Today's Word II: Brain


Silly body, tricks are for brains.



-- david j.

Today's Word: Yay


I'm 29 today. . . yay?



-- david j.

Today's Word: Billingsgate

 
"I'd knock up every whore in Billingsgate to get my hands on that silk ship out of Yedo," said Bill, then spit into the scuppers.

"I'd drink ten gallons of slime and piss from the Danube for them pickings," said Jan, nodding his lice-ridden head.

"Shut your holes," said the Captain-General.  "Silk's for women like you.  I'm taking us after that golden city in the Americas.

"Madonna," muttered Bill.  "Not that dream again.  Fools gold city, they call it."

"Aye," agreed Jan.  "Better we should find that fountain of youth in Florida.  Living forever's better than searching for gold that don't exist."

"Amen."

 
-- david j.

Today's Word: Habit

 
The older missionaries in the village had that habit of speaking about their spouses in the third person Amish even if the person in question was standing right there.

Doc would say, "Sister Jenkins and I worked in Guatemala for ten years before this assignment."  Then he would take her weathered hand in his own -- a wholly unconscious action I think -- and smile, waiting for one of us to ask the question that meant he had leave to tell another story. 

It was a good two years; hard and happy.

Today's Word: Wheeee!

 
My son, Alex (5), and daughter, Grace (3), watching the Hot Wheels™ movie:

Grace:  That’s a bolcano.
Alex: That's not a volcano, Grace, that's a loopy-loop.
Grace: That's not a loopy-loop, that's a car.
Alex: (GameCube controller in hand, controlling nothing but his imagination) That's my car, I hit the boost.
Grace: (Begins to sing nonsensical song) Forever. . . day (gibberish)
Alex: What?
Grace: (Goes on singing) Every-day you (gibberish, quiets). . . Cars, cars, clang, clang, clang. . . the bridge on the happy going house.  Going to the house? Yep.  Use the bridge.
Me: What's Grace talking about, Alex?
Alex: (Laughs) She's talking about nothing
Grace: Fire, fire . . . vroom!  (Various car sounds, eyes glued to TV)
Alex: I'm saving the girl
Grace: I want to go to the girl's house.
Alex: We're not going to the girl's house.
Grace: Not going?
Alex: That's a big girl. (Attention turns back to the movie)  You're number eight (eight is last place in his favorite racing game).  Duh, you're losing.
Grace: (Now bored with movie which is on one of its long talking stints) Wheeeee!  (Slides off the arm of my easy chair several times).

 

-- david j.

Today's Word:  Exciting

 
"So what part of the movie were you in?" she asked, her sexy green eyes flashing.
"Well, you know that part where Rainslar says, 'Finally, a worthy opponent'?"
"Oh my God, that's the best part."  She leaned closer, intent, completely wrapped up in his story.
"Yeah, I was the opponent defeated just before that!"

 

-- david j.

Today's Word: White
 
 
 
It's too hot to be sad.  Sad is for a white world; a frigid time when cold winds wrest the tears from your eyes.  Sleet, like stony white cheeks, drizzles the earth, beating a soft tattoo that is all the sadness of man striking the earth with unrequited frustration.     

 
-- david j.

Today's Word:  Apostate
 
 
I'm apostate and I have a headache.
 
 
-- david j.

Today's Word:  Smallpox
 
 
And to think, our current climate of terror might have been very different if smallpox hadn't killed the Christians besieging Mecca a few hundred years ago. 
 
 
-- david j.

Today's Word: Tired


Writing while tired is a frustrating experience.


-- david j.

Today's Word: Deity


Camben Sorrowspriest fingered the crystal medallion which hung against his chest. Another month without incident and he might have retired from his position as royal advisor to the king of Selerous. Two weeks at the least and he could have been well away south, enjoying some spring festival in one of the larger villages along the Seedcatcher valley. But no longer. Never, in fact, would any of those dreams become reality.

Eighty-three years a priest in the order of Odane, only to find out that cursed deity actually existed. Why couldn't the king of gods hold his tongue? What was so special about this girl that made Camben's liege lord want her dead and the king of all gods want her alive? And which, if either, should the old priest follow? The god he had never truly believed in or the boy king in whom he had no trust?

Camben Sorrowspriest fingered his crystal medallion and pondered.

Today's Word: Write


Never ask the writer how the book reads. Rather, ask how the book writes.


-- david j.