Author Archives: scrivnomancer

I’ve been rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ like a pumpkin runin’ from love…

12 Sunday Nov 2006

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Quick post.

I’ve been bouncing here and there this week.  Went to Springfield, hung out with Torrie and various other folks.  Went to a writing class…and of all days, it was the day that the official announcement came out that my book won Outstanding Masters Thesis.  The department was all a buzz.  They thought it was good for the English department that an English thesis won the award, and good for any of the creative arts students, of any department, in that a work of ficiton won and that helps earn some scholarly respect for said arts.  It was neat.  It made me feel like I wrote something important.

 

Then, further south, to see Genenda’s first play as director of the Nashville High School.  Congrats Gennie!!!  There were pirates and laughs and the kids all seemed to remember me quite fondly, for only having spent one night working out sword fight choreography with them.

 

Then to Bloomington for Amy and Jeramie’s place.  Some geeky gaming.  More familiar faces.

 

Now, I’m back up in Chicagoland, for briefest of pit stops, before heading back down to Springfield all over again.

 

In writing class, we were handed various, tiny pumpkins and squash and given five minutes to write.  Here’s a quick textual sketch…

 

 

Hey, Pumpkin

 

“I have to go.”

 

“Why?” I asked.

 

“It’s almost midnight.  I’ll turn into a pumpkin.”

 

She grinned and I laughed and pulled her to me in a sigh.  We kissed, hard, and she must have forgotten her need to leave.  Moments went by in fallen leaf whispers.

 

Then, a desperate moan hatched in her throat and she broke away form me, running down the grove, sobbing.  I gave chase.  I wanted to apologize.  I wanted to ask what I did wrong.  Did I rush things?  But she was so fast.  She vanished, far ahead and I could only follow by the sound of her wailing through the trees.

 

I came to the edge of the hill and God she was so fast, I couldn’t even see her in the moonlit distance.  All I saw was something round and orange, rolling down the hill, at great speed.  The sound of wailing filled the night.

It’s Halloween Year Round In My Room

01 Wednesday Nov 2006

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To start, several authors and celebs have put up stories in six words HERE.

Here’s my attempt at a story in six words:

Dante,

You left your wallet.

-Luci

And now, on to the featured presentation . . .

First off, I just got a call from UIS about my epic poem thesis (which you might remember was picked to represent the English department for consideration as Outstanding Graduate Thesis of the Year). And . . . 

. . . it won out against all the other departments.  I’ll have to check, but that might be the first bit of fiction to do that at this school (as I’ve heard, fiction doesn’t usually even make the cut in the English program).

And now . . . we do the dance of joy!

The awards ceremony will be either January 22nd or 29th (I’ll hear soon, either way) and I think I have to make a big speech about my epic poem/novel, Souls Unsure.

And . . . what went on during my Halloween?

 

Well, last week, the lovely Torrie made the arduous journey from Springfield, just to celebrate the Halloween season with me (she’s nifty-cool like that).  To start, we shared some spooky coffee.

We listened to an audio tale of Neil Gaiman’s short story, “October in the Chair.”

 

Then she, Nick, and I went into Chicago to brave the reputedly only “adult” HAUNTED HOUSE in the city.  It was adult, and very gory (including a leather faced guy in high heels getting a hummer from a corpse)…but not the best I’ve seen.  Still, all in all, it was fun and it had a bar inside.

 

Then the three of us went to THE RED LION PUB for some drinks.  We looked at a picture of a ghost that haunts the bar, drank copiously, and discussed the practice of autographs, and a vow of a certain tattoo to be placed on a certain ass, later.

 

Flash to Friday . . .

Nick and I again reprised our rolls as Jay and Silent Bob.  Last time we did this, we won several hundred bucks at a costume contest at Excalibur.  So we thought maybe we could repeat this year (especially with their new movie being out).  So we hit a club and met up with a few friends.

Justin was looking especially evil that night . . . 

