clunk, clunk. clunk--an old man sprinting

I jog up to my chosen starting point, and put on a colossal burst of energy as I cross the stripe on the asphalt. My whole body shakes. I begin well, concentrating… “knees, toes.” I’m actually thinking about running on my toes and picking up my knees. Supposedly, this is what one must do to run at the absolute fastest pace possible. 

The HIT!

The Hit

Every year, the coaches tell the seniors that they should play the final game—even their entire final season—like it was their last. This was it, our last football game. My team, the Newell Panthers, were visiting Wall Lake to take on the Comets.

To the hog house

To the hog house

I didn’t bother opening the wooden gate because the latch sometimes didn’t fall back into place cleanly and you’d have to fiddle around with it. I’d rather just climb over. Fences are so cool. People can climb over a fence, but cattle—much bigger, tougher, stronger—have to stand on the other side, watching.

the unemployed writer

Unemployed writer

I’m an unemployed writer. Oh, yes, I write, but nothing goes anywhere except to my own self-published blogs. I really need to break into the business and become a successful writer. I don’t need to get paid. I want the satisfaction that comes from producing something that others think is worthy of distribution.  If I start getting some stuff out there, whether it is at online publications, or in local newspapers, I will find the encouragement needed to keep going.  Then, maybe we’ll get around to thinking about payment, and then the best seller, and the notoriety, yada, yada, yada.

Customs officials don't care. Why would they?

I leaned on a metal table, faced with the fact that my flight was taking off in 20 minutes.  It was leaving the ground in 20 minutes. It was nearly a certainty that I would not be on it. Hell, if I had been honest with myself, I would have realized that there was 100% certainty that I would not be on it. 

Kevin saga

This is the second lengthy writing for the creative writing class:

                I walked into the Weeg computer center hoping to get some stuff printed out for my lesson quickly, and then take off for a wedding in Des Moines. It was Saturday morning at 7:30, and the place was already full of people.  I was heading into one room to look for an assistant because I couldn’t get the computer to recognize my floppy disk when I heard him.

dialog, no tags or extra info. just speech

The assignment is to write dialog without any tags (he said, she said), without adjectives, adverbs—just dialog.

The first 9 lines are from the memoir. The rest is might logically have happened in a similar situation.

Is Kevin still here?

Yeah, he’s downstairs.

How long is he staying?

Good question.  I said he could crash in my room last night, but didn’t say anything about tonight.  I’m actually not sure what he intends to do.