Lync Short Story April 2019: The Imabalanced Scale

So I wrote this lync story in April and I've since composed a new one for May!  I'm going to let my April story hang out a bit longer before I post the May story (plus I still need to tweak it, it's still just in first draft form and might actually be too long as there is a character limit for the Lync status).

Anywho here are the drafts and final output for "The Imbalanced Scale" -

Lync Stories: Drabble length (<100 words) stories told in a Lync messenger status.

1^st –  They were to burn the man tonight. An angry mob gathered outside his prison’s wall chanting the last sounds he’d ever hear.  The blazing fire pit just behind them. ‘A crime for a crime,’ the Sage whispered before departing a final blessing. The sound of the metal as it shut into place, the man closed his eyes: it all seemed so finite. All there was left was to wait. The man thought nothing of his crimes; the family he’d not saved in the fire or the drink that coated his throat that night. He didn’t wonder his innocence. He did not yell for fairness. He did not mourn the life left to live. His contentment came in the chant.  “Free him,” they yelled.  “Free him.” A single tear slipped free.

2^nd –  The man was set to burn tonight. An angry mob gathered outside his prison’s wall chanting the last sounds he’d ever hear.  The blazing fire pit just behind them. ‘A crime for a crime,’ the Sage whispered before departing a final blessing. The sound of the metal as it shut into place, the man closed his eyes: it all seemed so finite. All there was left was to wait. The man thought nothing of his crimes; the family he’d not saved in the fire or the drink that coated his throat that night. He didn’t wonder his innocence. He did not yell for fairness. He did not mourn the life left to live. His contentment came in the chant.  “Free him,” they yelled. One tear. A tear for a cry.

FINAL –  The man was set to burn. Outside his cell an angry mob chanted the last sounds he’d hear. The fire behind them. ‘A crime for a crime,’ the Sage had whispered. The sound of the metal as it shut, the man’s eyes closed: it was all finite. He waited; thought nothing of his crimes- the family he’d not saved in the fire or the drink that coated his throat. He didn’t wonder his innocence, yell for fairness, or mourn the life left to live. He shed a tear for the chant. “Free him,” they yelled. A cry for a cry. 

Denise, where art thou?

Scattered. Absolutely and utterly scattered.  And feel like I might be bringing others down with me.

Why so scattered?  I feel that is a loaded question with a lot of factors at play.

I've avoided some things and tried to address others, pick your battles type thinking and the choices I've made, I feel, do bring me closer to happiness/peaceful existence while achieving my various dreams and goals.  That said it does sometimes feel like i'm trying to tackle everything all at once.

I was hoping to do a big post with some of the happenings for the last nearly two months that I just went on hiatus but my computer is being a hot mess.  So I'm going to list things I can remember and go about working on another index card for TYW.

Denise highlight life reel:

- Wrote 2 lync short stories (will hopefully get around to posting the first drafts and final draft entry soon)

- Visit Cali for the first time; traveled to San Diego Easter weekend; attended a mega church service (The Rock); met up with my freshman year college roomie

- BRAIDS; met some fellow black/AA anime fans... thinking I'll be rocking braids for most of the summer

- EMPTY ORCHESTRA aka karaoke ^_^ (Fugees "Killing Me Softly", TLC "Red Light Special", Queen "Bohemian Rhapsody", The Weeknd "The Hills")

- Rock climbing (terrible at this, just tried it out this past Tuesday night)

- Movies:  Glass, Captain Marvel (twice and missed parts in both due to bathroom first time, then fell asleep on it the second time), A Madea Funeral (?); Endgame (missed some of it due to taking niece to the bathroom 3x) … speaking of had a dream with Chris Evan's last night, LOL@America's ass...

- Books :( :( :( Still reading "The Book of M" and hoping to get to "To Kill a Kingdom" next

- Writing: Just about nada

- Attended writing marathon last week, first time at a convent and planning to do some personal retreats there pretty soon once I can lock down a date

- Depression galore … I mean between it and grief it's been tough inside my head to the point when I do have fleeting moments of not being unburdened I cry or I'm just present/instantly attuned to those moments so I try to take advantage of the peace

- And I think that's it minus some changes at home and not really dating (just friendship with the one guy)…

Aye so May... May the 4th be with me and all!  New month and hoping to get back on track with the writing and my focus.  That said my headspace is still bit of a battle ground and I think there'll be some war fare there until I can address the things which are causing some disruption.  Like establishing boundaries, taking care of me, listening to that inner voice and such...

Anywho, off to try to knock down an index card since I've at least updating my blog and checked in for GYWO.

3/15-3/17 Weekend To Do

To see Miss Marvel...

