Well, I got myself mentioned over at www.hatrack.com, the website of first-class author Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game, The Worthing Saga).
Kind of cool. And kind of lamely self-promoting.
For Your Infuriation. (Yeah, right.)
I plan to resume blogging next week.
Remember back when I said I was done posting for the week? Well, I had forgotten that I planned to engage in Loren Eaton’s Christmas Eve Shared Storytelling extravaganza.
Loren is hosting this event at his site, I Saw Lightning Fall, but he had asked that everyone involved post their own “ghost” story at their own blog.
The idea is to post a 100 word, flash fiction story with a spooky-like Christmas theme.
Now, I am not a fan of horror, and am rather more often on the strongly dislike side of that chasm. But the point of congress for me is in the murky in-between of speculative delight. I absolutely hate slasher movies and anything like that. But I like movies like The Village and Signs, if that gives you some idea of where I’m at.
So I didn’t write a “ghost” story exactly, but I tried to get into the spirit of things with my offering.
Note: Writing fiction in 100 words is like asking you to pick which you’d like to keep: your eyes, nose, ears, or tongue. It is a series of painful choices. It’s also a great exercise.
I hope you like the story tomorrow and that it isn’t a waist of thirty seconds of your life.
Well, here’s my challenge for us all on Veteran’s Day.
If you are at any restaurant and you see a man or woman in uniform come in, buy their meal for them.
It’s a small step, but a good way to show gratitude.
My Dad, Don Smith, is a combat veteran and my personal hero. Thanks for serving, Dad. And our deep thanks to all of you who have served.
Over at the Rabbit Room the question is, “Where are you from?”
It’s a chance for them to see where the readers are from.
As of this reading there are only 2 from West Virginia (and one is me, I assume Stacy Grubb is the other).
I feel like Al Gore not carrying his home state in the election. If you would, go over and say you’re from West Virginia (or wherever).
Someday when I have more confidence we’ll try this exercise here.
Sorry: Football post. Sorry also: Local interest. Sorry part III: Easily offended MU fans take a deep breath.
I post the video below in honor of tomorrow’s game between my West Virginia Mountaineers and our cute, cuddly, little brother school Marshall University in the “Everything-to-lose and Nothing-to-gain Bowl.” (c)
Note: I say “cute, cuddly little brother” with affection. I like Marshall fine. Green is my favorite color. Even though I was persecuted as a child for being a West Virginia fan, I hold no ill will. I root for the Herd. I went to school there for a minute. I was in a class with some amazing football players and they called me “Beck.”
As a West Virginian I know we need to play this game. As a West Virginia fan, this game is a nightmare. If you win, “Great job, big whoop,” and if you lose it’s like your pants fell down at your own funeral. OK, I can’t think of an apt metaphor.
Will Marshall win this one? Maybe, sure. Play it enough times and it will happen. I just hope it’s not tomorrow.
Bottom line, there’s nothing to be gained for West Virginia and everything to lose.
For Marshall there’s everything to be gained and nothing to lose. Except the game, I hope.
Welcome to the brand new internet home of S.D. Smith. Who is -am- me, I. You are very welcome. If you are traveling here from the old home place (The Maple Mountain Story Club), then perhaps you are wondering why I have made the switch.
There are a few reasons.
One is simple clarity. The MMSC was intended to be a collaborative effort that would initially be myself and Andrew, and then later expand to some others. That got derailed along the way and it kind of just became my own blog. But it has a silly, misleading title, and I have long intended to simplify and clarify.
Two: I want to make it easier on people who are doing web-searches. People who are looking for my writing may search for my name, but are unlikely to search for “Maple Mountain Story Club.” So, there’s that. I think it serves my readers better.
Three: This allows me to develop a more flexible website which is easier to navigate and has a lot more options.
Four: A Russian sailor who gave me a bag of gold told me I would have good luck if I “svitched ower.”
I have tried to direct people to link to www.sdsmith.net (which was redirecting to the MMSC) for a while in anticipation that I would at some point get this website moving. The day has finally come. So, if you haven’t yet, please make the switch over in your link to www.sdsmith.net. Thanks a zillion.
You may be concerned about what will change. Well, not much. I’m just going to try to be a little more focused (something I’ve been trying to do for a while).
Note: If you want to bookmark the blog (for a link, or RSS), then just do www.sdsmith.net/blog. The front page will have the most recent posts, but don’t mistake that for the blog. The front page has the latest post and some other things, but it is not the blog.
As always, if there are any questions or comments, please comment away here at the blog, or visit the Contact page to…um, contact me.
Again, a huge word of thanks to Brian Patton for creating this website out of the following raw materials: Bolts, wine, snack-packs, ore from Settlers of Catan, indecipherable animal innards, and pieces of wood from the lumber of the chair his enormous rear end broke at my house.
Thanks to you all for your support. I hope you are comfortable in my new home. You are very welcome.
I love you, Dad. You are my hero.
Some past posts that mention, or feature, my Father.
Happy on Father’s Day (a poem for my Dad).
Fortunate Son (some thoughts some time back).
25 Things About Me (see some of the points).
“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’”
C. S. Lewis
Here’s a part of my Rabbit Room comrade Pete Peterson’s non-review of UP.
“…What a privilege it is to have the trust of your audience. Such is Pixar’s legacy that people who would otherwise turn up their nose at a mere ‘cartoon’ came in droves to fill the house based on the trust of a studio’s name alone. It’s a precious and delicate thing and with each successive film I fear the spell will finally shatter.
But UP isn’t a flop. The integrity of the Pixar name is well intact and may it be so for years to come. There’s nothing I can write here that can say more eloquently what has already been said in theaters across the country. UP’s reviews are written in a communal grammar built of gasps, and happy tears, a language filled with the sighs of the long-lived, the breathless wonder of cynics like me, and best of all the laughter and joyous exclamation not only of children but of those who dare to come and sit in the darkness and hear the storyteller’s whisper and remember how to be child-like once more.”
Right. On.
This was an amazing film. Take your family and go see it. We took our whole family to the movies for the first time (kids aged 6, 3, and 3 months) and it was a wonderful family memory. We’re keeping the stubs.