least for me. I take my lunch, cause it’s easier to stick to the diet. The catch is; I pack it and log it the night before. I log all of my food at MyFitnessPal. This is highly important! It makes you accountable and it’s the only way you can be sure of your calorie intake! There are other sites for this too, they’re all handy so pick your fave. So, since I eat the same thing for breakfast every day and my lunch is already logged, I don’t even think about counting calories until I get home and get ready for dinner. So….doesn’t feel so much like a diet!
Snack time!I eat frequently. If I had a big workout the night before, I get hungry by the time I get to work. Discounting that, I always get hungry again around 10:30am or so. So, I eat! I’m big on Apples and Banannas right now, so that’s generally my snack. Sometimes one of each, sometimes just one. They’re fruit, so it’s all good! They *do* have calories, but I’ve already logged it, so who care? (See how that works?)
Lunch time!Lunch is generally good sized. Today, I have a turkey sandwich with light mayo, some Special K Sea Salt Cracker Chips (30 of those bad boys in one serving!), yogurt, cottage cheese and a ‘Nanner. Some days I eat this every day of the week, some days it gets switched up. I like cherry tomatoes a lot so sometimes those are in there. If I cook chicken for dinner the night before, I throw a couple extra on the grill for lunch instead of a ‘sammich. Once in the swing of this, this leaves me pretty stuffed.
Snack time! Again!I get a rumbly in my tumbly about 3-3:30ish. So, back to the crack fruit….er Apples! Sometimes, I crave something salty, so I go to the Smart Pop microwave popcorn. It’s aiight, though it’s no movie flavor butter. A full back is only ~200 calories though, so it’s cool. Due to the salt though, this isn’t an everyday thing.
Dinner!Dinner is a tossup. It’s almost always a meat and a veggie, sometimes pasta. It’s also almost always 400-450 calories too. Thankfully, Colleen is an awesome cook, so this is generally pretty tasty too!
More Exercise!if it’s not a weight day, I do extra cardio. It’s either another 25 minutes on the exercise bike or a three mile walk. It all depends on the weather and my own whimsy. I’m a fickle beast, what can I say!
8pm Cutoff!With my coaches urgings, I do my best to not eat after 8pm. If I’m hungry again post workout or something, I eat a light snack, usually an apple or bananna again, sometimes popcorn. As my coach and program teaches me, it’s best not to eat after 8pm but if you’re hungry…eat. Just eat right! And don’t beat yourself up over it, it’s not the end of the world.

So…that’s what I do. I’ve added in weights on Monday (arms) Tuesday (legs) and Friday (chest). On these days, I generally only do one cardio. In another post, I’ll detail what the weight routine looks like but if you’re curious, come join me on Fitocracy! (It’s fun, you get achievements for working out!) Generally, my calories break down to 550-600 for breakfast, 500-550 for lunch and 4-450 for dinner. The rest is snacks. The biggest thing I’ve learned and the coach had me share with the group yesterday is that shopping right is key! As you can see….I eat a lot! It’s just low calorie!

Again, I’m not fitness guru by any means. This is just showing what I’m doing that works. It’s also a way to break the ice and get my lazy arse writing again! I plan on blogging some more of the process here as it helps me to feel accountable and less likely to slack off. The positive reinforcement helps a ton too! For now, I’ve rambled on long enough, so enjoy and feel free to comment!

Until next time, if you touch my apple, I’ll break your fingers.
Also, I can’t spell banana.

-C

Real life reared its ugly head this week, preventing me once again from finishing up chapter two of the “Trouble Gum” story! I know, I know, excuses and all that. But…real life is like that some times! I’m knuckling down this weekend though, hoping to knock out two chapters so we’ll be set for a bit. And before you go thinking I’m just slacking off eternally here…I *did* submit a story to an anthology this week!

Any who….

In order to keep things flowing, I’ve dug back into the vault a bit, looking for something fun that if inspired, I might be able to continue on with. I’ve a lot out there stashed in various forms of completion, but I have a problem finishing projects. (Trouble Gum is going to be my attempt at fixing said problem!) Enter “Hooper Charles, Esq.” Hooper came to me out of the blue a few years back. This story was original published as part of the “Kitchen Cinco” which appears to be no longer these days. Hooper was my attempt at some Hunter Thompson-esque Gonzo character writing with a bit of Hoosier flare and whether or not the end product was good or not…I don’t know. It was a lot of fun to play with though.

So, without further adieu….

