Words of Power

Certain words evoke emotions and associations. They punch you where you read. Like a moss-slicked boulder in a creek, they break your thoughts into eddies that must flow over or around them. Again, I would call this resonance.

Snow: Goosebumps rise. My toes ache for fire. I see the cattle with white rime along their backs. Slush piles up on the corners of the truck’s windows where the wipers can't beat. Near the ditches the pale purity is churned into mud. But sometimes the light strikes blindingly from the distance.

Blood: It stops me when I read upon it. I see crimson splatters on white. I see black and clotted gore with flies gathering, and necklaces of ruby on pale ivory throats. I see many things: like the red-wine stain that darkened the torn knee of my blue jeans after I totaled my motorcycle.

Death: I see my sister's skeletal face as she lay dying from cancer. I hear the rattle of her breathing in her last moments. I see my father’s waxen pallor in the satin lined coffin, rosary beeds upon his chest. I feel my own wet cheeks. In the background there are battlefields, spent weapons fallen like frozen lightning. The ravens lift.

What are your words of power? The words of power? Find them and you’ll find your muse.

Tidbits

Just some tidbits today.

Steve Malley has a link to Alan Gutherie's 32 rules of writing and they are excellent ones. Check 'em out. Even though most of us know this stuff implicitely, it's still helpful to see them explicitely stated some times.

Sid and Wayne have an interesting thing going about what you might find in a "dead man's pockets," including their own. I don't have a camera handy but in my pockets now there is a "billfold" with fifty bucks in it, a driver's license, two credit cards, a Barnes & Noble card, two library cards, some pictures of my son, some business cards, a Save A Center grocery store discount card, and a few business cards from other folks. Also in my pockets? A buck o' six cents in change, including a penny I picked up in the parking lot yesterday, a set of car keys, a cell phone, and a piece of chalk.

Writing wise, I did a bunch of rough draft last night on my fantasy, "The Blackest of Hates," and I'm finding that present tense sure does push the pace along quickly, perhaps too quickly in some cases. I also started on my next column for The Illuminata, and this one too owes a great deal to discussions I've had with folks here on the blog, as well as with my writing group. Thanks folks.

In reading, I finished Tommyland, which is Tommy Lee's (of Motley Crue)autobiography. It was actually pretty interesting, although I was most interested in the Crue years, being a big fan of their music. I'm also reading Charlee Jacob's Haunter, which is certainly one of the most graphic books I've ever read.