Shadows Edge

This comes from YourCre8tivity’s Say What? Take Four, though I used the? quotation more as an Inspiration Tag. Here’s the quote:

“Fortune can, for her pleasure, fools advance,
and toss them on the wheels of Chance.”
–Juvenal

Fortuna smiled as she watched the fools below maneuver for position. Not one of them had any idea she was watching, much less that they were there for her pleasure. The lure of wealth and the illusion of power were the bait that had drawn these self-important businessmen and power-brokers.

A few would be granted potentially lucrative contracts. It would be entertaining to see what they did when those contracts proved more difficult than expected. What would they do when the future of their fortune rode on their own efforts and Chance?

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This is from YourCre8tivity’s Inspiration Tag #4

Noon, in the middle of summer. Stephen was the only person outside. He knew things were changing as he watched shadows crawl against the sky.

Air conditioners should have been running all across the city. Kids should have been playing in yards and at pools. They weren’t.

The streetlights cast pools of light on the empty streets. Noon, in the middle of summer, but it could have been an overcast midnight in fall. And the storm was going to break soon.

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This little paragraph is based on YourCre8tivity’s Say What? Take 3.

During times like this, when odd occurrences became links in a chain of absurdity, Joseph found himself wondering.? Most of the time he didn’t really think about it, but it seemed that the gods too are fond of a joke.? Either that or they didn’t exist at all.? Joseph certainly couldn’t come up with any other reasonable explanation.

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I’ve noticed something over the past year. There’s been a lot of change in my life and as the year progressed, the rate of the changes increased. Change produces its own momentum.

2006 started out with what appeared at first glance to be a minor change. I had been employed as a contractor by my company in 2005. My employment status was changed to full employee at the beginning of 2006.

That single change started a chain reaction. Suddenly I was bringing home more money and I had benefits. I was able to pay down my debt and clean up my credit reports. I found myself with more money left over at the end of the month - enough to afford a mortgage - and that lead to the most visible change of the year.

Though I had started the year with the goal of buying a house within a couple of years, I hadn’t planned on actually doing it this year. Even so, in June I found myself with the keys to my own house. There have been a lot of little expenses involved,but even with them, it seems my cash flow has actually improved.

The house was the biggest visible change but it wasn’t the change that truly had the most impact on me. As the year went on and all the changes built up, my perception of what I was capable of changed as well. Sometime after I was settled in my house, I realized that I could create the changes that I’d been waiting for. I didn’t have to wait and hope that they were going to happen.

I jumped into the blogosphere with YourCre8tivity. Coming up with prompts and articles for the blog forced me to be more creative myself. Visiting other blogs and researching for YourCre8tivity lead me to discover podcasts and renew my interest in writing and role-playing. I successfully participated in NaNoWriMo, giving me a novel that is almost complete. Thanks to NaNoWriMo I’m in a newly formed writing group and I’m helping create the new NaNoEdMo site.

The effects of the changes in 2006 are carrying forward into 2007. There is already more momentum for change going into this year than there was at the beginning of 2006. I intend to ride that momentum as far as I can and hope that future changes will sustain it.

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The first half of 2007 is going to be a combination of finishing up old projects and starting new ones. Although I should probably finish up all my old projects first, I’m afraid that will make those projects too much like work. I need the variety and spontaneity of including new projects.

I don’t dare plan too far in advance, but here’s what’s currently on the list of things I want to work on.

Need to finish:

Revenant (novel) - first draft - in progress
Dawn (novel) - first draft - on deck
Network (novel) - first draft - waiting
Light (novel) - first draft - waiting
Omega (novel) - first draft - waiting

New projects:

Twins (novel) - needs extensive world-building
2YN (novel) - starting from scratch
Angels, Demons, Love & Lust (4 short stories) - some notes but needs outlining
Sir Kevin (short story series) - outline and draft at least two of Kevin’s stories

Additional Writing Related Projects:

NaNoEdMo - hosting site and forums, plan to edit Revenant
Rockin’ Plot Penguins - hosting sites and forums, helping start local writing group
YourCre8tivity - providing and using prompts that help inspire and encourage writing and other creative endeavors
Journalling - 2 journals, daily diary type journal and a daily brainstorming/writing journal

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*looks up from the computer screen* What?! 2006 is over? It can’t be! *blinkblink*

Boy was 2006 a busy year! A new job, a new house, a couple of new websites, a trip to Costa Rica and most of a novel took up a lot of the year! A lot changed in my life during the past year and I made a lot of decisions that I didn’t expect to be making. I’m sure I’ll be making even more in 2007.

One of the things that didn’t get enough attention was this blog and that will change for 2007. Though I don’t make resolutions anymore, I do make plans. One of my plans for this year is to write every day. That may be a couple of sentances, or it may be pages, but part of my plan is to do the Quick Steps prompts from YC here.

So what can you expect to see at the Shadows Edge in 2007?

• my attempts at working on the prompts from YC
• Updates on my writing progress - currently Revenant and Dawn
• Updates on the other projects I’m working on
• Any progress I make in submitting short stories and novels for publication
• Links to my favorite writing relating sites
• Podcasts that I listen to and recommend
• Music that I listen to while writing or working on projects
• What I’m reading at a particular time
• Pictures of my non-writing projects (or my cats!)
• Anything else that strikes my fancy to post about

Feel free to leave a comment if you love or hate anything I may post! I’d love to hear what you think about the ideas I put out here.

Here’s to a prosperous and productive 2007!

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