10pm, Thursday night, cruising down country road 4, heading due south of the county co-op. The task that called us that day was the grand opening of the new Gnawbone grain elevator, a sure sign of economic growth and fertile fields for Southern Indiana. The mission was handled quickly and succinctly, no further worry until the morning. The task that called us down country road 4 was something grittier and more devout; a corn alcohol still operating in the burnt out remains of the towns last Tractor Supply Company. Tim Simons tipped us off; handy to have met the mayors son.

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It’s been a bit since the last episode, but a new episode of the Dad and his Weird Friends Book Club is here! This time around, friend & co-hort Mark Newell returns to talk about some epic fantasy, namely in the form of Seven Princes, the the debut novel from John R. Fultz.

Also in this episode, I dive into a bit of the catalog from Orbit Books, an imprint here in that states that is quickly becoming a go to source for some quality genre fiction. Among these are some series that I’ve been meaning to sink my teeth into such as Ian Banks’ “Culture” series or Mira Grant’s “Feed” series plus a lot of other series that I think would appeal to a lot of you listeners!

So thanks for listening! I’ve changed up the format this time around just a smidge, hoping that it makes for a bit more of a streamlined listening experience for you all. Feedback is always welcome at casey@bloodygoodhorror.com, so feel free to let me know what you think of it! In addition to that, the Dad and his Weird Friends Book Club on Facebook is going pretty well, some come join us and talk about books!

Finally, I’m looking for more guests to come sit on the shows here in the near future! If you’re a blogger, podcaster, etc and would like to be a Weird Friend? Shoot me an email at casey@bloodygoodhorror.com! I have a list of books that I am looking to cover, but I am open to suggestions as well! So, if you have a book you’ve been dying to read and are looking for an excuse to get it read? Now’s your chance! The only stipulations are that the books are genre related. They don’t have to be new, classics work as well!

Until next time Weird Friends, whatever you do, wherever you go, always take a good book.

-C

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This week for the writing experiment, I give you a piece of a story that’s actually been sitting around for a bit. As a long time reader of fantasy fiction…I’ve not spent much time trying to write it. So this, the story of Dega the Black, is my first attempt. There’s actually quite a bit of plotting for this story that is going on in the background, so some day, this may become a serious effort. At least that’s the hope!

A select few of you out there may get a chuckle when you see the name of the Necromancer, Dega the black. I had a very direct and obvious inspiration for this character, in the form of… my character from the MMO Rift! Cheesy, yes. But, the hours I spent playing that character put some serious ideas in motion I think, and that’s what counts! No for clarification, this is “Rift Fan Fiction” in the slightest. In fact, it’s not even tangentially related to Rift. It’s just an inspiration for a character and nothing more. The world itself is all made up by me.

As I said, this is an piece I’ve been sitting on for a bit. I’ve found myself a bit stuck carrying on with the next chapter, but the ideas are still percolation and I’m hoping that airing this out in the public helps to inspire further writing. I like the character and the idea quite a bit. For next week, I’ve decided that I’m going to serialize the tale of Troublegum and bring you a full story in quite a few parts. This week, it just didn’t come together with house projects, putting together a new episode of the Dad and his Weird Friends Book Club and preparing for recording for 1951 Down Place. Excuses, I know, but hey…at least you still get something out of it in the end!

Until next time weird friends, I leave you with a quote from the late great Douglas Adams….
“So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish.”

The stately bedrooms of Simca Escher held all the trappings befitting the daughter of a Trader Baron of the Walovian Marshes. Sumptuous wall hangings that draped the rooms in rich dark brown fabrics, ornate wooden bed posts that towered over the common man and dressing tables strewn with sparkling jewels and shining gold. Even Simca herself embodied what one would envision when someone mentioned “Trader Escher’s Daughter”; flowing blond locks that cascaded over sun kissed skin, framing her high cheekbones dusted ever so lightly with pigment so that she looked her best when her maidens came to wake her in the morning. It was the grimace of fear that settled into the rigor of a death mask and the deep purple that stained the pockets of Simca’s throat that made the room feel off, perhaps alien to those that could call themselves regulars to the Baron’s chambers. The blood that seeped from the depths of Simca’s ears, nose and throat heightened the feeling of nausea that came with the dead princesses appearance, off setting the glamor of the rooms around her.

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Over at Book Riot today, blogger Rebecca Joines Schinsky wrote a post on her 7 Dirty Little Reading Secrets and it was pretty fun. More importantly…it sounded fun to do, too! Me being as reading obsessed as I have been as of late, it sounded like a perfect idea for a blog post.

So, here you go, my own 7 Little Reading Secrets!