Everyone loved us.  We stayed in character the whole time.  Several groups of people stopped to chat, or get their pictures taken with us, or otherwise bullshit with Jay and Silent Bob.  The problem…the place we were at had no contest.  Bummer.  So we left for greener fair.  Nadda.  Every other place we visited either had no contest, or it was already over.  So we marched back towards the car, still in character, ready to drive and find a place that still had a contest.  People on the streets got a kick out of us.  And then things got even more surreal . . .

 

We pass an alley, between two bars and two cops are arresting two perps.  They have them against the wall and are slapping on the cuffs when one of the perps looks over, and (even though he’s being arrested) gets the biggest grin on his face and yells, “Hey, look, it’s Jay and Silent Bob!”

 

Now all the perps and cops are looking in our direction.  We maintain character.  Nick, in his Jay voice, yells out, “Snoochy Boochies!”  They yell something back and Nick replies, “Keep it alive, brothers!”  At this point, the cops cannot keep a straight face and they’re smiling and laughing and the perps are laughing and it seemed everyone was having a good time and I think, had this been a musical, we would, the six of us, started dancing.

 

Instead we moved on a little further into surreality and met up with the cats from Sesame Street.  There were several of them.  In big, professional looking costumes.  I’m not sure if they were doing it for fun or for some promotion, but it’s a strange sight to see the characters you grew up with turn to you and go, “Hey, it’s Jay and Silent Bob!” and then follow us around wanting to party.  I imagine it was a stranger sight for the people seeing the whole group of us marching down the street.

“Yeah, punk, we’ve been selling blunts on Sesame Street for years.”

But happy stories go bad sometimes.

 

We get back to the car and it’s been broken into and my MP3 player and transmitter have been stolen.  That was an important gadget to me, the ability to take my music with when I go to write 😦

 

On top of that, the savages took my poor little brother’s jar of homemade jam he had gotten from a friend.  Nick was quite angered by all of this.

 

Saturday . . . found us in Bloomington, LARPing at Jeramie and Amy’s place.  Sunday, we lazed around their house for a bit, and I got to hang out with my goddaughter and she has definitely learned how to smile and she’s not afraid to show off that talent, and it’s cute as can be.  Before heading home we hit the CREATURES CRYPT, one of the better haunted houses in Illinois.

Monday . . . I headed to THE RED LION PUB for another addition of TWILIGHT TALES.  It was an open mic night, with the featured theme of “Monsters.”  I read my short story, “The Halloween Tree,” and it went off well.  So well, that the organizer came up and told me he wanted me to come in, in December, to read as a featured reader with some published authors.  I’ll be reading for 30 to 40 minutes on those nights.  I should have some dates soon to give everyone.

 

And Halloween…

 

Nick and I took on the guise of Jay and Bob again and hit another club.  This one had a costume contest.  We worked the crowd before then, shaking lots of hands and getting in lots of pictures (I’m sure we’re haunting dozens of blogs that we’ll never see).  Even the DJ saw us and mentioned us over the mic.  However, come contest time, they had everyone pack onto the dance floor and some judges would pick out twenty people.  They never spotted us.  Even when the winners of round one wee being marched up on stage, a judge noticed us and told us what awesome costumes we had.  Nick, as Jay, asked why we didn’t get a ticket for the next round and she said that she didn’t see us.

 

Sigh.

 

I’m sure we would have won, from pure love from the crowd, had we gotten past the initial round.  There was a cool costume that definitely deserved to be up there though, a guy dressed up as bender – he even had light up eyes – and I wish I had a picture of that.

 

Finally, Neil Gaiman wrote a cool and chilling article on Halloween for the New York Times and you can read it HERE.

And that concludes this overly long Halloween post.

 

Pleasant dreams.

I seem to have misplaced my scythe.

