PROMPT: You can go back to your childhood for one day. What day and age will you choose? ANSWER: Fourth grade - girl scout trip to Washington DC - the Air & Space Museum - the first time I ever went to DC - all the airplanes and space vehicles. The Wright Brothers' plane, the Red Baron's, Spirit of '76. WOW!
Why was this my answer? Because most of my childhood was so harrowing - every day since I was 4 years old - continuous chaos that was out of mine or anyone in my family's control to do a damn thing about. Trust me when I say I tried. That trip was like a vacation from Hell on Earth for me. Heck, going to the scout meetings once a week was an escape to a different world - the one everyone else lived in. I just needed to connect with other humans who were not living in my world.
I remember a lot of the details from that trip like as if it happened just yesterday. As a matter of fact this is the exact topic for my English 101 essay at CCAC that for reasons unknown to me - because my teacher NEVER gave the reason - got an F - except she said aloud in class I would likely get an A when she read the rough draft. I don't know why this woman did this - but I found out months later that she started giving all F's to another student - a young woman who was getting all A's. The only thing she and I had in common with respect to the class was neither of us went to Mrs. Stein's house to help her paint - which took place between her reading my rough draft and my handing in the final draft. So, I concluded that this must obviously be the reason. When the other girl told me her story, I then realized that it was nothing I had actually done wrong and that there was likely nothing legitimately wrong with my paper in the first place.
This other girl got a D for the course - but I took an F partly because my grades on the previous two papers were C, B, and A, respectively - and mostly because I knew somehow - that this teacher had absolutely no intentions of giving me a fair grade - esp. when she refused to explain the F - she knew damn well that whatever it was she gave me the F for was bogus because she did not have the nerve to tell me to my face or on the returned paper itself. Fortunately, that nastiness is long past and does not affect me now - I do not see how it could. Even if the problem with my paper was legit - I have redeemed myself many times over, since.
Well, it was more than ten years ago and since then I have gotten A's on 99% of all of my papers - with the rest of the legitimately graded ones getting nothing less than a B, at the worst. One of my motto's in life is: Fool me once, shame on you - Fool me twice, shame on me - I never give anyone who treats me in such a way another chance to do it again. I walked out of that classroom with that F, thus falling on my sword so to speak, since it was too late to withdraw and never returned and never looked back - except to wonder what kind of unprofessional lowlife of a teacher Mrs. Stein was and hoping that CCAC fired her for being like that. She is a woman without honor and a backstabber - very corrupt.
PROMPT: 10 Possible titles for my dream novel:
1) An American Werewolf
2) The Wolf Pack
3) A Werewolf Abroad
4) Adventures of SuperWolf
5) A Modern Werewolf
6) The Wolf Gang
7) Wolf Brother
8) Lunari
9) WolfCon
10) The Lupine
As you can see, my dream novel is one about a really hip, cool, neato werewolf who is more superhero than anything else. The first of his kind to be a non-killing werewolf - with some really interesting supporting characters including Natan - the White Egyptian 'wolf' who is none other than Ahkenaten (Osiris) of tell El Amarna (who is Mick's special guide). Mick (the starring werewolf who has some really cool and interesting and new abilities), Mike (Mick's best friend and primary bond mate and Texan farmboy), and Quincey Morris (Yes, the character from Dracula, who is Mike's grandfather - the first American werewolf - first founder of the Underground railroad - major military commander under Lincoln - and a werewolf and vampire hunter - quite deadly - using martial arts and specially made double katana swords - werewolves' and vampires' worst nightmare).
Add to this that Quincey and most of the world's werewolves have been missing since World War II when they helped to rescue - among other things - folks in the Nazi deathcamps - Quincey made a truce w the others if they would help. Only two werewolves escaped, Natan and Lucas. As a matter of fact, the reason Natan has white 'fur' is because he was very badly tortured by the Nazis - yeah, they were caught. Imagine Dr. Mengela finding 'immortal' werewolves in the camps and undermining the Third Reich's deadly agenda - not a pretty sight. This is just a bit of the details of the story. So, this is the first major plot after Mike and Mick gather the rest of their 'family' and find Lucas to get information about the others' whereabouts - since Natan's memory of the event is not good due to being tortured. They need to find the rest of the werewolves, release them from their imprisonment, and unleash them upon the world once again to hunt down and destroy the terrorists building up in the Middle East.