I’ve only read the first two books of the Song of Ice and Fire. I don’t know that I”ll read the rest. I liked the first two books of George R. R. Martin’s “Song of Ice and Fire” series, but there’s just too much of it. I love the TV adaptation too. The detail’s not quite so thick, so it flows a bit better. Whenever I think, “I want to read more Song of Ice and Fire”? I think immediately of a hundred other books that I’m dying to read and may not get to due to the time commitment.

I for one welcome our new Kindle Overlords! I am not saying ‘down with all paper books!’ or anything of that sort. For my library though? I do not lament saying good by to the paper back and welcome the ebook with open arms. I love my Kindle, I love ebooks. It’s changed the way I read, it’s changed the amount I read and it’s made the process even more convenient. It’s not you paperbacks, it’s me. I’ve changed. I do not see myself going back, except for the rare reference book here and there.

I’ve never read a Drizzt Do’urden book. I cut my teeth on Dungeons and Dragons and it was the Weis & Hickman’s “Dragonlance” books that turned me into a fantasy fan. I’ve never read a single page of the Drizzt Do’urden books, though I have probably told a few people I have, just to save face. I love Dark Elves too, which is the crazy thing. I’ve considered going back and reading them here as of late, but I fear they won’t live up to the years of hype. It may not sound like much these days but back in the day; these were must reads.

I’m not a huge horror novel kind of guy. I like horror books in general and I’ve read and loved the one’s you’re supposed to such as King, etc. But, as much as I’ve made my name as a horror blogger, horror podcaster and even a dabbling horror author? I don’t read very much horror. 9 times out of 10? I’m reaching for a science fiction novel followed closely by a fantasy novel. In my own writing attempts, I’ve tried to scribble out some horror stories but I often find myself hitting a road block. Maybe I need to dabble in some other genres!

I read sometimes upwards of 4 books at any given time. I…have an limited attention span at times. SQUIRREL!

Many books tend to bog down in parts, it’s just par for the course. Those chapters that the author has to slow the pacing down to worth through some of the headier ideas of their story. Those chapters that take place between big action sequences and their buildups. I have a hard time with those. Normally I hit a section like that, I sit that book down, move on to another and read until I hit a similar spot. Sometimes, it may be months before I make it back to that first book. It generally only takes me a page or two to remember who’s who and what’s going down once I do pick it up though. For some reason…I don’t do this as much with the Kindle these days.

I’m jealous of my Mom, my old high school friend Corey and my Wife. I read at a pretty decent clip I think. These three? They put me to shame. I spent the old days talking books with Corey. Generally, I’d find a book that blew me away and understandably I’d get pretty excited about it. Normally, when I’d tell Corey about it, the response was, “Oh yah, I read that.” “When?” “Tuesday.” My wife, this lady can put down a book a day given the chance. We recently received a flyer on a local college extension offering speed reading courses. When I asked he if she would want to take it with me, her response was, “What would be the point?”. Finally, my Mom took actual speed reading classes in college. When I was in high school, I would spend months laboring over some boring classic for a book report. She’d read it in two hours so she could help with said report. And the real kicker here? She’s not much of a reader.

The thought of being able to read a book a day still makes me feel giddy just from the sheer amount of cool stuff I could read!

I don’t have a whole lot of interest in ‘The Classics’ By ‘The Classics’, I mean classic literature. I’m all for classic sci-fi and genre books. When it comes to those books that literature classes, high brow lit blogs and everybody else says you ‘need’ to read? Meh. They’re important, yes and many writers wouldn’t be where they are today without these books. They just don’t hold any interest for me. I’ve gone through my share for college classes and the like. That’s enough for me. I know what I like and what I like generally has aliens, space ships, monsters or ray guns in them. I still haven’t read “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” simply because it’s still in part….”Pride and Prejudice”.

So there you have it, my 7 Dirty Little Reading Secrets. Nothing too blasphemous I think! What are your dirty little secrets? Come share them with us in the Dad and his Weird Friends Book Club on Facebook!

I’m a long time fan of Hammer as we all know. My time spent with the studio has actually been tightly focused. I love the Peter Cushing “Frankenstein” flicks, I love the Christopher Lee “Dracula Flicks” and I love anything with Ingrid Pitt. The best part of doing the 1951 Down Place podcast for me is that it forces me to broaden my horizons and check out a large part of Hammer’s other offerings.

