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Actually what I remember best about each school these days are what books I found in the libraries. K-thru-5 school, Heinlein and Asimov's fiction. 5-thru-8, Asimov's non-fiction. High school, Tolkien, Kenneth Grahame, C. S. Lewis, and Mervyn Peake. College, P. G. Wodehouse and Stephen King. (The majority of stuff that I enjoyed and which influenced me, I found elsewhere, like bookstores and magazines.)

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You might deduce from the above that I changed schools mid-way through fifth grade. The story of this would thrill you and chill you...that is, it would, if I were a better writer.

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Anyone can dream. The real trick is to wake up. -Terry Prachett

I didn't read it until that summer, though...ah, I remember the circumstances well...down in the cool of the basement to escape the heat of my tiny little room...sitting in the beanbag chair in the room my parents built for my brother...turning the pages and wanting more when I got to the end.

I quickly realized there was more...there was The Lord of the Rings, just waiting...I bought the Ballantine paperback edition of The Fellowship of the Ring and burned through that, same BatPlace, same BatStation...

And I've been re-reading Plot and Structure by Bell, and Elantris by Sanderson. Also an ecology book for my story world.

Last night I put up a huge sheet of paper and tacked up cards to see my plot points. They are color coded by POV and are rated 0-10 for intensity (well, no zeros or ones). I hope the visual will help me to see holes in my plot and subplots, where they need to intersect, and where I need to raise the tension. Yet another strategy that is something other than Writing...

It didn't have as much impact until I read it again about ten years later after finishing the trilogy. At that point it was a gourmet's delight.

Anyway remember when I was in Afghanistan and said we were attacked by the Sean Connery dragon. Well in a stoop of sure boredom yesterday and that nothing was on TV I watched that movie Eragon, anyway I didn’t understand it but that dragon looked subspecialty like the Sean Connery dragon that attacked us in Afghanistan. I think it was wearing a mask but my memory is fading. I remember that I hunted and killed it in the cold Afghan winter, found it hibernating in a cave and so I beheaded it, placed about 500LBS of explosives around it, and a small homemade napalm bomb. That was some good eating.

I just twist the truth a little.

Jim Malone in The Untouchables

I wonder if such a movie was to be made about my PLT in Afghanistan how much would good old Connery sign on for?

Oh one more thing, someone asked me if Connery was a Werewolf back when I posted about the dragon many a 2 years ago, well my sources tell me he is but he hasn’t acted as one since his last life. So I don’t know what is going on with him.

the fact of the matter is...

Oh, Rord of the Lings might make a nice title.

Once a Panamanian woman with poor English skills had a British woman for a friend, they both lived in Utah. They shared a love for etiquette and would try to be polite as possible. One day the British woman had just been running and visited the Panamanian woman and said to her friend, "Excuse me while I wheeze a little on your couch." Sadly this was the end of their friendship.

I just watched Men in Tights, and the Sheriff of Rottingham spoke in things like that all over the place. Plus a few spoonerisms and my favorite "I'll pay for that."

Wind blows.

Blasted Daleks!

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.