We know they are all still alive because their mates and other 'family' members still survive - and the mates have a telepathic/empathic bond - being the primary bond. Except in Mick's case - since his mate was not to be found in time - but Mike's personality seemed to be a good counter and control against Mick's impulsive and sometimes downright silly nature - Natan convinces Mike to take on the task - not an easy task, even for an old Egyptian Pharaoh. This turns out to have the desired effect - keeping Mick from becoming a natural born killing machine like every werewolf that ever existed. This unprecedented bond had some other odd consequences - esp. when the mate was finally found.
I am still developing character traits for the story - which I hope to start officially writing for NANOWRIMO this year. A lot of Quincey's story will likely be prequel material - since I have been researching the character - I've actually found a couple more interesting things to add to his repertoire - a physicist, mathematician, engineer, and medical doctor - plus an attorney - which happens to be how he me Lincoln. There's definitely going to be a serious alternative history feel to this - one as close to reality as I can possibly make it. I actually looked up the name to see if there is a mention of such a person - other than the character from Dracula - Bram Stoker had to get the idea for the character from somewhere and likely a real live person. Yes, this detail gets worked into the story. The US Military knows Quincey's secret, this is kind of obvious - since he is still one of their top commanders - though considered MIA. I did not have much luck so far in researching this character - but I think I have enough - the additions I have above were all I found and in some eerily coincidental ways.
PROMPT: 10 Things I think are crucial for me to be happy:
1) Mate/husband/significant other.
2) Social Life
3) Money
4) Support network
5) Projects to work on - big and small - scientific - artistic - homebound
6) Friends - the more the better
7) Music
8) Books
9) Sunshine
10) Freedom
PROMPT: Did you receive your education somewhere other than school?
- Nature
- Universal room service
- Learned to keep (hoard) important things - from Aunt Sadie, Uncle Steve, and grandma - like old bills, just in case - paperwork - research materials - term papers I got A's on - and some I believe I should have if certain folks were ethical and decent teachers. Clutter is definitely a problem for me - but in the final analysis this stuff was important to save.
- Learned how to clean from mom, gram, and aunt Esther - and
- granted, the house - or apartment was a nighmarish mess - mostly because we learned early on that any attempts at cleaning were futile when my brother was home - he would literally make it worse than it was in the first place just hours after we would clean a single room - or even a kitchen counter. It was literally a waste of time and energy - and money to even bother - unless he was gone for months at a time. So, it wasn't a matter of not knowing how - my gram's apartment was always immaculate - like a palace - and if things were quiet and peaceful at home - mom's bedroom was fit for a queen. - Museums and Science Centers
- Learned to enjoy novels, reading, and pretty things from Aunt Esther.
- Animals, including my pets.
- Learned how to live my life around any and all obstacles from Aunt Esther (blind from Macular Degeneration) and Stephen Hawking (In his A Brief History of Time).
- Learned survival skills - at home, obviously - and Girl Scouts.
- Novels
- Television
- Nonfiction
- Learned to not hold myself back from accomplishing all that my heart desires just for being female - this I learned at home - there were very strong women in my family - and girl scouts.
- Another favorite motto of mine is: What does not kill you, makes you stronger - and I have literally been to hell and back several times and it's no joy ride. I am not sure who coined this motto or the one above - but they are truly words to live by.
PROMPT: Describe a place you remember from your childhood.
Similar answer to above: Washington DC - Our nation's capital.
Mount Vernon - Arlington Cemetery: tomb of Kennedy w Eternal Flame and watched the changing of the guards on tomb of unknown soldier. I guess that was before they invented dog tags. Big graveyard - lots of crosses - and famous dead politicians.
Lincoln Memorial:
"Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation. Conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal..." (Gettysburg Address). I love Abe Lincoln - our one true philosopher "king" and a good man - a very good man.
The White House:
Home of the sitting president. Reagan's home when I was there, but he was not home at the time. A great big Grecian-style mansion with many offices and large banquet rooms.