Going into Episode 7 of the show, I had heard of “Paranoiac”, but that’s about it. I’d heard the name, but knew absolutely nothing about the movie itself. Heck, I didn’t even know Oliver Reed was in it. The further I get away from the movie however, the more I like it. That’s not to say that I’m happy to see it behind me; it’s the fact that here even a few weeks away from my two viewings of the movie, I still find myself looking over bits and pieces of the film and really enjoying what they accomplished here. Everybody loves a good Hitchcock movie, and I still feel that “Paranoiac” is a pretty blatant take of that style of film. That’s okay though; it’s nice to see the touch of somebody else such as Jimmy Sangster or Freddie Francis put their own touch on Hitchcock’s classic formula.

Episode 7 of the 1951 Down Place Podcast can be found over on our official site! Once you give it a listen, we’d love to hear your feed back!

For our next episode, I’m really excited for the movie as it’s another Hammer film I’ve never made the time for. While I’m well known for being a horror fan, what I’m not quite as vocal about is my love for science fiction. My love for sci-fi is in fact…greater than my love for horror. I can’t get enough of the stuff, so being able to dig into 1955′s “The Quatermass Xperiment” is pretty damn exciting as I don’t get to podcast about sci-fi too much. (The Dad and his Weird Friends Book Club is starting to scratch that itch though!) I had watched the earlier “Quatermass and the Pit” and enjoyed it a lot; I’ve just never made it back to the good doctor. When it comes to talk of classic sci-fi movies, “Quatermass” is always on the top of the list, so it’s a pretty natural fit.

Other than that, I received a new book on Hammer films from my co-hort Scott, and it’s pretty great. Looking forward to drop some Quatermass knowledge on the next episode after giving that a read too!

Until Episode 8…..
-C

This week, instead of a full story, I give you part 1 in what could possibly turn into a much longer story. I think I could whip this into a novella pretty easy. Maybe it’s best to call this a tease! At any rate, it’s an experiment in a new kind of character and some story telling from a different perspective than I’m normally comfortable with.

I don’t want to give up all the details here, but I will say that over the past few weeks I’ve had Super Heroes on the brain. That’s mostly thanks to writer/podcast friend Brother D. Derek and I are continually bouncing story ideas off each other to feel them out as well as bullying each other into writing when we’re feeling lazy. Derek’s got some big ideas cooking in the ‘Super’ front and it’s really started to rub off on me. My own novel that I’ve been working on, (slowly but surely) “Bloodhound” is a bit of a Super Hero novel. I tend to like my heroes to be more of the broken and troubled variety than the boy scouts in tights type. I like to think that to take up the cape and fight evil and what not takes a certain type of person that is perhaps…a little dark under the surface. Somebody who’s day to day life isn’t quite what they want so they press on to bigger and better things to try and fill that gap that they feel otherwise. I also think it takes a person with some ego problems to put themselves out there in the public eye, essentially becoming a vigilante because they can ‘do it better’ than the police.

But, maybe that’s just me.

Now, on to “Troublegum”. Troublegum has been rolling around in my head for nearly fifteen-sixteen years now. There was a time, fresh out of college that I was going to write a comic book called “Hall of Zeroes” and I was bound and determined to drag my artist friends into this foray with me. We never did get anything done with the comic itself, but we did do a lot of brainstorming on characters and such, late at night over beer. Good friend Kevin had the original idea for “Troublegum”, a girl unlike others in her school, a girl with special powers and such. I stewed over his idea for years now, always trying to figure out the best way to bring this character to life. Finally, I decided to get off my ass and do something about it. I myself kind of like where it’s heading.

So here is the first chapter of “Troublegum”. Be sure to leave comments, as they’re always welcome. If the feedback’s positive and you folks want more, there may be a serial or a novella in the future!

-C

Warm morning sun broke through slatted window blinds, the light bringing the motes of dust that filled the room of Cheyenne Winger to life. The owner of the room consisted of nothing more than a rumpled pile of blankets heaped upon a ratty twin sized bed crammed into the corner.

“You need to wake up, Cheyenne,” her mother said, optimism in her voice striving to match the hope and happiness that the foreign sunshine brought into the cave of a bedroom. With a purposeful stride she crossed the room, grabbing for the pull string and whisking open the blinds in one fell swoop. “You need to get up, get in the shower and get dressed. Today’s your meeting with the recruiter and you need this to go well!”

Cheyenne Winger groaned as she scampered deeper into her shroud of blankets, fighting for distance from the glaring light that now illuminated her dark sanctuary. “I’ve changed my mind, I don’t want to go,” Cheyenne groaned.

The mother glanced back at the window, the motion of the pull string on the mini-blinds as it glided untouched through the air catching her attention. The string drew tight as the blinds began to close, Mother stepped over and pulled the string from the unseen manipulator without a second thought.

