They're after me Lucky Charms

It was fitting that this was in the sky over my neighbourhood this morning.

It has been a wet, chilly week for the first week back to school for the kids and back to work for me.  But like the rainbow, the kids have both had a terrific week with the new classes and teachers and I have had a productive week on a new story - a veritable pot of gold all around.

By the way, I checked out this tree - no sign of this guy anywhere...

Ahhhhh...The sound of silence...

Just got back from walking the boy up to school.  Sweet Willow is curled up by the blue chair in my office and I am relishing the sound of absolutely nothing drifting down to me from upstairs.

With the kids back at school, it is time for me to get back to work.  On the agenda today?  A little story about the limits of humanity, the fragility and strength of dignity, the value of compromise and mutual accommodation,   the power of despair, trust and hope...oh, and a farmer and a vampire...

But first, a steaming cup of strong coffee and a little more of that intoxicating silence.

3 Days of madness...

Normally on the eve of the Labour Day Weekend I would be scurrying around, laying in provisions of coffee, caffeinated cola, high protein meat products and chocolate covered coffee beans in anticipation of the 3 Day Novel Contest.

I have participated in the contest three times so far with good results.  Oh, I haven't won anything, but the stories I've written during those 216 hours are the skeletons of novels waiting to be fleshed out.

My first attempt was 2006 and the result was The Platinum Ticket, a story about an unlikely time traveller.

The second kick at the can was the following year. Patriot, a story about a South American dictator awaiting his execution, was born over that weekend.

I skipped a year but picked up pen and pencil last year to pen Herne, a tale about an emotional damaged Conservation Officer and his encounter with a personified force of nature in the wilds of Quetico Provincial Park.

All things considered, I generate pretty good stuff when I open the taps for a long weekend and let the stories pour out.  And it's something I'll probably do again...next year.

This year I'm not in the mindset for a prolonged bought of sleep-deprived creativity.  I do have a story I might write this weekend, but it's not on the scale of a 25,000 word novella.

I still have my prediction for this year's winner in a sealed envelope tacked to my wall...

We'll have to wait until January of 2011 to see if I am right.

Well,  I have a lot to get done today so I'll leave you with this little tid-bit I stumbled across yesterday...

Dylan Moran on Rejection

I know just how he feels...