Suggested Words…

I've got nothing this week.

No pretty dark words for you to feel or dissect or misinterpret.

So, please take some time and read the creative words of others...

 

Behind the Mantle (The ramblings of a geek, gamer, ersatz human, sometimes author, and otherwise confused soul.)

http://behindthemantle.blogspot.com/

 

Cinematic Catharsis (Reflections on film from a pseudo-intellectual perspective.)

http://cinematiccatharsis.blogspot.com/

 

Happy Reading!

Freak Out,

JLH

Imaginary Image

Pretend with me

For a moment or two

That we could be

Something spectacular

Side by side 

Together

In a reality

Of our own choosing

Never minding

The futility in such

Fanciful dreams

Apologetically Inclined (or "Ugh, he's blogging about his book...again.")

It's a gut reaction.

A new reader informs me that he or she is going to read Dark Excursions, and my instant instinct is to apologize.

"I am truly sorry for any literary suffering my awful, crappy book may cause you."

No, I've never been quite so direct, but I have, somewhat jokingly, apologized for any mental illness my book may inflict upon a new reader.

I would love to say I don't know why I feel the need to apologize, but I know.  I have trouble believing anyone can possibly enjoy the words I've spewed.  

Even after positive reviews on Amazon and some very kind words from intelligent people on various social media sites, I fall prey to the epitome of stinkin' thinkin'.  

The irony is that I completely love every single emotionally damaged character in Dark Excursions, and was brave, or crazy, enough to send them off into the digital and print literary world. There is a pleasurable thrill involved, simultaneous to my gut reaction, whenever someone has picked up my book, reading life into Dinkel, Cheryl, Crop, Anapola, Xylem, Ivan, and so many others.

I suppose I'll never completely lose the gut reaction to apologize, but I need to learn to ignore it.    Push it aside, and give a sincere two-thumbs up and say, without hesitation...

"Happy reading!"

Easier said than done, but I can make the effort.

Freak Out,

JLH

P.S.  A post about my book wouldn't be complete without a link of some sort for the curiously inclined...

 

 

Here

    "It is not fair," opinioned the new one in unapologetic discord.

    "Who ever deemed it otherwise?" the old one attempted to placate the restlessness, with minimal success.

    "I just arrived here!  How can I be leaving already?"

    "A reasonable query from one so fresh," the old one mused.  "It is simply your time."

    The ambiguous answer is either ignored or rejected by the new one, "But you have been here for an expansive time, and here you remain."

    "Yes, waiting, and when my time is at hand, I will leave here."

    "When?  When will you leave here?"

    "I do not know."

    "Will we know each other after you leave?"

    "Perhaps, but we may not know it."

    Silence, and then the discorded opinion repeated with an addition, "It is not fair and there seems little point in it all."

    The old one considered much before divulging hard-earned experience, "Knowledge is the point.  To acquire and to comprehend."

    "How can this be if we lose all knowledge when we leave?" posed the new one, unwillingly facing the inevitable.  "Even now it is slipping from me, all I know."

    "You are still fresh and do not yet understand.  Some time ago I was the same," the old one sympathized.

    "Then assist me!  Help me to understand!"

    The new one's desperate fear permeated the old one, forcing sedate truth, "I cannot help you understand, for I do not fully understand.  All I can give you is what you may have already lost, as your time is near."

    "Please, anything!"

    "Knowledge acquired will join with the retained in the end."

    As soon as it is relearned it is lost once again.  The last remaining vestiges of knowledge are vacated, as pressure enveloped the new one in suffocating darkness.

    Suddenly, jarringly, a blurry white incandescent light filled the new one's field of vision.  Indescribable sensations bombarded the new one's being; an awakening to the vast unknown.

    A moment of silence, of adjustment, passed and then the new one cried.  Cried, unaware of the knowledge that was lost and would one day be reclaimed and expanded.

_______________

Story: 2010/2015, John L. Harmon

Title Photo: 2015, John L. Harmon 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you for reading.

Freak Out, 

JLH

P.S.  The preceding was a short story, that I did a bit of 2015 fiddling with, found in the notebook from my past…

http://freakboyzone.blogspot.com/2015/06/color-mind-distortion.html

http://freakboyzone.blogspot.com/2015/06/fin.html