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So here we sit, on the precipice of me getting the writing jones again. Many things have lead up to this; taking better care of myself, getting my thoughts in order, a want to creat, all that fancy stuff. Starting Friday Fondue last week was the first step on this continuing journey and I’m glad I did it. The feedback’s been good and it felt good to…create. It really did.

With such an adventure comes a need for ideas, and sometimes that can be hard. There’s either too many ideas to zero in on, not enough to make something meaty out of; the old brain pan can really be a mess sometimes. As I start off on this adventure again, especially while concentrating on some short fiction for while, I’ve found myself going back once again to the thoughts of one of the grand masters of science fiction; Ray Bradbury. He wrote the book that you see above some time ago, a collection of essays on the art of writing itself. I haven’t read it cover to cover yet, but I do find myself dipping in from time to time when I need motivation and inspiration. He’s a pretty outstanding man when it comes to the art of telling stories.

One of the biggest ideas that I’m drawing from as of late come from Bradbury’s discussions in “Zen in the Art of Writing”, his telling of how he used to get his own story ideas when he started out. This isn’t exact mind you, but throughout any given day, he would see any number of things that might give him the spark of an idea. This could be a random idea, an item, a person or anything that caught his attention. He would then write the things down in a list that he carried with him throughout his career. When he needed a new story, he pulled out his list and read through to see what grabbed his attention once again and of he’d set to scribble out a new tale.

I found this idea pretty amazing. I myself find a lot of little things that give a faint spark. These sparks are never a full fledged plot with outlines or even an ending. Many times, it’s simply a scene that comes to mind. Two years ago or so, back when I first read the essay in which Bradbury discusses his list, I was so won over by the idea that I started my own list. It’s short in comparison of course; but I’m just starting out.

So here I am some time later, looking for inspiration for some flash fiction, short stories and the like. I dug out that list this weekend and gave it a once over and I found myself pretty happy and excited. The process worked! I found a number of random thoughts that made me smile and give life to a brief scene at the very least. That’s all it takes, too. Just a scene, a scant idea that can be built upon and a story starts to take shape. So here in the future, maybe you’ll see stories about things like ‘my third eye’, or “my old cat”. Maybe you’ll see a story about a young child lost and the fear that comes with them, or maybe even a story about that sneaking fealing on the back of your neck when you shut off the lights in the living room before bed, that feeling that there’s something there in the corner watching over you, hot on your heels as you make your way to the bedroom. I’ve quite a few of them, i’m kind of excited to share!

For this week, I actually got started early on a new story and though I haven’t gotten far; I’m liking it. I like to feel the gears turning, I like the idea of developing characters and sending them through their paces. This time around, I’m playing with an old old character a friend of mine stuck in my head nearly 15 years ago. Curious about a young teenaged super heroine, faced with the stresses of adolescence, peer pressure and the responsibilities of super powers all weigh on top of her? I may introduce you to her this week.

Until then….

It’s Friday afternoon, you don’t want to work any more and my writing has become lazy at best. I need to knock the rust off, you need something to help pass the rest of the afternoon. “We can help each other out” is where I’m going here! In an effort to spur things writing wise, I’ve decided to play with some short fiction, flash fiction, etc. here on Cinema Fromage. This story, “Don’t Spit Into the Wind” is the first output of said venture. I’m not sure that it’s great, but I like it well enough and it’s a good start to get the gears turning again all the same. All the same; I’d love to hear what YOU think.

I can’t say that this will happen every Friday; as soon as I do, I’ll forget about it until next Thursday, panic then get all butt hurt over the fact that I didn’t post on Friday! Nobody wants to see that. It’s going to happen frequently however. It all depends on the work load of the week between the family needs, the day job, the podcasting and all that stuff.

These won’t all be horror related either mind you. This is “Casey’s Grand Experiment” and you, you’re the test subjects. We may cover all sorts of territory as I work out some new ideas, test new voices and the like.

So without further adieu, I invite you to dip into Friday Fondue #1: “Don’t Spit Into the Wind”, a new short, by me.

-C

“You son of a bitch, you almost hit my wife!” The overstuffed man with the handle bar moustache grew red in the face as he pulled his Harley up onto its kickstand. Jim Lowry stood outside his dusty SUV, the gas nozzle still in his hand wondering where this small bundle of fury was directing its vitriol.

“You didn’t even look before you pulled out in front of her, you could have killed her!” The man shouted as he trundled up to stand toe to toe with Jim. He was a mere five foot and five inches in comparison to Jim’s solid six foot; it didn’t stop the smaller man from staring up into Jim’s face with hatred, the wings of his moustache quivering with anger.

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