For the last few years my mind has had wisps of ideas, but nothing really crystallized.

Everytime I thought I was getting it together…

The last few weeks all of that has changed. I’m seeing things differently. Pieces are fitting, I’m making connections, trying to find a solution to the morass I’m in.

I know I’m not alone in the morass, Buhdy’s going around talking to himself

and everybody’s all screaming…

very very sorry this is so late…

i’m still ailing…

carry on

Reading davidseth  and TiaRachel ‘s lovely essays yesterday sent me on a search to find a little tale my Dad wrote & had published on-line last December. The link from his e-mail no longer worked, so I tried the google. Imagine my surprise to find how it had spread…page after page of sites with his story. I already had permission from Dad to do anything I wanted with it, so I thought this would be the perfect time to share it here, with you.

My Dad is a Great Guy, his experiences varied and many… in a ‘Big Fish’ kind of way. He served in WWII and later became the fencing coach of Columbia University in the 1940’s-50s and was an early advocate of civil rights in sports, eventually retiring to California. Not long ago Columbia University honoured him with a lovely (ceremony-dinner-function-thingey)  More about this can be found at Columbia’s web site, I think.

also in orange

Enjoy!

The Shabbes Goy by Joe Velarde — a pleasant read in a troubled world

I haven’t written a thing this week, its already afternoon….Aaaargh!

A suggestion had been made the other day, that I tell how I …do it, I guess. The specifics of how I found my story…or rather how this story found me.

Just before my kids started into teenage years a bookstore opened in town that had an arcade in back. We all read sci-fi so we started hanging out at the bookstore on Fri. nights playing Gauntlet & ordering pizza to be delivered. We met a kid who had been to Darcon and played Dungeons&Dragons and got to talking about it.

I thought it was really cool…an adventure basically in shared imagination.

And there were so many learning opportunities for the kids: how to work together as a team(& kill the beast!), consequences (you can’t scale a wall if you didn’t bring a grapple), budgeting(meager rations can mean a better sword) and so much more.

So we began doing D&D at my house…great adventures starting Friday afternoons and ending really late Saturday/early Sunday. Then sleep through till Mondays. We got so into it we even did live-fantasy role playing adventures in the summer…local kids (high school/college) would come play.

And one late summers day we started a new campaign…new characters, a new world. Everyone’s character was to be from a different area, the maps put together to make a world. We were told to do a 2-3 page character/area sketch & a map. By the time we played I had 8 pages on the city of colours & 3 on my character.

That is where the origins are. As it happens the campaign only lasted 2 games…a new school year changed everything. But the story continued for me…

I dream about what happens…or pieces of it anyway & start writing it down…more just comes…a distillation o all I’ve read and believe I guess.

Its kinda like being a god, in a weird sort of way… because it is my world…and can be anyway I say.

But it has to make sense…the logic of it has to work… for the characters. and the world. and the majik…all of it makes sense. to me anyway 🙂

And then the characters take over, many times surprising me with what they do next.

The names just happen…I don’t really know how. I type with mostly one finger- 2 for shifting. When I need a name I put all my fingers down & play piano…then I make some of those letters work into a name….except for the GoldSmith…the generations of GoldSmiths are done so I can keep up with which generation I’m in…and Sethhh…I just love the sound of it…like a silk curtain blowing across a brass bedpost.

Theres a lot to this world you haven’t seen(& prolly never will); maps, timelines, geneologies. and the city itself- how things work, the agreement between the dwarves and the men & how others came & stayed…. but I just needed all that to be able to tell the TaleMaster.

I’m working on 2 or 3 whole other story lines that connect…well, kind sorta in a wierd kinda way….

The rest of The TaleMaster is Here.  

When I was growing up my Dad was in the Air Force; we moved around… a Lot. Most holidays it was just us, no extended family. I guess in some way to make up for this perceived lack, Mama and Daddy always had ‘orphans’ for the holidays: cadets who couldn’t get home, officers just posted to the base whose family hadn’t yet arrived, young wives whose husbands were overseas and later stranded college kids my sibs brought home.

    Mama always put on quite the  feast…we weren’t allowed anywhere near the kitchen for several days before each holiday. It became a running joke. “She’s doing this on purpose, you know” Dad would stage whisper several times, “She’s starving us so our appetites will be immense & we’ll declare whatever slop she dishes out as food of the gods.”

   Each year at Thanksgiving it is a tradition at our house, while the oyster stew is eaten, to tell what you are thankful for this year. We do this instead of saying grace. Usually either I or my husband will start, then whoever wants to goes next, until everyone (& the stew) is done.

   It is so easy to get caught up in what is wrong, what you’d like to change. This one day is the perfect time to count your blessings, reflect on what you have, & what you are truly thankful for.

This year, I am thankful that…

I was the one to add the RECOMMENDED tag to rjones2818 diary at orange!

Please go here, REC, tip & comment!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

rjones has done an excellent job keeping us informed…let’s help him spread the word at the orange place! We need everyone’s help please.

This little tale started itself about a dozen years ago. It was originally a couple of pages, a  background for a D&D character. Then came a dream or three which added so much more. Life & Death interfered for many years. I’ve begun dreaming of this tale again, recently. This will eventually be a book, I hope.

So please, go get yourself a tall cold beverage, adjust your reading glasses and settle into your comfy chair and join me in the City of Colours…

If you’re just joining the story, here’s the Link to previous parts