LOL.

From a writing perspective I'd like to:
- Finish reading a book
- Catch up on word count for the month

And other than that it'd good to get my tax stuff organized so I can file soon.

So today had a lunch with my coworkers to celebrate my bday and one of them has started reading MD.  I have to say it was nice to talk with her about what she was understanding and the story.  Despite MD being a challenge for me since it felt ambitious, and is not perfect by any means, it was good to revisit the world.  But I have to remember that feeling, tap into it because it's that feeling that feels like will fuel me as I work on TYW.

Decisions I Arrived to Today...

Decisions that might change... or might not.

- I'm not going to travel to Japan this month as a bday gift to myself
- I am going to use the money instead to pay some extra toward my credit card
- I am going to have the talk
- I am going to submit for pitch wars

Life is short.  Found out tonight my handyman/friend of the family passed yesterday and it really has me bummed out.  And so much of the latter part of my day was spent asking myself 'what would I regret more...' then to find that out.

This won't be a long post.  In bit of a bad mood plus sad (and I think hunger is adding to it).  Considering yesterday was a busy evening and trying to wait to throw in the meal I prepped yesterday in the oven.  But this is all just random.

No additional update only that I intended to have a talk this evening and couldn't.  Feeling sad and just not with it right now.

In other news the cabin I'm in is quite active which is great.

Dream About a Story

Disclaimer:  This is a post.  This is a post that was written on … [date can't be disclosed] … … But is being posted today.  Why is it only being posted today?  Because the author is unavailable and desperately trying to maintain her daily posting streak at the cost of … forced authenticity?  Accountability? She's not really sure.  She just wanted you to know that while this is posted today these words were likely written days ago if not weeks, months, blah blah blah....

I like when I have dreams that are like THIS, THIS DENISE, THIS IS THE ANSWER TO [insert random project].

This occurred last night/early in the morning since it was right before I woke up and darnit.  I wish I'd written it down.  I just know it was a matter of me telling myself/recognizing what was happening in the story was the origins or history of how things came to be in my novel FY.  This is one of the stories that isn't done.  Where I started the draft and got about 10-15k into the story and abandoned ship.  I have less than five novels in this stage.  I'm hoping to bring this number down.

A few times I've thought I was ready to pick FY back up.  Like I'd see something on the news that make me think about the side arcs or other observations that tied into the overall theme.  I've even had it as a goal in years past to work on it but it's never happened.  And now I have this dream, that I barely sort of remember now, but hearing dream me saying "Hey, this is the origins, their story is how this all came to be..."  and not to long after that dream me is talking to someone telling them how I have to get ready to babysit.  I wake up after that and no sooner than I do, that I get the text from my sister saying she's on her way to drop off the kids.

Going to try to spend a few minutes trying to write out what I remember.  Here's to hoping that maybe I might make FY my project for September perhaps...

Also FY does not/is not Fushigi Yuugi, lol.  I realize my code for that particular story could be equated to that for anyone familiar with that manga/anime.

Conspiracy Theory

So I was listening to NPR this morning to work and heard about the plane crash that killed everyone one board.  The plane, a 737 Max 8, had been involved in another crash recently.  Since I don't watch the news and not on any social media my news is pretty limited but I did listen to NPR a little longer today.  And the two recent crashes involving the same model plane made me think of the missing Malaysia flight from a couple years back.

Back when that happened, part of me sort of wondered/thought the plane was taken for nefarious reasons since the crash site and no trace of it was ever found.  Part of me still wonders if maybe the plane was taken and hearing about these recent crashes of the same model reminded me of that thought.  It's possible my writer brain at work, seeing as the Malaysia plane wasn't the same model.  And so much water.  Still...

Outside of me being behind on news I had a really great conversation/catch up with a friend of mine that's living out in Germany.  Definitely thankful for good conversations recently since it's been helpful to my overall head state.

Anywho gotten some writing in for the day.  Going to enjoy the rest of SNL with Idris Elba, had several LOL moments so far.

On the day, the day of your birth

I give to thee:
- one paid off car note
- two credit card balances paid
- an outstanding decision on rather or not to travel or pay toward a student loan balance or another cc...

So I'm still undecided about traveling later this month.  Every time I think I've made up my mind I go back and give a reason as to why I should/shouldn't do something.  I was hoping I would get somewhere with my taxes this weekend in order to better make the decision but alas I did not.

At any rate will probably need to figure it out soon if I'm going to book something.  Or if I just take the time off and hunker down to submerge myself in TYW.  Which is what I think I'd like to do but I'm also wondering if I deserve to give myself some sort of respite too..