Writing and other things
I read my friends blogs everyday, but I have not posted for a long time now. So here's what's been happening.
I've been working on a story that is semi-autobiographical based on how I spent my summer when I was four and five in a military hospital getting tested for a heart related birth defect. The Vietnam War was in its worst years and the hospital was full of casualties and I was the only child in a ward full of wounded soldiers who weren't much more than children themselves (there were no other kids at the hospital at least not where I was). I had no concept of war, except that I do remember the nightly "body counts" on the evening news. I can remember vividly many of the things I saw and did those two summers. I've interviewed my dad who went along with me on those trips to the David Grant Medical Center at Travis AFB in California. He was very helpful with details about the military and holes in my own memory. Many of the wounded soldiers were very kind to me, reading stories to me and playing go-fish, checkers and chess (which they taught me and I'll always remember fondly how hard it was for me to grasp which way the horsey moved).
I remember being fearful of walking past some of the patient's beds, it seemed as if a dark cloud enfolded them and that an angry beast had consumed much of their humanity. I was quiet and walked circumspectly as far as possible from them so as not to awaken the beast that cursed and threw bedpans at the nurses and orderlies. Their anger was understandable, some had lost limbs or had terrible scars encased under their bandages.
Also, during the second summer I spent there men first landed and walked on the Moon, now as a child that wasn't very remarkable to me - I simply thought men had always been there. In fact at the time I insisted I could see them up there. But the successful Moon landing brightened the mood of everyone and it was a day of celebration. Although I'm sure that I was unhappy about missing the Flintstones and Mighty Mouse that day.
Anyway those experiences are the seed of my story, I've struggled with it for a long while now trying to figure out a point of view and a compelling plot. I didn't think it would work as a memoir since many of my memories are incomplete or merely feelings and impressions from the experience. I want to convey a child's view of the war through the lens of when I became aware that men killed and maimed one another, even though at the time I couldn't firmly grasp it.
That's where I am at in my writing, had a few other stories that started but fizzled out. I've been keeping creative writing RPG stories for my “Deadwood 1876” wild west game. And I've been playing in Robert and Connie Thomson's 4windsgaming.livejournal.com/ “Pathfinder” game 4windsfantasygaming.com/ . Our gaming group at the Sandbaggers Game Club has been play-testing it all this summer and fall. Ben Donnelly resumed his World of Darkness chronicle “The Fellowship of Fang and Fur II” this past weekend and the Air Force guys just returned from Iraq and Afghanistan in time to join in. Am happy to report that every member of their unit came back safe and whole.
The Sandbaggers Game Club will be celebrating our Twentieth Anniversary as an organized social club this Halloween and it should be a hell of a bash. All my LJ friends are invited to attend as well, just click on our website http://www.sandbaggersgameclub.org/ for details.
I saw that MisCon www.miscon.org/ has landed George RR Martin www.georgerrmartin.com/ as the GoH for MisCon 26 in 2012, which is HUGE for such a little Con (last year 580 people registered and that was nearly double the previous years attendance). And I also noted that next year's GoH, Harry Turtledove, will be critiquing stories in MisCon's writers workshop next spring, very cool.
That's all for now, will try and be a more frequent blogger.