26. August 2009 by Starr.

Some places are rarely noticed, in the scheme of day to day busy life…until one becomes desperate enough to actually need such a place, and within there lies the noticing.  A bar, or pool hall or pawn shop, may represent a background prop to one, and yet it may represent life’s blood to another.  A character I named Truman, understands this happenstance and he has a story to tell.

On a dirty Chicago street, not far from the, now toxic, Lake Michigan, Truman stumbles into a little place called, “Trixie’s Timepieces.”

Below, an exerpt from “Tricking Time”–my latest sci fi short story, now in progress.

“Some places are seen only by the most desperate of people, depending on what they are…desperate for.  Which, becomes quite frustrating, during the happier months of the year.  Customers just seem to, drop off, then,” Trixie said, while caressing her chunky thumb across a large-faced watch, fastened with a tiny lock, around her right wrist.

I nibbled a thumbnail, wondering if I would have been better off buying a train ticket than trusting Trixie.  I turned my gaze to the clang of the garbage truck trundling by, outside of the grungy store window.  I had read the sign on Trixie’s window a thousand times, but today, it held new meaning.  They were backwards to me now, looking from the inside out.  Usually, I was on the outside looking in, as the words, “Trixie’s Timepieces- Buy Yourself Some Time” arched over my head in colorful letters.

I bit into my bottom lip and slammed the timepiece into my jeans pocket.  I had to do it.  Had to.

The stench of the city seemed to encircle me as I stepped outside.  I had to find green grass and fresh air.  No matter the cost.

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8. July 2009 by Starr.

The scent from my honeydew melon candle gently wafts across the room as I work today.  Today I keep thinking about endings…not only endings of stories, but endings of lives.  I think, as a writer, that chracters must either live on forever in the mind of the reader, or their life must end.  I simply can’t leave them hanging.  

I started thinking about endings when I stood at the grave of Laura Ingalls Wilder a few weeks ago.  I couldn’t help but think, that after all is said and done…after all of the living, the writing, the rewriting, the revising, the editing, and then writing some more….we all end up in the same place at the end of the day.  Mortality is something I have felt alot of as of late…and it helps keep me motivated to create characters that are quite mortally immortal.  May their lives live on…even after I am gone.

 Right now as I write this, I can’t help but think of the character, Toby Small…the little red-headed adventurer that is filled with fear, who lives in his setting in a file that rests dusty in my black filing cabinet downstairs.  Today I’m going to pull out Toby’s file and work on telling his story. 

Here’s to Toby….may he find his way through the mazes in his life and find his way home.

“Commit your activities to the Lord and your plans will be achieved.”  Proverbs 16:3

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29. June 2009 by Starr.

Today, after a splendid weekend…I find myself needing to organize and rework my surroundings, which helps me to reorganize my thoughts.  VanMeer Manor is the place in my mind today…so there is the place with which I will slip into the rabbit hole and do what I do…

 Saturday I met a stranger at a conference center in St. Louis…it’s interesting when we meet someone that we feel an instant “connection” with…a friendship….a kinship?  To the woman with a heart for Christ that I met, from Waynesville…Godspeed to you as you teach those children and find your path in  your new surroundings.  Sometimes we need to find ourself in a new place, to find a new place within as well.  I don’t know your name but I know you’re reading this…my prayers are with you, my sister.

 Now…to open the door to which Maximillion will have previously polished the doorknob to it’s gleam… 

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