writing

It’s been a weekend.

I wrote some yesterday, and then again some today. In between that, I watched Family Plot, Alfred Hitchcock’s last movie. I’m not entirely sure the film works, and in fact it’s kind of a mess, but it’s not altogether unenjoyable. Bruce Dern and William Devane are both a lot of fun, and you certainly couldn’t accuse Hitchcock of not being an audacious filmmaker, even when it doesn’t quite pay off for him.

Anyway, the stuff I wrote yesterday is still a work in progress I probably won’t post here. The stuff I wrote today was with my free-writing group and is more just a scene:

She stands at the edge of the river, hugging herself against the morning’s cold, and looks for the slow rise of smoke to begin in the distance. The cell in her pocket will start ringing soon after that, but for now she just tries to enjoy the quiet, tries wrapping it as close to herself as her thin sweater, or the blanket she left with the rest of her gear back down the road in her car. No sounds but the whisper of the water and the distant call of birds that, even after five years in these woods, she doesn’t recognize. She knows that soon it will evaporate, this early morning hush, fly away from her like the birds themselves, like the dust of her former life scattered in the wind. She knows that this moment, like all the rest before it, will pass. The more you tighten your grip, the more it slips through your fingers, she thinks, remembering Edward’s words. There’s a sadness in that, but also a strange satisfaction. And so she stands by the river, scouting the horizon for smoke, the curl of black among the distant trees, and waits for the call that will tell her that Edward is dead.

She knows she should be moving. She should head back down the hill now to the car and drive — in any direction, north across the border, where they’re likely to start looking, or south, if she thinks she can navigate around the quarantine zone. She doesn’t think they’ll be afraid to look for her there, especially not if it’s Edward’s people in addition to the police — but the thought of seeing it all again — the ruined towns, if not the things that ruined them — gives HER a shiver, and she knows a move like that could only buy her time. She’s only losing time here. She ought to move. Casey can call to tell her it’s done just as easily from the road. Laura doesn’t need to see the smoke to know the cabin is finally ablaze. Just like she doesn’t need to see what Casey’s done to Edward to know the bastard is finally gone.

And then she does see it, the smoke at least, and she smiles.

I was planning on giving blood this morning, before my afternoon writing group. I was just a little worried I might oversleep a little.

The dog made sure I didn’t do that.

At least I managed to give blood. There was a sizable crowd, too, at the blood drive, which is nice to see when it happens.

This afternoon, after the writing, we went to see Guardians of the Galaxy, which I thought was a lot of fun. And I got to tell myself the popcorn I bought was just to help replenish me after my earlier blood donation. That and the cookie earlier. I do what I can.

Anyway, it wasn’t all barking dogs, big needles, and talking raccoons. I also wrote this as part of our free-writing:

“Don’t tell the demon,” the blonde-haired super-heroine said. Her short red cape flapped menacingly in the wind.

“I’ll tell the demon anything I want, my dear,” said Professor von Evel. He leveled his home-built death ray at her aggravatingly perky head. “You’re hardly in a position to be making demands.”

“I’m just trying to save us both some grief.” Even floating a hundred stories above the city streets, Kalindra, the last daughter of Mars, was nothing if not cheerful. “He’s going to double-cross you, you know. If you’d been a little less focused on trying to rule the world, you’d have seen that what the demon wants is to destroy it.”

“That’s a lot of talk for a girl without a death ray,” von Evel sneered.

“Fine.” Kalindra sighed, swooping down to land on the rooftop. She seemed unfazed by the mad professor’s gun. “Give him a call. Tell him the museum heist went great, you’ve found the last component, and the machine’s almost ready.” She sat down on the edge of the roof, tucking the end of the cape beneath her, and looked down at the street with a stifled yawn. “You’ve still got him on speed-dial, haven’t you?”

Von Evel stared. “The demon’s powers are nothing to be trifled with, my dear,” he said. “The Beast will honor our bargain.”

“Sure, sure,” Kalindra said, examining her nails. “Real stand-up guy…the Beast of the Unspeakable Depths. You go right ahead and tell him anything you want. I mean, it’s just one of the ancient demon guild’s gemstones, right?”

“It’s — “ von Evel said. He could feel the weight of the unholy sapphire where he’d stashed it in his pocket. “Well yes, but — “

“Remind me, what’s that thing called again? You know, in the ancient texts?”

Von Evel lowered his death ray. “Betrayal’s Reward,” he said.

“Right,” Kalindra said. She stood up, taking the death ray and crushing it to dust it her fist. She clapped a comforting hand on the would-be super-villain’s shoulder. “Hey, don’t beat yourself up, guy. You’re not the first evil genius the demon’s taken advantage of.

“Wanna get some coffee?”

And that — plus, admittedly, a short nap after lunch — has been my Sunday.

Today did not go exactly as I planned.

Admittedly, it wasn’t much of a plan, and the one thing I had actually scheduled to do — taking my car in for its yearly inspection — that much I did. But I thought I’d spend the rest of the day writing, or at least guilt-tripping myself into trying to write, while instead I spent almost all of the afternoon trying to get the house wireless router to work.

Trying and failing, I should say. Ultimately, my father and I went and bought a new one. (Well, he bought it. I offered, as I’m really the one who makes use of it and because…well, without an internet connection, do I even exist?) The new one seems to be working, which is already a step up over the old failed router.

And I actually did manage to do a little writing. I dusted off a story that had been a rejected a couple of months ago, made a few revisions, and sent it out, maybe to be rejected again, fingers crossed.

Then I watched Mama, which has a lot going for it. And weirdly, the fact that it’s not always scary isn’t exactly a bad thing. I don’t know that all the good things about it add up to a good movie, necessarily, but it definitely has its moments.

This day has, too, despite the rain and the aggravation of so many hours lost to broken technology. There’s rain in the forecast again for tomorrow, but hopefully that’s it.