Terribleminds – Fireflies & Laserbeams

Wendigisms 2: The Penmonkey Strikes Back

Tuesday December 11, 2012 | By Hieronymus Hawkes | Uncategorized | Leave Comments

I needed a good title for the sequel. I thought about naming this one Revenge of the Pen Monkey but Chuck already used that title for one of his writing books. Next was Dead Man’s Prostate, but that’s just a little too gross to publish across the interwebs. The Quickening doesn’t sound bad, but I’m happy with what I picked.

These are all giblets of stuff Chuck has published on his website and most are related to the art of writing in some form or fashion. They’re priceless. The first page of stuff is here on my 1st Wendigisms page. You can always read more over at Terribleminds.

And without further ado:

Feculent turd-heads
Eff that in the ay, emmer-effer
I will beat you to death with a sock full of your own teeth
Mornings tend to be when your brain is at its lemon-scented freshest
Think of this as a narrative laxative
Covers that look like someone just ingested a rod of uranium and threw up in a clown’s shoe
Suddenly your voice is scratchy and dry like you’ve been gargling watch parts and cigarette butts for the last ten years
Loosen your mind sphincter
Shock-prod your brain-squirrels into powering the endeavor at hand
Sad trombone
Harvest all the delicious Idea Chilli *nom nom nom*
Plot is like Soylent Green: it’s made of people.
Sweaty genitals, which is the worst ice cream flavor ever
Massaging the prostate of your soul
Your artistic faucet won’t offer anything but a quivering, syphilitic drip
You are not a sad friendless little tugboat
It’s about throwing caution into a woodchipper
coffee so black it might as well have been ink poured out of a squid’s behind.
scream like a Tasered girl scout
you were just rolling around in a dish of someone’s fingernail clippings and hoagie sweat
Extract those wretched little nuggets of hard black hate-coal and use them to fuel the writing
trees only read magazines about trees. Printed on the flesh of humans
your jaw hangs loose like a broken porch swing
Secrete enzymes to build your own authorial exoskeleton
Ngggh
we’re all gonna end up under the Grim Reaper’s riding mower
it’ll slip through one of the many mouse-holes in your mind-floor
chipping off the tiniest sliver of our intellectual granite
Shake lose the barnacles you’ve gathered while floating inert in the murky harbor of your undoing.
I’m allowed to make up new words because I have my Pennsylvania Writer’s License
jet-lagged and dung-brained
an autumnal orgy of sweet arctic fruit-sex
SEIZE THE CARP. No matter how hard that fucking fish wriggles.
Embrace the Viking immortality of having your ideas live forever.
a rollicking case of the spiritual pee-shivers
Cement your genital stamina

Tuesday May 15, 2012 | By Hieronymus Hawkes | Silly | Leave Comments

I was reading Chuck Wendig’s blog, Terribleminds, this morning and he mentioned something about avoiding negativity and to keep things positive. Talk about things you like, he said, so I am going to make a list of things I like. This is not a comprehensive list or in any particular order, just things that came to mind this morning. Keep in mind that I got up at 5:30 A.M., and I’m a bit groggy.

Things that make the happy:

-I like being married. I love my wife. That’s an easy one, but I actually like her too. She’s very concerned about making our lives better all the time, and she rarely slows down. I wish she would take more “me” time frankly, but it makes her happy to take care of her family. She’s extremely smart and is usually way better than average at anything she devotes time to. She is a great caregiver for our kids, and they have turned out pretty awesome so far (they could always take an ugly turn off the road into the deep chasm, but so far they are turning into awesome adults, that I actually like to spend time with.)

-Ditto being a dad. I wish I made more time for my kids. How lame is that? I think I would be a better parent if I gave them even more of my time, but I take time for myself instead. I have nothing to complain about with my kids generally. They are caring and smart and stay out of trouble. At this point, that’s probably enough. The fact that they are going to be someone that I’m proud of when they leave the nest to take on the world is just gravy.

-Kraft Macaroni and Cheese is delicious! Yes, it’s made from a box, from massively processed cheese, but it’s like mana from heaven.

- I love a great internet connection. Is that weird? It makes be cranky when I don’t have one. I made up my mind that I will never live anywhere that I can’t get high speed.

- I like hot dogs with just mustard on them -- even better when the bun is warm. The Dog Shed is a little family place in a small town close to where I work and they make the best hotdogs ever! Baseball parks are a great place also.

-A great science fiction story that noodles my head really flicks my bic! I am a huge Star Wars fan, but the brainy, thinky stuff is really a turn on for me.

- I love rock music. Especially guitar oriented stuff and usually the heavier the better. I do like my music to have a melody though, and I don’t usually enjoy the screamo stuff, but I can tolerate a little if the music is great.

- I like art. Good use of color does something to my brain. In that vein, comic book covers have a particular draw for me, even though I am trying to wean myself from buying them. I usually gravitate toward fanciful themes or outer space type things, but I am open to just about anything cool. I draw and have been dabbling with pastel chalk, and hope to find more time for this at some point.