25 Wednesday Oct 2006

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You scored as XIII: Death. Death is probably the most well known Tarot card – and also the most misunderstood. Most Tarot novices would consider Death to be a bad card, especially given its connection with the number thirteen. In fact this card rarely indicates literal death.Without “death” there can be no change, only eventual stagnation. The “death” of the child allows for the “birth” of the adult. This change is not always easy. The appearance of Death in a Tarot reading can indicate pain and short term loss, however it also represents hope for a new future.

XIII: Death
 
94%

XVI: The Tower
 
75%

XI: Justice
 
69%

II – The High Priestess
 
69%

XIX: The Sun
 
69%

VIII – Strength
 
63%

I – Magician
 
56%

0 – The Fool
 
50%

IV – The Emperor
 
50%

XV: The Devil
 
44%

III – The Empress
 
44%

X – Wheel of Fortune
 
38%

VI: The Lovers
 
25%

Which Major Arcana Tarot Card Are You?
created with QuizFarm.com

Everyone Hail to the Pumpkin Song!

21 Saturday Oct 2006

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Alright, I can’t sleep.  This is happening too much lately.  I think I need to start running regularly again.  Something.  Some form of . . .er, um, exertion.  My brain just isn’t shutting off and the extra time awake never turns out very productive.  So I might as well update…

 

And so it’s October and my inner landscape is aligning with the outerscape.  It’s that time of the year when everywhere begins to look more like my room…

 

Last weekend I was a reverend and I married a couple.  Strange.  Surreal.  I’m touched that Dave and Adrienne asked me to do this.  I could tell that some of the family/friends, at the wedding rehearsal were thinking, “OK…what is this guy doing here?”  But both D. and A. said they heard nothing but good comments after the actual ceremony.  So…I think I done did OK.  CONGRATS, you two!

I now have my coffee machine set up in my room, saving trips to the kitchen when I’m working.  I keep my coffee in a jar I picked up in Disney.  It says “Deadly Nightshade” and resembles the urn Sally used in Nightmare Before Christmas.  I also got a nifty mug…

 

And speaking of that…

 

With several other folks, I went, Thursday night to the midnight showing of The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D.  Awesome.  I brought along a flask of rum to mix with my cherry coke and it was a lot of extra dimensional October dreaming goodness.  I was especially excited because I never saw Nightmare in the theater, the first time around.

 

Wednesday night I took my laptop out on the deck and set up a fire in the new iron pit and played spooky music on the outside speakers and wrote out there for most of the night.  Splendid autumn fun.  Our yard runs into forests and lately, the deer have been coming out in droves and walking around in the neighborhood.  I’d wonder why, but, staying outside, late at night, I can hear the coyotes, many of them, howling and yipping in the woods.  Over the last several years, their numbers have been increasing and now, instead of scattered single hunters, I think they are starting to hunt in groups.  I imagine it’s because, surviving in a suburban environment, their food sources are not optimal . . . but there are plenty of deer and deer go along way and hunting something that big . . . it’s safer to hunt in a group.

 

Some folk are frightful about the multiplying coyotes and their increasing boldness (more than a few pets have ended up on the dinner plate in my area).  I say cool.  Not that those pets go eaten but that he have a large predator surviving and thriving in this place, in a suburban place (granted, we have a lot of scattered forests)…a lot of places can’t say that, certainly fewer and fewer as time goes on.  The cats in my neighborhood have pretty much killed everything that used to live at the edge of the forests where the neighborhood runs into it (we used to have all sorts of things scurrying around back there).  If the forest comes out, howling at night, and takes a few of them…well…it’s not entirely unfair.

 

(Special Note:  I like cats.  I don’t hate cats.  I likely don’t wish anything nasty to befall YOUR cat.)

 

The howl if a single coyote sounds kind of lonely, and not particularly scary (nothing like a wolf).  But, a group of coyotes sounds roughly like insanity and I heard them while I wrote outside.  So…while the experience of writing by firelight was fun, the writing itself was frustrating.  I could not get that story to work (and I’ve attempted it in the past).  It’s called “Eye, Heart, You” and it retells three Poe stories and connects them and gives a new twist.  I’ll get it to work someday.