The FBI Building and the Jefferson Memorial
The Capitol building:
Photo shoot with a senator - don't ask me which one - it's written down on an old photo somewhere. Another beautiful building - lots of steps. I remember a breathtakingly beautiful crystal chandelier in a staircase. And one legend, told to us by the tour guide in the basement - in front of the gates to Lincoln's tomb and next to a statue of his head with an ear missing because the sculptor Lincoln died before his time. The Legend: A giant black panther stalks the Capitol building and has been seen at other locations throughout the city - just before our country goes to war. Workers and senators - among others have seen this creature.
Smithsonian - American History Museum:
Fonzi's jacket from Happy Days, the original Howdy Doody - a character my mom told me about and I saw a few snippets on television about before I saw him behind the glass case, and Judy Garland's ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz. The US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independance. Also, the First Ladies' dresses.
And of course the Air & Space Museum - my all time favorite - which I got to see a second time just a few years ago - at which time they were still installing a full size Space Shuttle - but I couldn't see much of it behind the barricade - only enough to know damn well what it was - those kinds of things just cannot be hidden. The Apollo Spacecraft, space satellites - and many airplanes from different times and places and wars. Hey, it's something you never forget seeing - ever! Talk about WOW!
PROMPT: What's your secret recipe? (I had a bit of fun with this one - made it a poem based on my favorite spice)
CURRY
Spice of life
Fire of your words
Passion
Sweetness
Warmth
Heat
Ancient alternatives
Burning desire
Change from what we already know
Variety in many forms
Slow roasting of one's soul
Tingling zest that makes us know our mortality
Reminds us of our divinity
Heaven and Hell
Food of the gods.
PROMPT: High school...
Not all it was cracked up to be. A place to break into adulthood. Making life altering decisions about what I want as far as a career and my future. My future life and career in the balance. A testing ground to weed out the week and temper the strong.
I survived but fate made it necessary for me to move onward, upward, and forward sooner than everyone expected. It was my stepping stone to greater heights. I realized late that I would have a longer and harder road to success than my peers and classmates. I should have realized this when I was younger.
It was my coming of age story with the grand finale being my popularity - esp. among the males. This was a very happy and pleasant surprise. I was not the loser and nobody that I had always believed - but someone the hot guys truly wanted to dance with and be around. Truly a place to learn about one's life and their future.
PROMPT: What was my favorite grade in school? Give 10 reasons why.
8th Grade
- Power Trip: We realized that despite our ages - we did have power to do things and make changes to ours and other's lives.
- Reputation: We had a major reputation in the school as the best and worst class the school had ever had in its entire history - over 100 years.
- Future Expectation: Anxious and nervous but confident despite all and any hardships any of us were enduring.
- Survivor: I and most of my 8th grade classmates had made it to the bitter and fantastic end.
- Endurance: Again, what does not kill you, only makes you stronger.
- Perserverance: Along w persistance and determination - it does pay off nicely
- Success: I won the American Legion Award with Brian Washington as the students that excelled the most among the graduating class.
- Leadership: We led the way by bending and breaking rules that went against our success goals - yet were not exactly wrong or unethical in any way. We learned not to cheat very early on - it just did not pay off in the long run - so we just did not do that stuff after about third grade. But if there was something going on that we felt was unfair or downright nasty and wrong - basically grown ups should not be doing stuff themselves they keep teaching us is wrong to do. We literally meted out our own brand of justice - even against teachers who we felt were way out of line - sometimes we were in the right and sometimes we were not - but we kept pushing the barrier. We were definitely a bunch of defiant kids. We had one substitute teacher virtually fired - we were in the right on that one, we got a bit arrogant after that - and nearly gave Sr. Louise de Paul a nervous breakdown to the point she ran to the office in tears - we went a wee bit overboard, there. Actually, at one point I actually thought my classmates had all gone nutso - I was more observing - yet I found myself supporting their rebellious efforts - to thwart injustice in our classroom. We learned how to stand up for what we believed in - just the way they had been teaching us all along - I guess they never expected us to actually start by attacking the teachers. Even our parents could not really punish us - because we acted out and were standing up for what we believed in. The truth will set you free, but it hurts, and it can really piss people off.
- Well behaved students rarely make history. We refused to behave unless it suited our purposes.
- My oldest and dearest friends. Thomas Juip, Heather May, Jamie Carlowski, Cody Podrasky, Brian Washington