- I still like to play video games. Great writing really flips my gibbet and I am enjoying the hell out of Star Wars The Old Republic right now. Diablo 3 is coming out in a few days, so I’ll probably get that. The last two versions were outstanding. There is a dark side to this if I play too much, I feel like I am not doing anything productive with my time, and the older I get the more important that is to me for some reason.

- I dig writing. It’s more than that, it’s beyond liking. It’s more like breathing. Writing for me is a psychological ibuprofen. It makes me feel better about how I spend my time; even when there may not be any really gain for anyone else. It feels like I am accomplishing something and maybe the illusion is more important than the reality.

- I like honesty and integrity. I want more people in my life that are genuine.

- I like clear nights where you can see forever and the stars of the Milky Way are all over the sky. I love flying at night, even when the weather is bad on the ground, we can usually get above it and see the stars. It fascinates me, and I think about just how humongous our universe really is and about other deep stuff, like why we are here.

- Contrarywise, I love sunny, clear days. We had a day this week that was mid 70s with a very light breeze and no clouds. Days like this make me think how lucky we are as a species to be able to recognize that life in the universe is so fragile. The Earth is in the sweet spot in its rotation around the sun so that we have liquid water. We have a large moon that blocks a lot of asteroids and creates tides and wind and stabilizes our atmosphere. We have large planets further out that block more stuff from hitting Earth. Everything works perfectly together to allow us to live on this ball of rock, it’s simply amazing to me, and laugh if you will, but confirms my belief in God.

- I like going to the movie theater. It’s an event. Not so much fun alone, but when you have family or friends to go with it’s kinda magical, like you are suspending time briefly.

- I like to read -- all kinds of stuff, books, blogs, new articles, magazines. I find that I like to fill my downtime with reading.

- I like kindness. It fills me with joy when I see someone do something nice for someone else, especially when it’s out of the blue. I just like it when people are nice, it’s that simple. You never know what kind of day the other person is having and sometimes a nice gesture can make their whole day. Why not bring some light into the world.

- In the same vein, I like manners. I’m not sure when we went off the skids, but I know I appreciate it when people give respect to others. We are all human beings and I think we all deserve a little respect, no matter what your station. I even call our office cleaner sir.

There is probably a lot of other stuff that I like, and maybe I’ll do another one of these sometime, but I need to get back to studying for my test. Don’t get me started on things I DON’T like…

Clear Ether!

Wednesday October 19, 2011 | By Hieronymus Hawkes | Blogging | Leave Comments

Get that chin in, maggot! Oh, sorry, flashback. There is only one answer to a "Why" question when you're a freshman at the Academy, but I digress . . . There’s been a lot of noise on the interwebs lately about how or why people should blog or even in some cases not bother to blog at all. Some of it I agree with and some of it I think is bordering on the ridiculous, but is that really anything new? Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I am fast approaching my one year anniversary on this blog and looking back I had no idea what I was going to do with this site when I started. The entire purpose has always been just to have a space out here in the nether to share stuff that interested me, and the largest focus has been on writing, because that is what I’m doing with the bulk of my “spare” time. On the other hand, I always did intend this to be a place to connect with other people. I am extremely flattered that anyone is reading this stuff. I’ve found that I really like to see people stopping by and reading and leaving comments, it has its own addiction. I love being able to connect to my favorite authors in this new electric frontier, it’s easier than ever before, so in that vein I started this blog with the hopes of one day having my book published and have a place to connect with my readers. Maybe that’s conceited, it’s certainly not intended to be -- I like to think of it as hopeful. I’m not nearly as disciplined as a lot of my friends who post multiple times a week and on a set schedule, but this was never intended to be about anything specific, just a forum for me to share bits of whatever flotsam crossed my path. Roni Loren put it very well, "I am not a blogger who writes. I am a WRITER WHO BLOGS!" I’ve found that I enjoy blogging. Maybe it would be better if I had a set schedule of different stuff for each day of the week or at least specific days. Chuck Wendig has a great format over at Terribleminds. He has a food blog, 25 things, an interview, a word challenge and a random post about whatever strikes his fancy. Not in that order. Jami Gold posts every Tuesday and Thursday about writing and blogging. Roni Loren has two blogs, one specifically for writing and one to promote her “Author platform”. I’m definitely not ready to do anything that ambitious. Just trying to post at least once a week for a year has been a challenge. Not one I always accomplished, but I am going to try something new… I am going to start a regular series of posts about the story I’m working on, as I get it ready to sell. It might still be awhile before it comes out, but I am going to share nuggets from the book. I’m going to introduce characters and setting, to hopefully flame the interest a little. The first installment is going to be on how I created the story. I’m leaving something to look forward to. Heh! Thanks to everyone who's shown up! I really appreciate it! Clear Ether!