 

Last night (Friday Night) I wrote a story called “The Cure,” for a contest.

 

Speaking of contests, the WHITE WOLF NOVEL CONTEST is still undecided, for those wondering.  But I did hear a rumor that they will announce the winner during a convention in Milwaukee that takes place on the 27th through 29th of this month.  Keep your extremities crossed.

 

And finally, it’s that time of year to get some spooky coffee.  I just ordered some from THE COFFEE SHOP OF HORRORS.

 

I got a bag of Graveyard Shift (a dark roast).

 

And a bag of  Sundown Blend (a medium roast).

 

And, if you’ve ever seen the movie Dead Alive (I’m thinking of you, Alex), you might get a kick out of what’s written on the bottom of this bag of Skull Island (a dark roast).

When I grow up I want to be the Pumpkin King

12 Thursday Oct 2006

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On Oct. 20th, Disney is re-releasing The Nightmare Before Christmas as a 3D movie, in select theatres.

 

Me and mine will seeing the showing on Thursday the 19th at midnight (ok…technically it’s the 20th…but we’re cheating by a minute) at The AMC Lowes near Woodfield Mall.  Anyone who wants to come along, let me know, we’ll likely go goblin hunting afterwords.  Just reserve your tickets for the midnight show, before hand.

 

Stay tuned for more haunting, October activities to be scheduled . . .

Fall is a stalking season.

11 Wednesday Oct 2006

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“We are still under the sway of the destructive and vain belief that man is the pinnacle of creation, and not just a part of it, and that, therefore, everything is permitted…. We are incapable of understanding that the only genuine backbone of our actions—if they are to be moral—is responsibility. Responsibility to something higher than my family, my country, my firm, my success. Responsibility to the order of Being, where all our actions are indelibly recorded and where, and only where, they will be properly judged.”
            -Vaclav Havel (poet, playwright, and statesman) in a speech to the United States Congress
 
 
I just always liked that quote and have no other good reason for posting it other than it just came to mind.
 
I like Fall. I like the feeling of transition. I get bored with the longer seasons and like feeling the change rather than the stay.
 
Fall is a stalking season. It circles. It creeps.
 
The grass is still green, but it’s there, crouched. Leaves begin their transformation into mummified bats. Cinnamon and apple become important flavors. The nights grow bolder and take up more and more of the shrinking day.
 
As children, we began to shiver in excitement, for we knew that soon our curfews would be extended into the dark hours. That was exciting. THAT was naughty – to get away with it – a loophole in the cosmology. We tore through the backyards, in the after-dusk that had come to us since our parents would not let us go to it and it would be a whole season and a half before the universe righted itself.
 
There were no fences.
 
There was no time.
 
Never-neverland was night and running and delight-shrieks and happy darkness. Already we cackled and leapt and swooped, rehearsing to be the goblins we’d become on the climactic night when we’d celebrate the naughty season by gorging on candy for the pure, surgery, cavity-filled joy of it all.
 
But it started with mummy-bat leaves and night bedlam in the back yards.
 
 
And finally, Steve and I are going over possible layouts and styles for my webpage and here are a few samples thus far. [Note: That spiral in the center of every picture won’t be in the final product.]

This Is Thriller

09 Monday Oct 2006

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My grandmother has apparently found my MySpace page and now thinks I’m possessed or evil.  I’m pretty sure I’m the same old me (whatever that is).  Sigh.

My cell phone has been stolen and the perpetrator(s) have been using it to send text messages. The state of the criminal underworld is pretty sorry when the big score is text messages.


This weekend we all got together for Dave’s bachelor party, which included not only Chucky Cheeses, but hours and hours of poker and a very bad movie about lesbian vampires. I came out of it $100 dollars ahead.  Much fun was had.


Do yourself a favor and watch THE INDIAN VERSION OF “THRILLER”.